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.

This week in Australian foreign affairs: Vanuatuan PM visits Australia, Defence Strategic Review report received by Albanese and Marles, 8th Australia-Indonesia 2+2 Defence and Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, and more.

In their book, Danger Zone: The Coming Conflict with China, Hal Brands and Michael Beckley argue that China is passing its economic peak. It is this factor that may be more dangerous than a rising China, and that conflict may happen sooner than most believe.

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.

This important book returns the rich and contextually valuable perspectives of different peoples to the policy forefront. The broad divisiveness witnessed globally, but with specific emphasis on democratic nations, could be better managed if we were all willing to be a little foxier. 

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.