Policing the Pacific harder won’t close this gap.

Peace talks continue in name only, as Moscow counts on exhaustion to secure gains it cannot win on the battlefield.

Denuclearisation is off the table, and the next US deal with Pyongyang will test the limits of extended deterrence.

Free trade deals gave First Nations exporters market access – but insurance and shipping risk are pricing many out.

The US has not destroyed a satellite with a missile since 2008, but that restraint has never become statute.

While Mahathir and Anwar fought, a bond between their wives kept the two men talking.

The economy has become more dependent on a handful of chipmakers, not less.

As a colonial cruelty spreads to lesser offences, Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei show no sign of retiring the cane.

Opposing the arms trade is meant to stop atrocities – refusing to help Ukraine defend itself only enables one.

As LGBTQI+ rights retreat worldwide, Australia’s UN rejection squanders a chance to lead in the Asia-Pacific.

A seasoned diplomat now leads Indonesia’s foreign ministry, but little seems likely to change.

The label is noise but the substance is an economic security alliance that Australia should watch closely.

Riyadh wanted Washington’s help against the Houthis – it has thus far gotten intelligence sharing and little else.

China’s deference to history and protocol masked a calculated bid for narrative dominance.

Administrative quarantine sounds anodyne – for Taiwan, it is war by other means.

Suahasil Nazara’s job is to make sure Indonesia does not have to choose between development and fiscal credibility.

Armed groups already govern, tax and judge in some regions; a settlement must share that power while protecting minorities’ rights.

As North Korea abandons unification, its Chongryon organisation in Japan could be repurposed for something more long-term.

The bad news is that bonds have stopped being boring.

A plan to fund Solomon Islands MPs directly risks entrenching the patronage system that Australia has long tried to reform.

An effect that works in one setting rarely survives contact with an opponent who has done the homework.

A bilateral investment treaty can protect Australian capital in India, an economic cooperation agreement must make the resulting businesses viable.

International goodwill towards Islamabad has done nothing to loosen its domestic grip on rights lawyers and protesters.

Innovation isn’t only about moving first but also about copying quickly, as warring states have discovered.

Machines can out-fly and out-shoot humans, but deterrence still runs on a very human ability to imagine what comes next.

Anwar Ibrahim once championed those fleeing Myanmar’s junta. Now, with his government reeling, he is preparing to send them back.

Togo told the world that Africa matters. Australia should heed the lesson for the Pacific.

Canberra’s new migration rules aim to project control – but the price is being paid by universities and Australia’s ties with Indonesia.

AI arms control will fail without the means to check on commitments, just as nuclear disarmament would.

Near-total food waste recycling took South Korea decades of bans, fines and public education – not good intentions alone.

Foreign policy analysts don’t need a chatbot to write – but opportunities lie with stress-testing their arguments.

The region borrows from Singapore’s crisis machinery without noticing the gaps its own inquiries have already described.

The pageantry of the Washington summit belies talk of US-China competition.

A hack of Australia’s government systems should have us all asking, “who’s in control of agentic AI?”

Even fascists claimed transparency as a virtue – visibility is not accountability, in any political system.

An attempted shortcut around the Malacca Strait has left a port without profit or security.

As authoritarian states find common cause in reforming global institutions, Australia must reckon with a changing neighbourhood.

The harder task is making the data work across borders.

Three years in a prison cell have not broken the cricketing great and former PM – they have made him impossible to ignore.

The PM’s frankness was welcome, but what he means – and how he will respond – is far from settled.

Afghanistan’s exiled opposition produces manifestos by the dozen but not one credible plan for life after the Taliban.

Investors aren’t pricing risk the way the old hierarchy predicts – credibility and politics now count for more.

Trade and maritime cooperation are filling in a relationship people-to-people ties alone could not sustain.

Japan is trying to turn a nation of savers into investors, starting with its children.

Leaders keep inventing new forums to fix multilateralism – when the institution they need already exists.

New Delhi is weighing whether participation strengthens its sovereign and commercial standing – and its say over the rules.

The line between commercial AI slop and state propaganda is blurring, and platforms are struggling to keep up.

Jakarta is accumulating partners faster than it is deciding what each relationship is for.

The US built the international court’s authority and now it wants to tear it down.

Most wars end badly – and commanders who ignore history’s warnings risk repeating its worst mistakes.