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This paper describes how Senator Molan sees Australia's future unfolding over the next century, including likely opportunities and challenges ahead. While Australia is now the world's 14th most economically powerful nation, it has only been able to focus on its economic development because, heretofore, it has not had to provide for its own defence. With United States' power diminishing and China's power increasing, Australia's historic grand strategy is becoming unsustainable both militarily and economically. To craft a way forward for the next century, Australia needs develop a national security strategy and should do so urgently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia's new government is committed to delivering the next defence white paper in 2015. The two previous white papers took a predominantly risk-management approach to Southeast Asia, generally ignored the strategic opportunities in the region, treated it as a stand-alone region largely unrelated to developments in East Asia and failed to link Australia's policies in Southeast Asia with the broader goal of helping to ensure greater strategic stability in Asia by putting constraints on Chinese assertiveness and encouraging its peaceful rise. After offering a summary of recent Australian defence thinking on Southeast Asia, this paper outlines why managing China is the key variable when it comes to strategic stability in the region. It then examines how China's strategy and behaviour can be shaped and influenced by events and relationships in Southeast Asia, and offers some suggestions as to the role Australia can seek to play in Southeast Asia that relates to Canberra's China-focused objectives and strategic stability in Asia more broadly If that can be achieved in the 2015 defence white paper, Australia - which is often criticized for being preoccupied primarily with managing the relationship with its superpower ally the United States - will demonstrate to itself and Asia that its heavy reliance on the ANZUS treaty is no barrier to strategic creativity in Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the global interconnected economy, China-made information-collecting technologies such as closed-circuit television (CCTV) surveillance cameras have become popular products for routine video-based surveillance. Hikvision and Dahua are the two largest global suppliers of CCTV cameras, with both companies supplying their products to over 200 countries. Despite their popularity, national security concerns are commonly cited when adopting these cameras, citing manufacturer links with the Communist Party of China (CPC), cybersecurity vulnerabilities, and sales recorded in the Xinjiang region, that has records of human rights violations. This paper is structured in three parts: first, we explore the predominance of China-made information-gathering technologies in Australia; second, we summarise common national security concerns usually associated with China-based technology manufacturers; and third, we propose regulatory measures to regulating China-made CCTV cameras in Australia. The paper suggests that while state and Federal decision-makers are free to remove Chinese CCTV surveillance cameras, they should avoid overt politisation. Overall, a stronger focus should be placed on evaluating cybersecurity risks of Internet of Things (IoT) information-collecting technologies and considering their timely and effective regulation from the perspective of individual and national interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2000 the Howard government formed a consultative committee to review defence policy and gauge public opinion on defence issues. It concentrated on the impact of budgetary stringency and dramatic strategic change and supported increased defence spending on equipment to cater for high-level threats. Was there a thorough review? Inconsistencies occurred in the reports developed from the review and statements made by senior policy-makers while it was being conducted. The way the review was undertaken points to conceptual tensions in Australia's strategic culture and serious problems with entrenched interests in the services. Unless these challenges are addressed, a thorough review of defence policy cannot be undertaken. The review process itself needs to be reviewed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Herein, Professor Barrie updates his 2016 presentation to the Institute on the national security implications of climate change. He notes that, despite a 2017 Senate inquiry urging urgent action, the Commonwealth Government has not yet responded other than by acknowledging the issue in a 2016 Defence white paper and a 2020 strategic update. The latest scientific research indicates that, in the worst case, Earth may reach a climate tipping point within 18 months which would pose an existential threat to humankind. Short of an existential threat, no other country on the planet will be as affected by the consequences of climate change as Australia. Time is running out for Australia to act!. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Securitization of the critical infrastructure as an important factor of national security has been among the aspects of wider changes in the security discourse since the end of the Cold War. The concept of critical infrastructure protection, initially focused on countering the terrorism threat, has been changing and expanding, from adopting the ‘all-hazard approach’, until the recent prevalence of the strategy of resilience in managing strategic security and operational risks. The sources of those risks are found mainly in climate-change induced natural hazards, as well as in global challenges of interconnection and interdependencies of critical infrastructure. The paper discusses the concepts of resilience and critical infrastructure, and then analyses the approaches to critical infrastructure protection and resilience in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. Analyzed are the official documents – strategies, laws and by-laws, reviews and guidelines produced by the governmental bodies of the mentioned countries, with the aim of clarification of the concept, as well as the countryspecific variations in its operationalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports that paper warns the ability of Australia to preserve massive Antarctic sovereignty claim is under threat, according to the policy paper by Lowy Institute. It says that the paper issued on August 8, 2011 questioned the ability of Australia to preserve its claim to 42% of the continent. Moreover, the paper notes that limited Antarctic activity of Australia is based on environmental and science issues and does not reflect energy concerns or national security.

