Introduction Desmond Ball’s labours through four decades to elucidate the character of United States defence and intelligence facilities in Australia, to document the evidence, test the balance of benefits and dangers to both national security and human security, and then tell the story to his fellow Australians is unparalleled in Australian intellectual and political life...

Richard Tanter examines Ball’s writings on these facilities, setting them in the wider context of Ball’s work on nuclear targeting, the transnational UKUSA intelligence and security community, and the possibilities and limits of self reliance in Australian defence. Reviewing developments in US-Australian “joint facilities” in Australia in the past decade, the paper examines the asymmetrical...

When Barack Obama visited Australia in November last year he and Julia Gillard announced a new level of military cooperation between the United States and Australia. The public centre-piece of the “announceables” for Obama’s visit was the planned deployment of a United States Marine Air-Ground Task Force to Darwin. Less attention was paid to the...

This paper sets out eight policy initiatives by which the Australian government and civil society could constructively move towards a foundation of sustainable peace in Afghanistan: 1 Withdraw all Australian forces: completely, rapidly and unconditionally. 2 Move the United Nations towards a more balanced position. 3 Form like-minded country groupings to frame honest broker role...

Recent meetings between Australian and United States officials resulted in significant developments on two key issues: the unresolved conundrum of the Australian and US strategic relationship vis-a-vis China, and Australia’s deepening integration into US global space-based intelligence and military communications systems. In particular, the ratification of a new treaty to build a new joint facility...