Papua New Guinea soldiers mark Remembrance Day at the Port Moresby war memorial depicting ‘fuzzy wuzzy angel’ Raphael Oimbari leading a wounded Australian soldier to medical aid.
AAP/Lloyd Jones
As Papua New Guinea marks its Remembrance Day, July 23, in Australia the service of thousands of Papua New Guineans in the Australian military will go unnoticed. At Remembrance Park in Port Moresby, services…
There is more freedom and more reasons to smile in Burma than in the past – but will this girl and others in her generation share the spoils of the nation’s resources boom?
Dietmar Temps
Our Tropical Future: A new report on the State of the Tropics has revealed rapid changes in human and environmental health in the Earth’s tropical regions. This is the final in a four-part series about…
David Cameron visits Commonwealth soldiers’ graves in Tourgeville Military Cemetery, France.
Stefan Rousseau/PA
Speaking as part of a commemorative celebration of the importance of the Commonwealth in WW1, David Cameron had this to say about the participation of colonial troops from all over the empire: They fought…
A MQ-9 Reaper Drone has an operational cost one-fifth of the F35 Joint Strike Fighter. So should drones replace soldiers in military warfare?
US Air Force
Cost is largely absent in the key debates around the use of unmanned drones in war, even though drones are a cost-effective way of achieving national security objectives. Many of the common objections…
US army ‘deserter’ Bowe Bergdahl had deep and abiding questions about the justice of the cause he signed up for.
EPA/IntelCenter
The public debate around the recent prisoner swap that saw US Army sergeant Bowe Bergdahl returned from five years’ imprisonment in Afghanistan in exchange for five senior Taliban leaders has had two main…
Even the Pentagon is issuing warnings about climate change.
Duffman/Wikimedia Commons
Warnings about the dangers of climate change are coming from some new and not so new places. Military, security and foreign policy advisors, financial marketeers, the White House – all have recently set…
Women march on Abuja demanding the rescue of 200 schoolgirls.
Deji Yake/EPA
The world is waking up to Boko Haram. More than 200 schoolgirls kidnapped from the classes last month remain missing. A car bomb in Abuja on May 1 killed at least 19 people. I live in fear of Boko Haram…
Ashok Sharma, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau
India has been the world’s largest arms importer every year since 2010, as its defence industry struggles to keep up with its international ambitions. The volume of major weapons imports more than doubled…
A 12% increase in China’s military spending may sound muscular: but as a proportion to GDP it has remained constant since 2000.
AAP/EPA/ADRIAN BRADSHAW
As the world’s second largest military power, China’s announcement of a 12% increase in its military budget has elicited grumbles from Taipei, Tokyo and Washington. But what does this increase signal regarding…
Hiding the government’s border control policy behind the word ‘operational’ makes the military their political pawns.
AAP/Scott Fisher
Recent reports that the Australian Navy has turned back two asylum seeker boats to Indonesian waters remain shrouded under a veil of secrecy. Australia remains subject to downgraded levels of co-operation…
Of all the inquiries and interventions it has taken a woman to bring deep and incisive change to the Australian Defence Force.
AAP/Alan Porritt
The Australian Defence Force (ADF) has Elizabeth Broderick and her team to thank for recent progress in the war against sexism and perversion at the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA). But it is military…
Chief of Army Lieutenant General David Morrison has once again vowed to tackle a seemingly systemic culture of indiscretion within the ADF.
AAP/Lukas Coch
The Australian Defence Force (ADF) is again confronted by allegations of sexual humiliation and denigration of serving female members. The latest scandal involves claims that emails containing explicit…
A teddy bear bought by murdered soldier Lee Rigby for his son, Jack, sits alongside a family photograph.
PA/Dave Thompson
The brutal killing of Drummer Lee Rigby on the streets of Woolwich has raised serious questions about the safety of our soldiers at home, and how such violence could affect their recovery from the psychological…
The US remains the most militarily powerful nation on Earth - but will budget cuts bring it back to the fold?
EPA/Zurab Kurtsikidze
The maelstrom surrounding budget cuts that has engulfed the United States over the last twelve months seems no nearer to reaching a satisfactory conclusion. The U.S. Congressional House and Senate currently…
Bob Carr, Hillary Clinton, Stephen Smith and Leon Panetta (Left to Right) at AUSMIN 2012, Perth.
AAP/Theron Kirkman
Foreign minister Bob Carr told the Australian yesterday that his top two priorities are to ensure the US is engaged in our region, and to handle Australia’s relationship with Asia better. But the “joint…
Australia is not fulfilling its obligations to its veterans.
Flickr/Another Seb
Ten years ago this month, John Howard’s Minister for Veteran Affairs, Danna Vale, launched a searchable internet database known as the World War 2 Nominal Roll. It was intended to be a virtual war memorial…
The Legged Squad Support System has been designed to accompany war fighters into battle.
Boston Dynamics
On first viewing Boston Dynamics’ latest creation, the LS3 (Legged Squad Support System), I could not help but be taken back to the AT-AT (All Terrain Armoured Transport) walker, as depicted in the Star…
The links between the military and disability sport are being cast anew.
Corporal Jamie Osborne, Department of Defence
In the past five or six years there has been a marked increase in the overt use of disability sport in the rehabilitation of soldiers injured in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan – which, in a sense, is…
Australian troops with Afghan elders in Uruzgan province.
AAP/Department of Defence
Reports are coming in this morning that five* Australian troops have been killed in Uruzgan province in Afghanistan. But instead of falling victim to an IED, signature weapon of this long running conflict…
The Australian government denies a US aircraft carrier will be based near Perth.
AAP/US Department of Defence
Defence Minister Stephen Smith has been saying long and loud that there are no US military bases in Australia, and that anyone who says otherwise is misinformed. Last week, after Australian media reported…
Professor, School for the Future of Innovation in Society & School of Computing, Informatics and Decision Systems Engineering, Arizona State University