Given current emissions trends an increase in global temperatures in excess of 2°C is highly likely in the coming century. In this context, it seems increasingly probable that states may consider solar geoengineering as a stop-gap climate response. Solar geoengineering refers to measures that aim to alleviate some measure of global warming by intentionally increasing the amount of the sun's energy that is reflected into space. Currently the two most discussed solar geoengineering techniques involve either marine cloud brightening or dispersing aerosols in the stratosphere. These techniques could be relatively inexpensive, are within the technological capacities (after a brief period of development) of technologically-advanced countries, and could have an almost immediate impact on temperatures. Yet, while solar geoengineering might potentially be utilised to manage some climate-linked security threats, it itself would create new security challenges. Consequently, this paper explores potential international security implications for Australia if a regional state, or group of states, initiates a solar geoengineering program. We conclude that since solar geoengineering is unlikely to become a first-order international issue, disputation over solar geoengineering will likely reflect, or act as a proxy for, wider patterns of state interaction. However, scenarios in which China and the United States take different positions, or in which there are divisions among regional powers, such as Indonesia, Malaysia, India and Singapore would pose the greatest threat to Australia's national security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most widely-endorsed norms in Australian politics is the requirement for bipartisanship in the management of defence and security policy. This norm is assumed to lead to good policy creation, foster political unity, and protect those who implement national policy (particularly the military). The paper argues that evidence for all three of these claims is overstated. In addition, the effects of the norm are often counter-productive and even harmful to the conduct and management of Australian policy. The paper concludes by arguing that the norm of bipartisanship for Australian defence and security policy should be abandoned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Offshore detention and bilateral free trade constitute hallmarks of Australia's international policy. This paper explores how these policy directions were originally justified in the Pacific Solution and the Australia‐US Free Trade Agreement (AUSFTA). In the literature both policies are theorised as security offerings but whilst the Pacific Solution is obviously exclusionary, AUSFTA aimed at including Australia in the US's orbit. This suggests that security as a justification for policy is flexible, complex, and warrants closer observation of its practical articulations. Reviewing the speeches with which the relevant Ministers introduced their legislation, I argue that offshore detention and bilateral free trade derive from a specific language of security in which policy‐makers view individual actors as the basis of national threats. The language of security invokes a threatening international environment by focussing on the selfish and amoral components of human behaviour whilst diminishing social institutions and collective structures. Vague anarchy and simplified individualism position the state as a righteous protector rather than a rational policy‐maker. I conclude by questioning whether this is a sound basis for policy and canvass options for escaping the language of security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The security impact of illegal fishing is not well understood. Where illegal fishing is recognised as a security problem, the focus has been on fish as a natural resource, the depletion of which can have impacts on food security, individual livelihoods, and the economic survival of states relying on illegal fishing. We argue that a focus on fish as a natural resource obscures the other security challenges the crime of illegal fishing poses to Australia. As this paper explains, illegal fishing overlaps with drug, human, weapon and other contraband trafficking and smuggling; irregular maritime arrivals; and maritime piracy. In addition, like other easily transported, high value resources, illegal fish can fund insurgencies and other types of political violence. Understanding illegal fishing as a security challenge will improve Australia's national security policy. First, it acknowledges fish as a vital natural resource, implicated in economic, ecological, and human security; second, it analyses how illegal fishing interlinks with other maritime crimes; third, it challenges the effectiveness of monitoring and enforcement of illegal fishing; fourth, it presents an opportunity for effective regional cooperation; and finally it highlights the benefits of regional cooperation in responding to illegal fishing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2013 Australian Defence White Paper categorically termed Australia's zone of strategic interest the Indo-Pacific, the first time any government has defined its region this way. This raises questions about what the Indo-Pacific means, whether it is a coherent strategic system, the provenance of the concept and its implications for Asian security as well as Australian policy. Indo-Pacific Asia can best be understood as an expansive definition of a maritime super-region centred on South-East Asia, arising principally from the emergence of China and India as outward-looking trading states and strategic actors. It is a strategic system insofar as it involves the intersecting interests of key powers such as China, India and the USA, although the Indo-Pacific subregions will retain their own dynamics too. It suits Australia's two-ocean geography and expanding links with Asia, including India. The concept is, however, not limited to an Australian perspective and increasingly reflects US, Indian, Japanese and Indonesian ways of seeing the region. It also reflects China's expanding interests in the Indian Ocean, suggesting that the Chinese debate may shift towards partial acceptance of Indo-Pacific constructs alongside Asia-Pacific and East Asian ones, despite suspicions about its association with the US rebalance to Asia. Questions about Australia's ability to implement an effective Indo-Pacific strategy must account for force posture, alliance ties and defence diplomacy, as well as constraints on force structure and spending. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

