5+ hour, 56+ min ago   (272+ words) In 1942, scientists working on what became the Manhattan Project confronted a disturbing possibility: could an atomic explosion become hot enough to ignite a self-sustaining nuclear reaction in the atmosphere? They took the question seriously and did the physics. Hans Bethe,…...

15+ hour, 26+ min ago   (362+ words) If there’s one thing we hope attendees take away from ASPI’s Sydney Dialogue AI Masterclass, it’s to reflect on whether we’re prepared for artificial intelligence that is smarter than us. That, after all, is what people at the frontier anticipate…...

3+ day, 15+ hour ago   (147+ words) The strategic failure after 9/11 was not the United States’ and Australia’s response, but that 9/11 became the dominant lens through which all security policy was organised. This imbalance ultimately crowded out sustained attention to long-term, state-based strategic competition. The 9/11 attacks were…...

4+ day, 5+ hour ago   (354+ words) Militaries rarely lose because they lack courage; they lose because they misread a moment. They lose because they categorise a disruptive technology as an incremental one, and by the time they see the error, the strategic advantage has already been…...

6+ day, 9+ hour ago   (574+ words) The Royal Australian Air Force could increase pilot training capacity, reduce costs and make more efficient use of resources by using high-performance turboprop aircraft alongside jet trainers in the fighter training pipeline. The RAAF’s present ability to deliver pilots is…...

6+ day, 15+ hour ago   (198+ words) When confronted with frightening possibilities, it’s human nature to recoil, deny the scenario and preserve a sense of comfort in our current view of the world. When improbable situations become reality, it can take some time to wrap our heads…...

1+ week, 5+ day ago   (320+ words) National Cabinet spent last Wednesday discussing how Australia’s data centres will be powered. The harder question – where they should be built – was left off the table. Legislation isn’t expected until 2027. The investment pipeline is estimated above A$150 billion, and developers…...

1+ week, 6+ day ago   (158+ words) During the Optus outage in 2023, Australians joked about not being able to buy a coffee, pay for lunch or order an Uber. Looking back, I think we learnt the wrong lesson. The disruption wasn’t really about payments. It exposed something…...

3+ week, 3+ day ago   (413+ words) Twenty-five years ago, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute began with a deceptively simple proposition: Australian strategic policy would be better if the ideas informing it were contested. My time here has also taught me something about ASPI that can be…...

3+ week, 4+ day ago   (688+ words) This week is National Science Week. When the Minister for Industry, Senator Tim Ayres, launched it at Questacon, he put it well: our scientific capability is critical to Australia’s economic security, resilience and productivity. AI capability is, at its heart,…...