Desmond Ball of the Australian National University discusses China's anti-satellite (ASAT) test of 11 January 2007, and outlines the history of US and Russian anti-satellite testing. Ball provides detailed account of the current Chinese programme, and the vulnerabilities of different satellite constellations to kinetic energy, laser, and radio frequency weapons. The Chinese test, writes Ball,"involved...

Australian researcher Sam de Silva notes the recent arrests of two Melbourne men accused of being members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE, Tamil Tigers). "The arrests, and the Australian government's strong statement condemning both the government and the LTTE bring the Sri Lankan conflict closer to Australia, and present the Sri Lankan...

Complex and multi-dimensional issues such as terrorism, nonproliferation, energy supply, and climate change all affect our perceptions of security. These kinds of massive insecurities defy singular and state-centered solutions. The 2006 Global Scenarios Workshop in Melbourne examined perceptions of insecurity. In few fields is the gap between perception and reality as large as it is...

Australia will never want to choose between China and the United States. Yet the contrasting approaches of the US and China to security in the post Cold war era are stark. Now, argues Peter Van Ness, "even the defenders of US hegemony acknowledge that American hegemony can no longer be sustained by unilateralist designs." Paradoxically...

William Tow notes that the forthcoming Australian election will take place at a time when US foreign policy has become a major issue in the presidential election campaign in that country. As Australia approaches its own federal election date, its national leaders and electorate will naturally view developments emerging in the United States as a...