The Productivity Commission is calling for ideas on how to improve Australia’s productivity growth, so it is worth paring away the DOGE rhetoric and asking whether taking an axe to government can ...

Growing up in India, it was most common to hear the word “population” juxtaposed with “explosion”, like a frightful bomb that would go off in our faces. The first known use of the term “population ...

How can anyone recruit for jobs where applicants cannot possibly have the requisite skills or relevant experience? Every foreign service around the world faces that dilemma; none has resolved the ...

From 2004 to 2023, Southeast Asian countries spent more than US$42 billion on weapons. Russia was the largest arms supplier in terms of value – cornering 25% of the Southeast Asian arms market – ...

As the Indonesian province of Southeast Sulawesi transitions into an industrial hub, driven by the burgeoning nickel industry, the region faces a dilemma. Will local communities benefit from this ...

The peacebuilding commission, or PBC, was created as part of the UN’s broader Peacebuilding Architecture in 2005. Its creation responded to a gap in the UN’s ability to respond to the “conflict trap”, ...

Martina Zapf is the General Manager at the Development Intelligence Lab and is an international expert in peacebuilding and governance. She has previously worked on peace and development programs in ...

This year brings up four separate 50-year anniversaries, each a reminder of the dilemmas involved in Australia’s search for security in Asia. 1975 was a big year. In April, North Vietnamese troops ...

First Nations peoples were Australia’s original diplomats and traders. In recent years, the Australian government has sought to embed First Nations perspectives, experiences and interests into ...

In the summer of 1968, Garrett Hardin published his seminal paper, “The Tragedy of the Commons”, offering a sobering analysis of how shared resources face depletion when individuals act solely in ...

Donald Trump’s loud promises to “drill, baby, drill” and a suggested exit from the Paris Climate Accords will hamstring US efforts to be seen as a genuine partner in and of the Pacific. The Pacific ...