Australian Strategic Policy Institute

18/09/2026

'For Australia and its allies, this is not a distant technological debate. A future Indo-Pacific conflict would almost certainly involve attempts to disrupt, manipulate or deny the space services that allied military power depend on. The countries that adapt fastest to that reality will hold an important advantage,' writes Frank Rose.

On 14 September, US Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink publicly announced that the US Space Force had deployed ‘space control weapons’ in response to growing threats to American and allied space systems. The ...

17/09/2026

'Australia’s strategic challenge lies in a shortage of deployable capability. Defence debate often focuses on future programs, larger budgets and acquisition reform, but many key capabilities remain many years from service. Meanwhile, our strategic environment continues to deteriorate. Deterrence must be judged against the capability that exists today and in the very near future,' writes Nam Nguyen.

The Australian defence establishment should urgently work with commercial providers to deliver military and dual-use capabilities that can be deployed in months, not years or decades. Government procurement pathways alone cannot meet the demands of ...

17/09/2026

'As a nation of 28 million, Australia has relied on openness and engagement with minds far beyond our shores for its research strength. This should be sustained, but protected,' write Justin Bassi, Elizabeth Buchanan and James Corera.

Scholars named in public for entanglement with a foreign regime, international research collaborations quietly binned, and institutional partnerships needing to be torn up by the government – such events are increasingly frequent. The external risks ...

17/09/2026

🗓️ JOB ALERT 🗓️

ASPI is looking for an experienced, high-performing China analyst or senior analyst with strong strategic judgement, leadership and policy experience to join the team.

The role will focus primarily on China’s foreign and security policy, defence and military affairs, Australia–China relations and China’s impact on the Indo-Pacific, including Taiwan, Southeast Asia, the Pacific and alliance networks.

We are particularly interested in candidates who combine strong strategic judgement with the ability to lead people, set research priorities and build relationships across government, industry, civil society and the funding community.

🔗 Interested? Find out more and apply: bit.ly/4z2utBF

17/09/2026

NEW PODCAST 🎙️

Fresh from ASPI’s Sydney Dialogue Artificial Intelligence Masterclass, leading China AI experts Ryan Fedasiuk, fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and Alex Colville, China AI analyst at ASPI, join David Wroe on Stop the World to unpack China’s AI ambitions and the latest developments in AI safety.

They discuss what to expect from the upcoming Trump–Xi meeting, China's strategic goals for AI, and recent safety incidents, including the attack on Hugging Face by rogue OpenAI agents, along with other serious risks.

🎧 Listen here: bit.ly/4xs7cI0

16/09/2026

'If a more streamlined visa pathway shows up in the final text of the treaty, that’s significant, and it’d say a lot about the lengths Canberra feels it must go to in order to keep Solomon Islands leaning its way,' write ASPI Defence Strategy Staff.

Welcome to the latest edition of ASPI’s Fault Lines. Every fortnight, ASPI’s Defence Strategy Program monitors the actions and developments shaping the regional order and Australia’s security. This edition covers the period from 4 September to 17 September ...

16/09/2026

'Instead of forcing Australians into a crude choice between Big Tech’s engagement-driven black boxes and a raw chronological dump, the digital duty of care should be ambitious enough to let users fully choose how their feeds are curated and by whom,' writes Fergus Ryan.

Forgive me my pedantry, but if Australia is going to regulate social media algorithms, we should be precise about what an algorithm actually is. Discussion of the government’s proposed digital duty of care has been ...

15/09/2026

'There are trade-offs in gaining access to nuclear-powered submarine technology. But such a capability ultimately makes Australia more capable of defending itself, not less,' writes Jennifer Parker.

As AUKUS reaches its fifth anniversary, a strong navy has never been more important for Australia. But that recognition is not what is remarkable five years on. It is a persistent, if often misunderstood, feature ...

15/09/2026

'Rather than purchasing, crewing, basing and sustaining every vessel itself, Defence could potentially contract a commercial operator to provide surveillance, logistics or other maritime effects as a service. That could be particularly attractive in the north, where vast distances, sparse infrastructure and limited population make it costly and difficult to maintain a persistent, crewed presence,' writes Raelene Lockhorst.

Last week in Darwin, I saw an example of what Australia needs more of: industry investing in sovereign capability before Defence has written the requirement or issued a tender. I watched Leidos’s Australian-built uncrewed surface ...

15/09/2026

'HK and Macau universities remain under local SAR government administration and have not been formally transferred to the supervision of any Chinese government ministry. But they have steadily expanded their access to mainland research partners, opened campuses and offices across the border and contributed a growing flow of funds to Chinese state-linked research,' writes Geoff Wade.

The tendency to treat universities in Hong Kong and Macau as somehow separated from the mainstream of Chinese research institutions is long out of date. Since the territories were handed over to China in the ...