2 November 2017

Later this week President Donald Trump embarks on a 12-day tour of Asia – the longest trip to the region by a US president for 25 years, taking in Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines. The President’s time in Asia will be dominated by the threat posed by North Korean nuclear missiles, uncertainty about his administration’s trade policies

15 August 2017

For all the furore it generated, the prickly phone call between Donald Trump and Malcolm Turnbull was a blip in Australia’s alliance relations with the US. In the mid-1950s Canberra and Washington differed over how to respond to the communist threat in Indochina. In the 60s we were at odds over Indonesia’s claim to Western New Guinea (now Papua), the

19 May 2017

It’s every intelligence chief’s nightmare – a phone call announcing the unexpected disclosure of highly sensitive secrets. The stakes are high: intelligence methods potentially compromised; future access to vital intelligence on terrorist plots and other threats jeopardised; diplomatic relations with allies and partners strained; and, in some cases, the lives of agents put at risk. Alarm bells clearly rang at

8 May 2017

Relief may be Malcolm Turnbull’s overwhelming emotion as he settles back for the long flight home from New York before a crucial budget. Returning to his home town and the inevitable protests for the first time since the inauguration, President Trump may have kept the PM waiting for a few hours. But it was worth it. Trump was welcoming, warm

12 April 2017

The US missile strike in Syria, rising tensions with North Korea, China’s creeping militarisation of the South China Sea, and recent terror attacks all highlight an important reality: Australia cannot take its security for granted. For decades Australia and its Asia-Pacific neighbours benefited from a relatively stable region in which open markets, inclusive regional institutions, uncontested freedom of navigation and

22 February 2017

After just four weeks, the Trump administration finds itself beset by problems, many of them related to national security: the botched executive order on immigration; a gush of leaks from the intelligence community and the messy departure of national security advisor Lieutenant-General Mike Flynn; and concerns, increasingly shared by Republicans in Congress, about reported links between Trump’s circle and Russia.

3 February 2017

Tough phone calls between Australian prime ministers and other world leaders are nothing new; I have been present for a number of them. Even when the messages are firm and the differences great, invariably they remain civil. Harsh words between a prime minister and a US president are still rarer – although the alliance almost fractured over differences between Gough

16 January 2017

It is doubtful many Australians realise what a consequential leader Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been for Australia. During Abe’s first, truncated term as prime minister he and his Australian counterpart, John Howard, signed a bilateral Joint Declaration on Security Cooperation, paving the way for closer defence and security cooperation and a genuine strategic partnership. The two countries’ relationship