Recent research

Publication type: Working paper

Title: Commodity booms, conflict, and organized crime: Logics of violence in Indonesia's oil palm plantation economy

Author(s): Paul D. Kenny,Rashesh Shrestha,Edward Aspinall

Excerpt:

This paper examines the relationships between agrarian commodity booms and the incidence of group conflict and criminality in the context of Indonesia’s expanding oil palm sector. It theorizes that commodity boom violence takes two main forms: low level but organized criminal violence involved in the extortion of “rents” produced by a given commodity extraction and production process (extortion); and

Date of publication: 2020

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Publication type: Policy

Title: The Strategic Implications of Manipulative Digital Platforms: A Trust-Driven Approach

Author(s): Dr. Zac Rogers

Excerpt:

Australia’s strategic environment is rapidly changing. The most measurable changes are shifts in the regional balance of power and intensifying competition for influence in the Indo-Pacific. These developments have been complicated and exacerbated by the uncertainty generated by the presidency of Donald Trump, and most recently by unpredictable but not unexpected events such as COVID-19.

Date of publication: 2020

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Publication type: Policy

Title: China 2030: Power in a Disrupted World

Author(s): Young, R.

Excerpt:

Our new series of Future Insights Papers are designed to help policymakers develop and test futures scenarios, conduct horizon scanning, and integrate futures analysis into their work.

The Papers are designed to present provocative conversation-starters and arguable propositions, not definitive trend lists, or predictions about future circumstances. Every paper in the series is informed by consultation, and reviewed by experts.

Date of publication: 2020

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Publication type: OP Eds

Title: Diego Garcia: An American perspective

Author(s): Michael McDevitt

Excerpt:

A bid by Mauritius to claim the Chagos Archipelago puts the future of the base in question. Does the US have an answer?

By Michael McDevitt

Diego Garcia is the United States’ major geostrategic and logistics support base in the Indian Ocean. Sovereignty over the island is increasingly being challenged by Mauritius, but it seems unlikely that Washington would be interested in a deal that would facilitate its transfer.

Date of publication: 2020

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Publication type: OP Eds

Title: Mauritius, Diego Garcia and the small matter of nukes

Author(s): Samuel Bashfield

Excerpt:

Mauritius can’t have sovereignty over the Chagos and US nuclear weapons housed on Diego Garcia. Or can it?

By Samuel Bashfield

Date of publication: 2020

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Publication type: OP Eds

Title: Australia can’t continue to divide the Indian Ocean in two

Author(s): David Brewster

Excerpt:

We’re approaching an Indo-Pacific strategy with a glass half-full – best to fill it up entirely.

By David Brewster

Australia’s definition of the “Indo-Pacific” currently includes much of the Pacific Ocean as well as the eastern Indian Ocean, but excludes the western Indian Ocean. This is no longer a sensible or useful way of defining our region. Australian policymakers need to include the island states of the western Indian Ocean in our Indo-Pacific strategy, even if only in a fuzzy way.

Date of publication: 2020

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