ASPI Podcast: Policy, Guns & Money

In this episode of Policy, Guns & Money, Dr Robert Glasser and Anastasia Kapetas discuss climate change and national security in the first conversation in our new ongoing series that will put climate change front and center in the national security debate. Tom Uren speaks with ASPI Fellow Rajiv Shah about his recent report ‘Ensuring a trusted 5G ecosystem of vendors and technology’. They discuss t...

Leaders Week kicks off this week with a High-level Meeting on Monday commemorating the 75th Anniversary of the United Nations under the theme ‘The future we want, the United Nations we need: reaffirming our collective commitment to multilateralism.’ To mark this occasion, ASPI has produced this podcast episode and with special guests to discuss the importance and relevance of the United Nations at...

In this episode of Policy, Guns and Money, Leanne Close and Elise Thomas discuss right-wing extremism, conspiracy theories and some of the different groups of conspiracy theorists. They consider the responses from social media companies and offer suggestions on how governments should respond to these growing challenges. Brendan Nicholson and Michael Shoebridge discuss Volume Two of ASPI’s After Co...

In this episode of Policy, Guns and Money, Michael Shoebridge speaks with Darshana Baruah, Non-resident scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. They discuss India's Navy and maritime goals, the Quad and Australia-India relations. Peter Jennings and Brendan Nicholson consider the return of Australian journalists Bill Birtles and Mike Smith from China and the general state of the...

In this episode of Policy, Guns & Money; Brendan Nicholson, Anastasia Kapetas and Jack Norton of ASPI's 'The Strategist' discuss some of the latest movements in the vexed Australia - China relationship. Michael Shoebridge and John Coyne consider the ongoing issue of improving Fuel Security for Australia and our allies and Emilia Currey and Tracy Beattie talk to Olivia Nelson about the findings of...

In this episode of Policy, Guns & Money, Leanne Close, head of ASPI’s Counter-terrorism Program, speaks to Julia Ebner, Resident Research Fellow at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue in London and author of ‘Going Dark – the Secret Social Lives of Extremists’. They discuss right-wing extremism and Julia details her experiences going undercover to engage with extremist groups and individuals and...

In this episode of Policy, Guns & Money, Lisa Sharland speaks to Rob Malley, President and CEO of International Crisis Group, about conflicts during Covid-19 and prospects for peace in Afghanistan. They also discuss Crisis Group’s annual ‘10 Conflicts to Watch’, including what’s changed since the last edition, and what might feature in the next edition later this year. The Strategist’s Brendan Nic...

In this episode of Policy, Guns and Money, Michael Shoebridge and Marcus Hellyer discuss the key findings of this years The Cost of Defence report which was launched this week. Traditionally the Cost of Defence is a single volume report, but for 2020 it's being released in two parts - this first part discusses the impacts of the Strategic Update 2020. Bart Hogeveen and Tom Uren from ICPC, the ASPI...

This week, Kelsey Munro speaks to Charles Edel, Senior Fellow and Visiting Scholar at Sydney University’s United States Studies Centre about US-China tensions and the US policy approaches towards China. They discuss how the strong rhetoric on China coming out of Washington offers a distraction from US domestic political failings ahead of the upcoming elections. Brendan Nicholson and The Strategist...

This week on Policy, Guns and Money, Michael Shoebridge, ASPI’s Director of Defence, Strategy and National Security, and Dr Robert Glasser, Visiting Fellow at ASPI, discuss the current Covid-19 situation globally, the successful and failing responses and the challenges ahead across the globe. Senior ICPC Analyst Kelsey Munro speaks to Researcher Nathan Ruser about his use of satellite imagery anal...

This week on Policy, Guns & Money, Tom Uren, Senior ASPI ICPC Analyst, speaks to Sean Duca, Vice President and Regional Chief Security Officer for Asia Pacific & Japan at Palo Alto Networks about ASPI’s ‘Clean Pipes’ report. They discuss how internet service providers can do more to protect users from online threats that hurt the Australian community and economy. ICPC colleagues Louisa Bochner and...

In this episode of Policy, Guns and Money, Dr John Coyne, Head of Strategic Policing and Law Enforcement at ASPI and Tom Uren, Senior Analyst with ASPI’s International Cyber Policy Centre discuss the legal dilemma of conducting offensive cyber operations. Next, Senior Analyst Dr Huong Le Thu speaks to Ja Ian Chong, Visiting Scholar at the Harvard-Yenching Institute and Associate Professor of Polit...