2017 has been a game changer in terms of terrorism. This paper describes the international terrorist landscape in 2017 and Australia's response, explaining where we are, how we got there, and where we are headed. The response is illustrated by recent cases studies. Carroll concludes that Australia is well-placed to continue to pre-empt and meet the terrorism challenge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From 1955 to 1988, the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) maintained a large airbase in Northern Malaysia. For the first 15 years of its existence, RAAF Butterworth had a modest and incomplete perimeter fence. With the end of British military colonialism in Malaysia and Singapore following the implementation of the ‘East of Suez’ policy, the Australians became preoccupied with their physical security and the role of the perimeter fence. By exploring the adoption of practices of exclusion via physical barriers in the wake of British withdrawal, this paper argues that the changing psychological outlook of Australian military officials reflected broader Australian anxieties about their own sense of ‘Britishness’ and the nation’s place in a decolonising Asia. As the Australians lost their British ‘blanket’ they built a fence. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Post September 11 migration has increasingly been framed as a security problem. In the 2010 Australian election campaign migration was connected to security (defence of our borders, terrorism and social cohesion) and to related issues of insecurity about the future (population size, sustainability and economic growth). This framing of migration as a national issue conceals the reality that migration to Australia is part of the global largescale flow of population. This paper seeks to analyse the ‘security turn’ in migration debates in Australia and the North. It argues that the securitisation of migration signifies the transformation of security from the problem of producing national order to the problem of managing global disorder. The relationship between securitisation and the production of order are explored through firstly examining domestication and securitisation of Muslims and Islam in Western states as a strategy for their management as transnational categories of risk and secondly, the transnational management of populations as ‘hypergovernance’, the ability of some states to intervene in and shape other states and societies as a neo-imperial project through military action, humanitarian relief, religious and secular NGOs, economic aid, development assistance, education, religious evangelism and radicalism. The paper argues that the securitisation of migration in the twenty-first centuary is very likely to intensify. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Australia’s Cocos Islands and Christmas Island are remote islands with potentially great significance for Australia’s strategic role in the eastern Indian Ocean region and the wider Indo-Pacific. This paper explores the growing militarization of islands throughout the Indian Ocean in the context of growing strategic competition in the region. It then considers the strategic value of Australia’s Indian Ocean territories and makes recommendations about the further development of defense infrastructure to potentially support Australian air operations in Southeast Asia and the eastern Indian Ocean. Upgraded facilities on both Cocos and Christmas would provide Australia with valuable leverage in its relationships with regional defense partners and the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decade, numerous countries around the world have developed and implemented national cybersecurity strategies. Yet very few of these strategies have been subject to evaluations. As a result, it is difficult to judge the performance of strategies, the programs that comprise them, and the cost-effectiveness of funds spent. Natural and quasi-natural experiments are a promising set of research methods for the evaluation of cybersecurity programs. This paper provides an overview of the methods usedfor natural or quasi-natural experiments, recounts past studies in other domains where the methods have been used effectively, and then identifies cybersecurity activities or programs for which these methods might be appliedfor future evaluations (e.g., computer emergency response teams in the EU, cybersecurity health checks in Australia, and data breach notification laws in the United States). