USSC Briefing Room

Matters of national security are increasingly stretching beyond hard power and into areas of economics, technology and energy. Critical minerals and the clean energy transition are now a core aspect of the US-Australia alliance and they are also playing a larger role in US-China competition, domestic politics and geopolitics around the globe.   How do critical minerals and the clean energy transit...

Despite years of circling in each other’s orbits, Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump only met for the first time on the debate stage on 10 September. Their face-off was the unofficial launch of the final stage of the US presidential election. It was an opportunity for both candidates to make their case to the country and seek to woo those critical undecided voters.   Ho...

Today, we're sharing a replay of our episode from 9/11 last year. USSC CEO Dr Michael Green was working for the White House National Security Council during the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. He describes the chaos of the evacuation and the significant changes for US alliances with Australia and others across the globe in the wake of the attack. What was the atmosphere in the White House...

From the Quad Principles on Critical and Emerging Technology to AUKUS Pillar II, technology is increasingly seen as an issue of national security and it is playing a larger role than ever in US alliances and partnerships in the Indo-Pacific.   What is driving this technological cooperation? What can allies and partners gain by working together? What’s next on the tech agenda for the alliance?   US...

Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times journalist David Sanger was one of the few journalists selected to ask President Biden a question in his press conference following the NATO Summit in Washington DC and has reported on Washington during the last seven US presidential administrations. His latest book, New Cold Wars: China’s Rise, Russia’s Invasion, and America’s Struggle to Defend the West , co...

This year, India held the largest democratic exercise in the world as 643 million people voted in their election. Prime Minister Narendra Modi won his third election, however, his party, the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party), could not secure a majority in the Parliament, leading to the formation of a coalition government. The opposition secured enough seats to have a leader of the opposition for the f...

Within a week of President Biden announcing he is ending his candidacy for a second term, Vice President Kamala Harris secured scores of endorsements, set fundraising records and secured enough delegates to become the presumptive nominee.   How would a Harris administration be different from the Biden administration? Who’s on Harris’ VP short list? Does Harris stand a chance against former preside...

Former president Donald Trump narrowly avoided death when a bullet grazed his ear at a campaign rally on 13 July. The images of him rising, holding his fist high and chanting “Fight!” while blood streamed down his face instantly became iconic.   Donald Trump has been called a ‘strongman’ throughout his political career, how does this assassination attempt shape the mythology around him? What cultu...

Last week, NATO leaders gathered in Washington DC for their annual summit, this year celebrating the 75th anniversary of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. However, much of Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg’s final summit was overshadowed by scrutiny of President Biden and then quickly followed by the assassination attempt on former president Trump and the announcement of his running mate, O...

The US Supreme Court handed down their ruling in former president Trump’s immunity case and it granted far broader immunity than most experts anticipated. Why was the ruling so expansive? What does this mean for Trump’s criminal trials? How will this change the presidency going forward? To discuss these issues, we welcomed Chas Licciardello from ABC’s Planet America back on the podcast to follow u...

President Biden’s approval rating is at an all-time low and the number of “double haters” who want neither candidate is at an all-time high. The US system is driving the selection of candidates further and further away from the mainstream.  Campaign financing contributes to this.   How did Trump and Biden become their party’s nominee with so little public support? What systems contribute to the po...

Joe Biden and Donald Trump’s debate in Atlanta was always going to be one for the history books. Never before had a general election debate occurred before the party conventions officially named them as their presidential nominees. But following a debate performance that even President Biden conceded was not his best, the most historical aspect of the debate was how many Democrats want to take adv...

As American politics has become increasingly polarised, experts and analysts have explored avenues for electoral reform to shift voting to be more representative. One solution is ranked-choice voting (RCV), which is standard in Australia, but only appears in a fraction of jurisdictions in the United States.   Why is ranked-choice voting so rare in the United States? What is driving the movement to...

On 17 June 2021, President Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act , making the day a federal public holiday.   What did this new holiday celebrate? What role does Juneteenth play in American history? How is it different from Martin Luther King Jr Day?   To discuss these questions Senior Lecturer in American Studies at the United States Studies Centre (USSC) Dr Kathryn Schumaker...

The war in Ukraine was a wake-up call for nations around the world as they saw how quickly one crisis could consume the national supply of certain munitions. The Australian Government addressed this in both its 2023 Defence Strategic Review and 2024 National Defence Strategy through the prioritisation of the Guided Weapons and Explosive Ordnance (GWEO) and acceleration of the GWEO enterprise. Howe...

In November, Americans will head to the polls to cast their vote for who will hold the most powerful office in the world – Joe Biden or Donald Trump. But it isn’t only Americans who are impacted.   What would a Trump administration vs Biden administration 2.0 mean for allies and partners around the world? What will stay the same regardless of who wins? And, importantly, what can countries do now t...

On 20 May 2023, on the sidelines of the Quad Leaders’ Summit, President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced a third pillar of the Australia-US alliance: the climate, critical minerals and clean energy transformation compact.   What does this compact involve? How much progress has been made in the past year? What will happen to this pillar of the alliance if former president Tru...

Economic security is on the minds of leaders everywhere. From trade barriers to industrial policy to crackdowns on foreign investments, growing strategic competition is shaping the global economy.   What is economic security? What are the trade-offs involved? And how can Australia adapt to this changing world?   Director of Economic Security Hayley Channer is joined by USSC Non-Resident Fellow Hel...

In January, the DC Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that there is no presidential immunity that would shield former president Trump from prosecution in the case against him regarding his actions to overturn the results of the 2020 election. But the US Supreme Court said they would take up the question, hearing the oral arguments on their last day of this judicial term. Why did the Supreme Court step...

In honour of International Jazz Day, we’re releasing a special episode of the USSC Briefing Room with the Founder and Director of The Jazz and Democracy Project® (J&D) Dr Wesley Watkins. His program integrates jazz into the study of US history, government, civics and culture, specifically, but also into the humanities more broadly, making J&D a captivating way for students to engage democr...

When a delegation from the United States Studies Centre (USSC) travelled to Washington DC in 2023, AUKUS came up in every conversation and Australia eagerly awaited a visit from President Biden to Australia that didn’t eventuate. Now we are discussing potentially expanding AUKUS to include Japan and significant legislative reforms are making US-Australia defence collaboration stronger than ever. H...

The rules-based order is under stress in the Indo-Pacific and, according to the latest report from Freedom House, democracy has declined for an 18th consecutive year globally. Both Japan and Australia have strong commitments to development assistance in the region, but a new report from the United States Studies Centre (USSC) argues that this is not enough to counter elite capture, misinformation...

With the two oldest presidential presumptive nominees in US history, the stakes for the vice presidential selection have never been higher. In 2016 Mike Pence helped deliver the evangelical vote for Trump, but he seems to be going a different direction in 2024. All eyes are on who he will ultimately choose. Will Trump look for a VP to help win swing states? Do any of his former presidential compet...

One year ago, Anthony Albanese, Rishi Sunak and Joe Biden gathered at Naval Base Point Loma in San Diego to share the ‘optimal pathway’ for Australia to acquire the nuclear-powered submarines under the AUKUS agreement. This critical step laid out the timeline, the type of submarines that would be acquired and the price tag of $268-$368b for AUKUS Pillar I. But we wanted to check in, one year after...

This is the third in a series of three episodes this week recorded following USSC’s Indo-Pacific Strategy Simulation in November 2023. In these recordings, leading regional experts sit down with our own resident scholars to discuss Indo-Pacific security issues, trilateral cooperation between Australia, Japan and the United States, and the finer points of designing and playing a strategic simulatio...