Australian Strategic Policy Institute

'Beijing’s long-range plan to cultivate relationships and influence the media in places such as Zambia needs to be countered in advance with investments of our own that reflect and bolster democratic values of freedom of expression and speech. This could include empowering local journalists with training programs, funding and formal collaboration with reporters in democracies, as well as providing platforms for their work free from authoritarian influence,' writes Shannon Van Sant.

From protest to silence: China’s long game in Zambia | The Strategist Zambia’s abrupt decision to postpone RightsCon, an annual summit on human rights in the digital age, shocked organisers and those who planned to attend. The summit’s organiser, New York-based advocacy group Access Now, says the ...

'Australia does not need to rebuild the smokestack economy of the last century. Distributed, digital and additive manufacturing can place capability closer to where it is needed across a large and thinly settled continent, an approach far better suited to the country than the vast legacy plants of the past,' writes Steven Camilleri.

Australia must know how long it can last if ships stop coming | The Strategist Australia’s prosperity runs on systems that look permanent but depend on inputs arriving from beyond its shores. While the ships keep coming, that dependence is invisible. When they stop, it becomes the only thing that ...

'What we need is a national curriculum for year 8 to year 10 students that teaches Australia’s place in the world and the patterns shaping international events. Young Australians would appreciate this more than we think, and it would serve several cross-cutting purposes if done well,' writes Andrew Forrest.

Communicating geopolitics to young Australians is worth the effort, so let’s try | The Strategist A lack of meaningful context makes discussions of Australia’s foreign and national security policy too uninteresting or difficult for many young Australians to understand. This works against the long-term development of a public mandate for ...

NEW REPORT 📢

In the report 'Darwin Dialogue 2026: From exposure to endurance', John Coyne, Francesca Ciuffetelli & Iris Reinhold share insights from discussions at the 2026 Darwin Dialogue and policy recommendations to help create resilient supply chains.

📕 Read it here: https://bit.ly/4vyIo0q

'Strategic exposure rarely becomes dependence overnight. Dependence develops gradually when governments fail to preserve industrial capability before commercial, political or geopolitical pressure intensifies. Rebuilding lost capability almost always proves slower, more expensive and more difficult than sustaining viable systems before they fail,' writes John Coyne.

Darwin Dialogue 2026: the conversation is over. It's time for implementation | The Strategist Today marks the launch of the Darwin Dialogue 2026 report, From Exposure to Endurance: competitive endurance architecture for high-ESG mineral-specific supply chains. Australia and its partners have spent much of the past decade debating why ...

'The US doesn’t need Oman to abandon its neutrality or pick a side, but rather to remain what it has always been: a stable, discreet facilitator that keeps options open when everyone else has closed them. In the volatile geopolitics of 2026, with global energy security and Indo-Pacific supply chains at stake, Washington cannot afford to alienate such a partner,' writes Adel Abdel Ghafar.

How to lose friends and alienate allies: Trump’s approach to Oman | The Strategist President Donald Trump’s 27 May threat to ‘blow up’ Oman if it didn’t fall into line was strategically self-defeating. With one off-the-cuff remark, the United States risked damaging the one quiet, trusted channel through which ...

🚨 SPEAKER ANNOUNCEMENT 🚨

We are delighted to announce that Admiral David Johnston AC RAN, Chief of the Defence Force, will speak at the ASPI Defence Conference on 25 June.

This year's event will cut through the noise to focus on what matters most: translating strategy into action, fielding capability at pace and turning partnerships into practical advantage.

🔗 Interested in attending? Register now ➡️ bit.ly/3RxeCKC

'The demand for clear communication about AUKUS has never been greater. Australia’s defence debate has been swamped by former politicians, retired sailors and US alliance naysayers who agree on little except that they all hate AUKUS. Many commentators have focused their critiques on technicalities, such as the lifespan of second-hand submarines versus new ones. As important as those debates are, they baffle the public and overlook the strategic significance of AUKUS,' write Alex Bristow and Justin Bassi.

Beyond submarines: AUKMIN is about collective defence of shared values | The Strategist AUKUS is likely to dominate coverage of this week’s meetings between Australian and British foreign and defence ministers (AUKMIN) in London. All four ministers should use the opportunity to take back the narrative on the ...

'For decades, advanced economies optimised logistics for efficiency. Just-in-time was king: lean inventories, centralised hubs and finely tuned global supply chains designed to minimise cost and maximise speed. That era is over. Australia is now moving into a world of just-in-case logistics, where reserves, redundancy and options matter more than minimal stockholdings and lowest-cost routing,' writes John Frewen.

Goodbye, just-in-time. Australia must prepare for contested logistics | The Strategist Australia’s next fight will be won or lost in the logistics battlespace. In the Indo-Pacific, supply chains have moved from the background to the foreground of strategy, and Australia’s north now sits on the forward ...

'Australia has spent years considering how to strengthen supply-chain security. Governments have commissioned reviews, published strategies and invested billions to secure access to fuel, critical minerals, semiconductors and other essential inputs. These efforts reflect a growing recognition that economic resilience and national security are becoming increasingly intertwined. But while Australia has focused on who controls supply, China has been steadily strengthening its ability to shape demand,' writes John Coyne.

In minerals purchasing, China is teaching Australia a lesson on economic power | The Strategist For decades, Australia assumed economic power flowed from geology. Resource wealth delivered export earnings, government revenue and strategic confidence. The emergence of China Mineral Resources Group (CMRG) over the past four years suggests otherwise. In ...