This report outlines the challenges experienced in writing Australia’s and the UK’s official intelligence histories to date. It identifies why and how such histories are valuable for explaining and building the social licence for the work of intelligence agencies and advancing historical scholarship on an important but previously obscured element of democratic statecraft.

It is now fifty years since diplomatic relations were formally established between the Commonwealth of Australia and the Kingdom of Afghanistan. This paper explores some of the key dimensions of the development of the relationship.

Military leaders are arguing against posthumously promoting John Marshal, saying it would run contrary to Australian military tradition, but Opposition Leader Bill Shorten claims there are powerful precedents for such a decision.