Australian Strategic Policy Institute

ASPI was first established in 2001 under Prime Minister John Howard to provide "policy-relevant research and analysis to better inform Government decisions and public understanding of strategic and defence issues".[4] ASPI was officially launched at ANZAC Hall at the Australian War Memorial on 13 March 2002 by then-Australian Minister for Defence Robert Hill.[5]

ASPI's inaugural director was Hugh White, who served as director from 2001 to 2004. White was Deputy Secretary for Strategy and Intelligence at the Australian Department of Defence between 1995 and 2000, and previously worked for the Office of National Assessments and as an adviser to Prime Minister Bob Hawke and Defence Minister Kim Beazley. White is Emeritus Professor of Strategic Studies at the Australian National University.

White was succeeded by Major General (retired) Peter Abigail in April 2005. In February 2012, the Minister for Defence Stephen Smith announced the appointment of Peter Jennings PSM as ASPI's new Executive Director, effective in May 2012.[6][7]

In August 2021 a report published by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute implicated China in campaigns of online manipulation conducted against Australia and Taiwan using influence-for-hire.[8][9][10][11]

In September 2021, the Australian government announced that it would fund the establishment of an ASPI office in Washington, D.C. at a cost of $5 million for the first two years.[12]

ASPI was established by the Australian Government in 2001 as a company limited by guarantee under the 2001 Corporations Act.[13] At the time it was 100% funded by the Australian Department of Defence, but this had fallen to 43% in the 2018-19 financial year. It is currently funded by the Australian government, the United States State Department, the Embassy of Japan and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Australia, and by military contractors including Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems, Northrop Grumman, Thales Group, and Raytheon Technologies. [14][3][15]

As of 2020, the Australian Department of Defence provided funding of $4 million a year to the ASPI.[16]

ASPI regularly publishes a range of different publications. ASPI currently publishes three different kinds of reports: Strategies, Strategic Insights, and Special Report.

ASPI also publishes The Strategist, a daily analysis and commentary site. The Strategist aims to "provide fresh ideas on Australia's critical defence and strategic policy choices as well as encourage and facilitate discussion and debate among the strategy community and Australian public".[17]

ASPI has advocated for the procurement of the Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider by Australia.[18]

On the 3rd of December 2021, ASPI in partnership with Twitter and others, released a publication about, in their opinion, alleged disinformation on Twitter, and that based on ASPI's advice, 2160 alleged disinformation accounts along with their tweets were removed.[19][20][21]

ASPI has been described in the Australian Financial Review, iTnews and The Diplomat as being one of Australia's most influential national security policy think tanks.[3][22][18]

In February 2020, Australian Labor Party Senator Kim Carr described the ASPI as "hawks intent on fighting a new cold war" and criticised it for accepting nearly $450,000 from the US State Department to track Chinese government research collaborations with Australian universities.[23][3] Former Foreign Minister and former Premier of New South Wales Bob Carr has said the ASPI provides a "one-sided, pro-American view of the world".[24][3] ASPI replied that it "doesn’t have an editorial line on China, but we have a very clear method for how we go about our research," and claimed that the true amount of State Department funding was less than half that amount stated by Carr.[25][26]ASPI has also been criticised by John Menadue, Geoff Raby and Jordan Shanks.[3][27]

In October 2018, the Australian Digital Transformation Agency criticised an ASPI report on the Australian Government's digital identity program. The Agency stated that the report "was inaccurate and contained many factual errors", which "demonstrate a clear misunderstanding of how the digital identity system is intended to work".[22] The author of the report responded to the criticism, saying his concerns were acknowledged in private despite being publicly rejected by the agency.[28]In June 2020, ASPI was criticised by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Zhao Lijian for claiming that the Chinese government was behind cyber attacks against the Australian government and Australian businesses.[29] In response, ASPI executive director Peter Jennings said the ministry's comments were an attempt to distract attention from the think tank's research into the Chinese Government.[29][30][31]

In November 2020, the Chinese government released a letter containing a list of grievances it had with the Australian government and a threat of economic retaliation. One of the points of contention was "funding 'anti-China' research at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute". The Australian government strongly rejected the contents of the letter.[32]

Writing in Crikey, David Hardaker described the ASPI as a "powerful voice in the policy debate on Australia’s defence strategy". Since its foundation in 2002, the ASPI has become increasingly reliant on funding from the defence industry and its governing board includes people who work for defence contractors. According to Hardaker, the interconnections between the defence industry and think tanks such as the ASPI "gives weapons manufacturers huge scope to influence the nation’s decision-making on how it deals with China".[16]

• Official website