The recent conflict in Mexico between police and drug cartels has again demonstrated that the monopoly of violence is not in the hands of the government. In the past two decades, cartel operations and violence have expanded despite attempts to limit and quash their growth. 

The current Australian government made a campaign promise to embed Indigenous perspectives, experiences, and interests into foreign policy. For Australia to be more effective in Indigenous policies, it should adopt a more balanced approach.

There are many reasons for changes to the top command of the Russian "special operation in Ukraine," among them an institutionalised negligence that may be too entrenched to remove. Whatever his capabilities, the new leader will find it as difficult as the last to achieve what is increasingly looking like the impossible. 

The passing of Australia’s Foreign Relations (State and Territory Arrangements) Act 2020 (the “Act”) targeting foreign arrangements (such as the Framework Agreement between Victoria and China) may fall foul of established international commercial law. This potentially exposes Australia to claims from aggrieved parties.

The discussion on TikTok and Hikvision infiltration in Australian government departments has centred inarticulately and dogmatically on the country of origin. But there are other more realistic and probable security threats lurking in plain sight.

Just as the Sweden's political parties have united to shift long-standing policy toward collective security, Islamophobic protests have threatened its hopes. The long road to NATO may still have many miles to go. 

Shortly after its start, the war in Ukraine was cast as a “make or break” moment for the future of global collective security. One year later, it is time to consider the international scorecard and the remaining challenges on the way to a more peaceful world.

In The Gathering Storm, his memoir of the origins of World War II, Winston Churchill, war correspondent and later Britain’s wartime leader, wrote that at the end of the Great War of 1914-1918, there was a deep and almost universal hope that peace would reign. Are we entering a similar delusion? 

On 11 January 2023, the Indonesian president made international headlines when he acknowledged that several cases of gross human rights violations had occurred in Indonesia since the 1960s. He expressed regret that these atrocities had occurred and indicated he would initiate compensation for the victims of the state-sanctioned violence.

In the Highlands of Papua New Guinea (PNG), tribal fighting impacts many aspects of people’s lives. Education is no exception.