Tag Archive for: Asia & the Pacific

Chinese investment in the Port of Darwin: A strategic risk for Australia?

Few strategic issues have galvanised public attention in Australia as the decision by the Northern Territory Government to lease key facilities in the Port of Darwin to a Chinese company, Landbridge. This Strategic Insights brings together items published on our blog The Strategist as well as articles by ASPI staff published in other media outlets such as The Australian and The Australian Financial Review. The authors are Paul Barnes, Sam Bateman, Allan Behm, Phoebe Benich, Anthony Bergin, Patrick Cronin, Neil James, Peter Jennings, Geoff Wade, and Feng Zhang. Our aim is to bring this material into an accessible format, in part, to assist the deliberations of the Senate Economic References Committee which, over January and February 2016, is conducting an inquiry into the foreign investment review framework including with reference to the Port of Darwin lease.

The Port of Darwin lease highlights an urgent need to review how Australia takes account of its national security interests in making decisions about foreign investment.

No exit: Next steps to help promote South Pacific peace and prosperity

As Australia focuses on its global interests in a changing and challenging international environment, there’s a danger that we’ll lose sight of important constants of history and geography.

We don’t have an either/or choice to focus on near or distant security imperatives. While the Australian Government’s decision to lift defence funding will help with this, cutting aid to help offset that boost may prove counterproductive.

We also need to further improve the quality of our aid and regional diplomacy, as well as the hard and soft aspects of our security engagement.

This paper suggests some useful first steps for doing so.

Australia, Indonesia and the prisoner’s dilemma

The bilateral relationship between Australia and Indonesia has long been a fraught one. The latest tussle, over the imminent execution of two Australian prisoners in Indonesia, prompted a series of posts on ASPI’s blog, The Strategist, framing the broader relationship in the context of the Prisoner’s Dilemma model from game theory.

Six contributors explored the issues at stake, with ASPI’s Executive Director, Peter Jennings both initiating the discussion and rounding it up. We present here the combined posts in the hope that they will further the national discussion about the future of our relationship with our large northern neighbour.

Whatever differences our contributors might have with each other, they would surely agree that the relationship is one of special significance for both Canberra and Jakarta.

Preserving the knowledge edge: Surveillance cooperation and the US–Australia alliance in Asia

The US–Australia alliance is the bedrock of Australia’s defence policy. Successive governments have looked to the alliance for access to military technology, intelligence and training, as well as a promise of support against direct threats to Australia.

However, Australia, the US and other regional allies today face a rapidly changing strategic environment in the Indo-Pacific. The American ‘rebalance’ to Asia represents recognition by the US that it needs to give greater priority to its management of the changing balance—an effort firmly endorsed by President Obama in his address at theUniversity of Queensland.

Acting alone, Australia couldn’t possibly achieve the level of awareness that the evolving strategic environment demands. In alliance, it has the resources to ‘fill the gaps’ that remain in the US’s coverage of the region. This is why the C4ISR relationship with the US in the Indo-Pacific provides such a critical benefit to both members in the alliance. US–Australian C4ISR cooperation will be essential to the success of the US rebalance, but also to Australia’s own immediate security in a strategic environment in which more and more countries operate high-technology platforms that once used to be the preserve of Australia and its allies.

Cyber maturity in the Asia-Pacific Region 2014

To make considered, evidence-based cyber policy judgements in the Asia-Pacific there’s a need for better tools to assess the existing ‘cyber maturity’ of nations in the region.

Over the past twelve months the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s International Cyber Policy Centre has developed a Maturity Metric which provides an assessment of the regional cyber landscape. This measurement encompasses an evaluation of whole-of-government policy and legislative structures, military organisation, business and digital economic strength and levels of cyber social awareness.

This information is distilled into an accessible format, using metrics to provide a snapshot by which government, business, and the public alike can garner an understanding of the cyber profile of regional actors.

Special Report – A stitch in time: Preserving peace on Bougainville

Adecade after the successful peacekeeping mission, and a year and a half before the window opens for a referendum on Bougainville’s political status, the peace process is dangerously adrift.

In this paper, Peter Jennings and Karl Claxton set out a plan to help deliver a sustainable solution for next steps in the peace process. An Australian-led preventive development effort, conducted in close cooperation with our regional partners, is needed to avoid the future requirement for a larger, costlier, riskier, and more intrusive peacekeeping mission than the limited intervention appropriate in 1997-2003.

The new government’s decision to link aid more directly to our strategic interests could assist. While the initiative would require a significant initial investment, it could create a substantial longer-term cost saving and avoid serious military, diplomatic and reputational risks.

BLOG: Australia’s Bougainville challenge: aligning aid, trade and diplomacy in the national interest 

The 4th Australia and Japan 1.5 Track Security Dialogue, 10-11 December 2007, Canberra. Proceedings.

The 1.5 Track Security Dialogue is an initiative of ASPI and the Japan Institute of International Affairs (JIIA). It aims to assist the two governments to address and explore, through frank and sustained exchanges, their respective policy approaches and options on global, regional and local security issues.

Participants at this Dialogue, hosted by ASPI with the assistance of the Australian Department of Defence and the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, engaged in discussions with a view to strengthening bilateral security and defence relations in support of their common interests.

Neighbourhood watch: The evolving terrorist threat in Southeast Asia

The regional terrorist threat remains high on the list of Australia’s national security priorities. It is time to take stock of the regional security environment and to ask how the Southeast Asian terrorist threat might evolve in the future.  This report, authored by Peter Chalk and Carl Ungerer, analyses the changing nature of religious militancy and sets out a framework for understanding the forces and trends that are driving jihadist extremism in the region. A number of policy recommendations are made on the appropriate next steps in Australia’s regional counter-terrorism strategy.

The publication was launched at Parliament House by The Hon Mr Robert McClelland MP. For information on the launch including the speech click here.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation: An Australian response

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) is the first multinational security body outside the US orbit to emerge since the Cold War’s end. This Policy Analysis outlines the SCO’s origins and development, analyses the group’s internal dynamics and offers an Australian policy response.

Widening horizons: Australia’s new relationship with India

The report examines the effects this will have on the strategic architecture of Asia and the challenges facing Australia in developing the relationship between the two countries.

Given India’s rise as a significant Indian Ocean and Asian power, Australia has pressing reasons for developing a more secure platform for a lasting relationship.

Tag Archive for: Asia & the Pacific

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