In this special episode of Policy, Guns and Money, ASPI’s Executive Director, Peter Jennings talks to Australian Walkley award winning journalist and ASPI Senior Fellow, Stan Grant and they turn their minds to the upcoming ASPI conference, Strategic Vision 2020. Stan talks about his delight at the incredible line-up of global leaders the conference has in store, and how he is preparing for the in-...

In this special episode of Policy, Guns and Money, we continue the conversation on cloud computing. Michael Shoebridge and John Coyne, co-authors of ASPI’s recent report ‘National security agencies and the cloud: An urgent capability issue for Australia’, are joined by Oracle’s Kirsty Linehan and Nathan Cook, experts in cloud computing, for an in-depth discussion on cloud computing in Australia’s...

In this episode of Policy, Guns and Money, ICPC Program Coordinator, Louisa Bochner speaks to Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian, China reporter at Axios, about the Hong Kong security law, Article 38 and the application of the law and what this latest move from Beijing means for its relations with the US, Australia and other democracies. Next, two of ASPI’s grumpy strategists Marcus Hellyer and Malcolm Davi...

In this episode of Policy, Guns & Money, ASPI Researcher Genevieve Feely speaks to gender equality and social inclusion expert Amy Haddad about multilateralism to mark the 75th anniversary UN, the challenges ahead and opportunities for UN reform and changes in gender equality at the UN. ASPI Senior Analyst Jake Wallis and Analyst Samantha Hoffman discuss their recent report 'Retweeting through the...

The 2020 Defence Strategic Update with Peter Jennings and Brendan Nicholson Four years on from the 2016 Defence White Paper, the Department of Defence has delivered a 2020 Defence Strategic Update. In this special episode of Policy, Guns & Money, Brendan Nicholson, Executive Editor at The Strategist discusses the update with ASPI’s Executive Director Peter Jennings. Peter Jennings: https://www.asp...

In this episode of Policy, Guns and Money, ASPI's Michael Shoebridge speaks to Shashank Joshi, Defence editor at The Economist about the recent India-China border tensions at Galwan Valley, the risk of further escalations, the politicisation of casualties and the impacts on the strategic relationship between India and China. Research intern Tracy Beattie speaks to Senior Analyst Malcolm Davis abou...

In this episode of Policy, Guns & Money, Kelsey Munro speaks to James Leibold and Emile Dirks, authors of ASPI’s report; ‘Genomic surveillance – Inside China’s DNA dragnet’ about China’s national campaign of compulsory DNA data collection, the world’s largest police-run DNA database. James and Emile discuss/highlight how multinational companies and major Chinese companies are enabling the Chinese...

In this episode of Policy, Guns & Money, ASPI researcher Genevieve Feely speaks to Robert Baird, English Editor at Tatoli News, about recent political developments in Timor-Leste, including the challenge of a failed state budget, and the country’s Covid-19 response. Senior Analyst Kelsey Munro speaks to the Director of ASPI’s Defence, Strategy and National Security Program, Michael Shoebridge abou...

In this week's episode of Policy, Guns and Money, two of our (moderately) grumpy strategists Drs Malcolm Davis and Marcus Hellyer bring you a wide-ranging update on maritime and space issues – they discuss Marcus’ recent report on offshore patrol vessels and improving maritime capability, the recently released DST 2030 strategic plan, SpaceX launches and more! Next, ASPI Researcher and India exper...

In this episode of ‘Policy, Guns and Money’, Lisa Sharland, head of ASPI’s International Program, speaks to Major General Cheryl Pearce, Force Commander of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus. 29 May is the International Day of UN Peacekeepers, and Lisa speaks to Cheryl about her experiences as Force Commander of a peacekeeping mission, the impact of Covid-19 on the mission and the imp...

In this episode of Policy, Guns and Money, Peter Jennings, Executive Director of ASPI, speaks with Isaiya Kabira, Kenya's High Commissioner to Australia about the significance of Africa Day and Africa's progress since the establishment of the Organisation of African Unity in 1963. They talked about the impacts of Covid-19 in Africa and also discussed Australia's relationship with Kenya and Austral...

In this episode of Policy, Guns and Money Kelsey Munro, ASPI Senior Analyst, speaks to Charles Edel, Senior Fellow at the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney, about the current tensions between Australia and China and the US-China relationship in the Covid era. Then, ASPI Researcher Geneveieve Feely speaks to Nikki Marczak from the University of Queensland’s Asia Pacific Centr...

The fourth and final episode of ‘Australia’s Next Steps’ examines the future of the global supply chain. Host Michael Shoebridge, Director of Defence, Strategy, and national security Program at ASPI, talks to Louise McGrath, General Manager for International Competitiveness with the Australian Industry Group, and Pieter Els, Oracle’s Director of Supply Chain Management Cloud solutions in the Japan...