The Marshall Islands’ recent decision to use a US dollar-backed stablecoin as one of the mechanisms for delivering a universal basic income (UBI) reflects the practical challenges of providing ...

The United States remains the most powerful country in Asia, according to the latest edition of the Lowy Institute’s Asia Power Index. But its power has fallen to the lowest level since the inception ...

In November 2025, the world gathered in the Amazonian city of Belém for COP30, the UN’s annual climate summit. It was the first time in 30 years that the United States was absent from the talks. Todd ...

Time is running out for the Australian government’s bid to host the global climate change negotiations COP31 in partnership with the Pacific in November 2026. The government has pushed to host the ...

A weekend report in the Financial Times that US Under Secretary of Defence for Policy Elbridge Colby has been privately pushing Australia and Japan for pre-commitment to support the US in a future ...

Pyongyang is reaping the benefits of its relationship with Moscow. South Korea’s new president wants to woo them back. With no diplomatic solution to the war in Ukraine that satisfies Moscow, the odds ...

The fate of the subsea environment and the seabed are on the brink of a fundamental shift. Driven by the Trump administration’s recent sweeping changes to US national security and foreign and domestic ...

North Korea has rarely admitted the presence of its troops in foreign battlefields, let alone in an ongoing conflict. However, in late April, it did just that. The effort to reassure the public does ...

In a world where AI is rapidly reshaping sectors from healthcare and clean energy to manufacturing and defence, it was puzzling to note the absence of new funding for AI development or digital ...

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 ...

The world is becoming increasingly hungry for rare earth elements (REEs) and rare metals (RMs). Of particular importance are uranium, lithium, tantalum, and a range of other chemical elements. Two ...

Ben Scott is a Senior Advisor at the Australian National University’s National Security College. He has more than 25 years’ experience in diplomacy, think tanks, intelligence and international ...