Australia Archive

Editor’s Note: This article is part of an ongoing series about the production and trade of arms around the world. In late January, Australia’s prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, unveiled a plan to make his country one of the world’s top 10 arms exporters. Currently, Australia exports about $1.5 billion to $2.5 billion in defense equipment annually, a figure that Turnbull said his government is seeking to increase significantly in the coming decade. In an email interview, Greg Colton, a research fellow in the International Security Program at the Lowy Institute in Sydney, explains what is behind the government’s strategy and […]

In early December, four new bills were introduced in the Australian Parliament that together represent the most sweeping proposed changes to the country’s national security laws in decades. In supporting their passage, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull referenced Soviet spying in Australia decades ago. “The threat we face today is greater than when Soviet agents penetrated the federal government during World War II and the early years of the Cold War,” he warned. The four bills have all been submitted for review to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, which is expected to report its recommendations and any […]

Last month, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull traveled to Japan for what has become an annual summit with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, highlighting the sustained growth of strategic relations between Tokyo and Canberra. During the visit, both sides agreed on the importance of working together in the Indo-Pacific and combining their shared interests in the rule of law and the freedom of navigation—a signal toward China, with its increasingly aggressive claims in the South China Sea, and the United States, at a time when the Trump administration has raised unfamiliar questions about America’s position in Asia. In a joint […]