Tillerson’s suggestion does not help the US politically in the region.

Australia and Japan are currently more united in mutual caution than shared strategic ambition for the bilateral defence relationship

Despite some increase in gender equality indicators, things are not changing fast enough in India.

With its new air bases and leading-edge air power, China now has the strategic initiative in South East Asia.

The probability of intense conflict that may involve Australia is as high as it has been since 1945, and probably higher.

It was another big week for Donald Trump on The Interpreter, and he hasn't even taken office yet.

When activism becomes an end in itself, it serves nobody. The flotilla should deliver aid to Yangon port, as Indonesia has done.

Australia will face some difficult choices in Syria with the next US administration.

A new edition of our regular feature on Asian digital trends and events.

It is in Australia’s national interest to have an economically and politically stable neighbour to our near north.

This week's links include the will he/won't he debate over whether a Trump administration will honour the Australia-US refugee agreement.

The normally restrained Reuters said Tillerson had 'set a course for a potentially serious confrontation with Beijing'. Reuters is not exaggerating

In 2015 Japan was Australia’s biggest foreign direct investor on a net basis at $14 billion, compared with $9.7 billion from the US.

We are so accustomed to hearing ministers spruik the close relationship between Indonesia and Australia, it can be easy to forget that tensions still simmer below the surface.

Internet usage within PNG, while still low, has rapidly increased and with this has come new opportunities but substantial barriers to take-up remain.

Tess Newton Cain has outlined her 2017 predictions for the Pacific region, a busy year which will bring elections in Papua New Guinea.

Pakistan's latest advance is emblematic of subtle shifts in regional power plays.

Talk of Silk Roads continue to dominate regional conversations, but diversification will be essential to realise the visions that are being advanced.

Timor Leste wants maritime boundaries that will make its oil industrialisation ambitions viable. Australia has no obligation to reach an agreement.

The Roma are an ethnic minority that migrated during the Middle Ages from India into Europe.

Both sides of the conflict understand the Western news cycle and try to use it to their advantage by providing their own version of events.

Amid increasing concerns about China and the US, Australia's relations with India have the potential to assume greater prominence.

The president-elect misses the difference between an individual firm and a national economy.

The consensus seems to be that that 2016 was terrible, but 2017 promises to be tougher.

The author responds to his critics

The US election was a dominant theme on The Interpreter in 2016.

It's been a big year for Russia.

Given the political and legal trouble in which Malaysian PM Najib Razak found himself in 2016, it is a small miracle he survived. Here's how The Interpreter tracked Najib's journey though 2016.

Amid 2016's general political upheaval was Britain's decision in June to leave the European Union.

Australia had a federal election on 2 July, and as usual The Interpreter covered every international policy angle.

The Interpreter's five most popular posts of the year.

It's been a wild ride since Rodrigo Duterte became President of the Philippines.

It started with a crowded field and there were some threatened upsets but in the end the favourite crossed the line well ahead.

The course of the civil war changed dramatically in the last 12 months.

The world was watching when Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy finally came to power.

Prakash's crimes warrant investigation and prosecution beyond merely terrorist offences.

For Asian countries, education is an effective way for a small neighbour to punch above its weight internationally.

Fillon plans to reposition France by seeking close alliances with Russia and Syria.

Problems and disagreements between the Afghan government and its international allies have impeded progress.

For those who would seek to understand Russia today, the Revolution’s unsettled legacy cannot be ignored.

Most analyses of China’s relations with South Sudan begin and end with oil, but this is far from the whole story.

By supporting disparate rebel groups, we run the risk of prolonging an immoral war; one that cannot be won.

The Ankara assassination is the most shocking but perhaps the least concerning in a perverse sort of way.

In Schelling’s view of strategy, competition was almost always mixed with cooperation.

Some time after the turn of the century the alliance gained a capital letter – like the Almighty – in some official documents.

A Corpse in the Koryo, Shadow Among Splendours, and Playing the Game.