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates Australia's National Security Information (Criminal and Civil Proceedings) Act 2004 (Cth) (NSI Act) focusing on its provisions for protecting national security information. The investigation highlights the broad and encompassing definitions of 'national security' and 'information' used in the Act and considers the measures it prescribes for the protection of so-called 'security sensitive' information in Federal civil and criminal proceedings. The paper then examines the implications of the definitions and measures for a suspect's prospects of receiving a fair trial in terrorism cases. Here, the paper highlights the serious restrictions the Act places on a legally-aided person's right to engage a legal representative of their own choosing. These restrictions are then compared with those obtaining in some comparable jurisdictions. As important as the NSI Act's definitions and measures are for the way in which they limit a terrorism suspect's chances of a fair trial, their significance extends well beyond this very serious issue to even deeper concerns. These relate to the secrecy and lack of transparency surrounding the conduct of terrorism cases, the opaqueness of the processes for classifying and protecting information, and the potential for tendentious or improper use of information by the political executive and national security agencies enabled by the dearth of avenues for external, independent scrutiny. At the core of these concerns, then, are issues of the accountability and integrity of the government and of the agencies under its direction. Using the experience of Mohamed Haneef as a case study, the final section of the paper investigates the important role that defence counsel, the media, and other independent parties can play in facilitating public scrutiny of the conduct of terrorism investigations and trials and in exposing the improper use sometimes made of protected information by the political executive in attempting to influence the conduct of these cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how an identity card scheme might work in Australia by using the UK Identity Card Scheme as a model. It explores the proposal for a national UK identity card scheme and assesses how it would reduce identity theft and fraud, improve national security, and maintain adequate privacy protection. The paper discusses the legal and social difficulties associated with the introduction of such a national identity card scheme and the issues which arise when a government seeks to broaden the scope of the scheme from identity fraud and security issues to include the efficient and effective delivery of public services. It suggests alternative approaches to ensuring identity management which are consistent with privacy and data protection restraints. This paper should contribute to the development of Federal Government policy in the area of a regulatory and legal framework for identity management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ebb and flow of coping with Australia’s identity dilemma as a European settler society located on the geographical edge of Asia leads to bouts of agonising, excitement and temporising. This has been given particular cogency with the power shift underway from the trans-Atlantic to the Asia-Pacific. The 2012 White Paper set 25 national objectives to be met by 2025, with targets ranging from improving trade links and increasing scholarships to teaching priority Asian languages. But in this transactional embrace of Asia that highlights economic and trade links, gaps might open up between ambition and delivery, especially amidst continuing evidence of insensitivity to how Asians forge lasting relationships. Ties with China are dominated by trade but security concerns remain. Relations with India should improve with the removal of the nuclear issue as an irritant and growing trade and tourist numbers. Japan remains an important trade and diplomatic partner. And geography and demography ensure that Indonesia is no less important to Australia than Asia’s big three. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Northern Australia Development Committee (NADC) was established in late 1945 to coordinate the efforts of the Commonwealth, Queensland and Western Australian governments in developing the north of the continent. At the outset, defence considerations were uppermost. However, the NADC soon became entangled in disputes among Commonwealth departments and personalities over the relevance of northern development to national defence. Some - notably the Department of Defence - insisted that northern Australia no longer possessed special strategic significance. Others - notably the Department of External Affairs - argued that northern development must be conceived within a broader geo-political context. This paper examines the NADC's entanglement in these disputes, and explains how this entanglement contributed crucially to the committee's ineffectualness and early demise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's first National Security Statement in 2008 identified climate change as a ‘fundamental’ threat to national security. Two years later, Rudd was deposed with little to show for climate activism beyond the largely symbolic ratification of the Kyoto Protocol. Australians largely accepted Rudd's claim that climate change constituted a threat, yet relatively mainstream climate-policy measures were subjected to significant, and ultimately effective, political opposition. This has important implications for climate politics in Australia. This paper, however, focuses on implications for the securitization framework. Specifically, the author argues that this case raises serious questions about the capacity of the framework to account for the mobilising power of security or the dynamics of its construction. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

