On 3 April, ASPI DC Senior Analyst Dr Nishank Motwani hosted a roundtable discussion with the Space Industry Association of Australia, featuring delegates from the Australian and American space industries.
The roundtable brought together leading figures from the two countries and focused on enhancing linkages and furthering collaboration across the commercial, government, and research sectors.
On 28 March, ASPI DC was delighted to host the second installment of Policy in the Pub in Washington DC. The ASPI DC team welcomed over sixty attendees, representing Australian and American government, think tanks, industry, academia and Congress, among other backgrounds.
Team DC would like to thank all who attended and look forward to making new connections at the next event!
On 19 March, ASPI DC co-hosted the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Business Executives for National Security (BENS) for a roundtable.
The event included a discussion on Chinese industrial espionage focused on the commercial sector with Glenn Chafetz, Director of 2430 Group; as well as a conversation with General Tim Ray (USAF, ret’d), the CEO of BENS on mobilising the private sector to support national security and defence.
On 18 March, ASPI DC Director, Adam Leslie, hosted a roundtable with Australian and American industry leaders to discuss “whole of life” planning for green technology and manufacturing.
The conversation focused on how best to enable the green transition in a sustainable manner, to include waste byproducts; the pivotal role Australia can play in the industry, and the current policies and practices within Australia and the United States.
The discussion also covered how focusing on waste processing and storage now will ensure that Australia and its allies maintain their access to critical technology and resources that are vital to national security in the future.
ASPI DC was delighted to host Australia’s Ambassador to the United States, His Excellency the Hon Dr Kevin Rudd AC, along with former US Ambassador to Australia John Berry and representatives from Australian and American industry, for a roundtable discussion at South by Southwest in Austin on 12 March.
The conversation, hosted in partnership with the American Australian Association, focused on mobilising private sector capital for AUKUS and national security more broadly.
In additional programming, ASPI DC Analyst Bronte Munro and Director Adam Leslie hosted a panel on Doing Business in the National Security Domain with Cia Kouparitsas of With You With Me; Heather Richman of the AUKUS Defense Investor Network and Naweed Tahmas of Aeon Industries.
The event led solicited a productive dialogue on the tech industry as the new defense industrial base, AUKUS and skilled workforce development and investment in dual use technology.
Senior Analyst Dr. Greg Brown presented to active duty and reserve US Air Force and Air National Guard officers at a 26-28 February, closed-door Alan L. Freed seminar on China and the Indo-Pacific. His talk, Covert, Coercive, and Corrupt: CCP Influence in the Pacific Islands, highlighted contemporary political warfare campaigns in the Pacific amid a deteriorating security environment for the United States, Australia, and likeminded states.
Voice of America quoted ASPI DC Senior Analyst Greg Brown in a 22 February story regarding American and Chinese interests in the 17 April elections in the Solomon Islands. The report featuring Dr. Brown replayed on VOA Asia Weekly on 29 February.
On 15 February, ASPI DC’s Director Adam Leslie and ASPI’s Director of Cyber, Technology and Security Dr. Alex Caples had the pleasure of hosting a variety of American, Australian, and British stakeholders from government, defense, NGOs, industry, and academia for a roundtable discussion at the ASPI DC office.
The purpose of the event was to consider perspectives on the challenges and opportunities across AUKUS Pillar 2, innovation collaboration, critical technologies, and workforce development in order to refine the debate and inform recommendations to policymakers across the Trilateral.
The roundtable solicited a candid conversation on where AUKUS partners are falling behind in the strategic competition with China, what a practical Pillar 2 end state looks like, and how government can include private industry to achieve common goals relevant to deterrence, among other topics.
Following the roundtable, discussions between attendees continued with the group meeting a variety of stakeholders at ASPI DC’s monthly mixer, Policy in the Pub.
The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) is pleased to announce that the third Sydney Dialogue for critical, emerging and cyber technologies will be held on 2-3 September 2024.
The Sydney Dialogue (TSD) brings together world leaders, global technology industry innovators and top experts in cyber and critical technology for frank and productive discussions, with a specific focus on the Indo-Pacific.
TSD 2024 will generate conversations that address the awesome advances being made across these technologies, their impact on our societies, economies and national security, and how we can best manage their adoption over the next decade and beyond. These will include generative artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, quantum computing, biotechnology, climate and space technologies.
We will prioritise speakers and topics that push the boundaries and generate new insights into these fields, while also promoting diverse views, including from the Pacific, Southeast Asia and South Asia.
This year’s event will also capture the key trends that are dominating international technology, security and geopolitical discussions. With more than 80 national elections set to take place around the world in 2024, the event will also focus on the importance of political leadership, global cooperation and the stable development of technologies amid great power transition, geopolitical uncertainty and ongoing conflict.
ASPI is pleased to have the support once again of the Australian Government for TSD in 2024.
Australia’s Minister for Home Affairs and Cyber Security, the Hon Clare O’Neil MP said: “The threats we face from cyber attacks and tech-enabled perils such as disinformation and foreign interference are only growing as the power of artificial intelligence gathers pace.
“The kind of constructive debate that the Sydney Dialogue fosters helps ensure that the rapid advances in critical technologies and cyber bring better living standards for our people rather than new security threats. Closer engagement with our international partners and with industry on these challenges has never been more important than it is today.”
TSD 2024 will build on the momentum of the previous two dialogues, which featured keynote addresses from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the late former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Samoa’s Prime Minister Fiamē Naomi Mata’afa, Estonia’s Prime Minister Kaja Kallas and former Chief Executive Officer of Google Eric Schmidt. A full list of previous TSD speakers can be found here. You can also watch previous TSD sessions here.
TSD 2024 will be held in person and will feature a mix of keynote addresses, panel discussions, closed-room sessions and media engagements.
Topics for discussion will also include technological disruptors, cybercrime, online disinformation, hybrid warfare, electoral interference, climate security, international standards and norms, as well as technology design with the aim of enhancing partnerships, trust and global co-operation.
Justin Bassi, the Executive Director of ASPI, said: “The Sydney Dialogue 2024 will continue to build on the great success ASPI has established since 2021. These technologies are affecting our security and economies faster, and more profoundly, than we ever imagined. We need frank, open debate about how, as a globe, we manage their adoption into our lives.
“We are proud to be focusing on our Indo-Pacific region and encouraging a wide and diverse range of perspectives on some of the most important challenges of our time.”
More information and updates on the Sydney Dialogue can be found at tsd.aspi.org.au.
In February, ASPI and the Special Competitive Studies Project held a series of workshops on the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and its impact on the intelligence sector.
The workshops, which followed a multi-day workshop in Canberra in November 2023, brought together experts from across the Australian and US intelligence communities, think tanks and industry to inform future intelligence approaches in both countries.
The project also focuses on how current and emerging AI capabilities can enhance the quality and timeliness of all-source intelligence analysis and how this new technology may change the nature of the intelligence business.
The aim of the workshops is to develop a prioritised list of recommendations for both the Australian and US intelligence communities on how to adopt AI quickly, safely, and effectively.
You can find out more about the project here.