How does America's greater focus on Asia impact the security policies of Japan and Australia? How does it change the nature of the Japan-US-Australia security partnership? This paper attempts to answer these questions by looking at Japanese and Australian responses to the Obama Administration's new security policy toward Asia called “rebalancing.” After examining them, it argues that the regional allied response to America's new security posture has generated greater momentum for both allies to collaborate in wider areas in a more timely and effective way than before. It concludes asserting that, in the era of rebalance, Japan, the United States, and Australia have not only deepened their existing cooperation, but also have expanded potential areas of cooperation toward a more “dynamic” partnership. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper explores the impact of political trust and efficacy on citizens' opposition to government anti-terrorism police powers in Australia and five other nations with different levels of overall trust and confidence in government. Survey data are used to examine patterns of opposition to unlimited detention, random stop-and-searches, and telephone wiretap surveillance. While trust in government represents a powerful constraint on citizens' support for extending police powers in nations with historically low levels of trust, such as Russia and Taiwan, it plays almost no role in high-trust nations such as Australia, where citizens seem more concerned about governmental policy performance than abuse of authority. Overall, because citizens' trust and confidence in government vary nation by nation, the introduction of government anti-terror policies is received in distinctly different ways, allowing important insights into the nexus between political trust and governmental performance and authority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much of the recent Australian security studies literature has focused on contemporary challenges to Australia's role in Asia, the evolving trajectory of defence strategy, and the various factors that have shaped the nation's 'discourse of threats'. While this body of work is important and valuable, there is a distinct lack of scholarship that discusses the types of future security threats likely to confront Australian policy makers in the twenty-first century. Indeed, there is a tendency among scholars to assume that this sort of 'futures' work is best left to those outside the academy. I argue, however, that it is an area which is too important to leave to the authors of defence White Papers, think tank reports, and classified strategic assessments. Australia's future security environment in a complex international system has not been subject to the sort of systematic scholarly analysis the topic merits. This article seeks to provide a stepping stone for more substantial work in the area and outlines a conceptual framework that can aid us in understanding the factors likely to impact on Australia's security environment in the early part of the twenty-first century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anti-Americanism, sometimes called the 'last acceptable prejudice', is a common phenomenon in the modern era. This paper explores the ebb and flow of anti-Americanism in the Australian Labor Party in the post-Second World War period and argues that while at times it was reasonable or proportionate, at others such criticism became unreasonable, disproportionate and therefore prejudicial. When this occurs the Australia-US alliance can become strained, the Australian electorate tends to become sceptical of the ALP's credentials on national security and the party's electoral prospects also tend to suffer. Nevertheless, following the brief leadership of the stridently anti-American Mark Latham, such sentiment in the ALP has been widely discredited and is unlikely to emerge again in its prejudicial form for some time, marking the end of an era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the post-war period Australian Prime Ministers have played a proactive role in formulating foreign policy towards Japan. This paper explores the role of executive leadership towards Japan and its impact on the bilateral relationship. The Howard period and current Rudd-led initiatives on whaling, nuclear disarmament, climate change and regional architecture are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the Australian intervention in Solomon Islands as evidence of Mark Duffield's claim that the concept of development has been reinterpreted or 'radicalised' in the post-Cold War period. Duffield's contention that development now incorporates more transformative measures to address the concern among Northern states for conflict resolution is presented as a manifestation of the security-development nexus. The following argues that although Duffield's analysis cannot be applied to Solomon Islands without qualification, his claims provide insights into the disjuncture between Australian governmental declarations, policy and policy outcomes in regard to the ongoing Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses the impact of recent upgrades in security ties between Australia and Japan and their implications for the bilateral relationship. In particular, the development and future of the Joint Declaration on Security Cooperation (JDSC) is assessed. It is argued that former Prime Ministers Abe and Howard encouraged the enhancement of security ties to unprecedented new highs, but that the rise of China and leadership change in Japan and Australia in 2007 will make the prospects of a full security treaty unlikely. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Until World War II, there were few Lithuanians in Australia. Their numbers were boosted when 10,000 Lithuanian refugees arrived in this country in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Many congregated in the larger cities and established the structures necessary for the preservation of their national identity. These structures included Lithuanian newspapers and books, weekend schools, choirs and folk-dancing groups, Lithuanian libraries, credit unions, etc. All these initiatives were aimed at preserving the Lithuanian heritage, the "lietuvybė", and were addressed at the Lithuanian-speaking newcomers. These former refugees were still passionately hoping for an early liberation of their homeland, especially in their early years in Australia. At the same time, prompt assimilation of the European immigrants was in the forefront of the Australian Government's policy. Most Lithuanians managed to meet the Government's requirement without losing their "lietuvybė" -- an interesting phenomenon that has been studied in its own right and needs further in-depth discussion. In spite of the significant input by 10,000 Lithuanian migrants, however, the Australian population at large knew very little, or nothing at all, about Lithuania and its people. The Australian Lithuanians, aided by their Baltic colleagues, belatedly realised that it was not enough to document the Lithuanian identity and heritage just in Lithuanian. All about the Lithuanians, and the other Balts, had to be made known to Australians, in English. As a short-term measure, new newspapers, bulletins, leaflets and media releases were produced in English, featuring the facts of the foreign rule in the Baltics. Books started appearing on similar topics. In Australia today, some of the Lithuanian heritage continues to be recorded and published, in English. However, this work is carried out piecemeal and under difficul conditions. There is only one English-language Lithuanian journal in Australasia and in the whole Southern Hemisphere (Lithuanian Papers). Over 30 English-language books published in Australia during the past 50 years describe Lithuania and its people. Some are devoted entirely to this topic. Others have merely a chapter or two on Lithuania. Whether lengthy or brief, a number of these volumes are of a high standard; but several others are erroneous and misleading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the changing nature of Australian-American relations in the aftermath of the Iraq imbroglio and China's rise. While many observers see differences in Australian and US approaches toward China as a reflection of different interests, it is the contention of this paper that these different Australian-US perspectives on China are, in fact, premised more on some highly skewed assumptions and fallacious beliefs, misconceptions and myths that have lately come to underlie Australia's China policy than on divergent Australian-US interests. This article looks at the proposition that China's rise has the potential to divide Australia and America but concludes that Beijing is unlikely to succeed in driving a wedge between Washington and Canberra. The shared values and shared strategic interests ensure broad support for the Australia-US alliance in Australia which has now expanded into a global partnership encompassing the transnational security issues as well as the traditional geopolitical issues of managing the rise of new powers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses Mark Duffield's theory of the merging of development and security. It introduces failed states as a key linkage between these concepts. To subject the theory to a partial empirical test, the use of the term ‘failed state’ in Australian security discourse vis-à-vis three countries in the South Pacific is presented. Evidence from these cases supports the notion that security and development are indeed coming together. This threatens to strip development policy of its meaning, subordinating it to security concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how a small economy, Australia, has sought to balance domestic military technologies with leveraging developments in the same area of research undertaken by the USA. Like many other small nations, Australia aspires to retain enough military sovereignty to pursue key national security interests independently of the superpower, if necessary. We have used Australia’s R&D support for the Jindalee over‐the‐horizon radar network to show how one small nation has attempted to strike a desired balance in its technological development with a view to maintaining the sovereign capacity to monitor its maritime approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article finds that the Australian government's perception of the threat of terrorism continues to be fundamentally flawed. Suggesting that it is imperative to clearly identify the sources and targets of the terrorist threat, the article concludes that terrorism does not pose an existential or even major objective threat to Western liberal democracies like Australia. At the same time, the political and psychological sensibilities surrounding terrorism, in combination with public demands for action, may require democratic governments to respond. Any response, however, needs to be carefully calibrated to meet the requirements of proportionality and (potential) effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper explains why Australian scholars have taken such an intense interest in regional security in South Asia and the Asia-Pacific. In so doing, it explores the growing domestic controversy about the Australia-United States alliance that has seen the former adopt an international position increasingly dependent on the latter's foreign and defence policies. As a result, Australia's capacity to play the role of a neutral, middle-ranking power able to make an original contribution both to the alliance and to complex security issues in the Asia-Pacific region has been eroded. The one exception to this is Australian policy towards North Korea. Given the well-documented arms trade between North Korea and Pakistan, this makes Australian policy directly relevant to the security of South Asia. The second part of this introductory paper comments on the other contributions in this collection. By drawing together the research of the six Australian authors in this special themed issue, the guest editors suggest that the most important conclusion emerging from this collection is the fragility of modern Pakistan, both domestically and internationally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]