In recent months senior Australian politicians have talked openly about a potential military conflict with China over Taiwan. The increasingly tense rhetoric follows a series of incursions by China into Taiwanese air and naval space. Today, Hugh White, on the changing power dynamics in our region, and the risks of war between the US and China.

While Australians grapple with shocking allegations of war crimes levelled against our armed forces, the federal government is moving ahead with a $500 million redevelopment of the Australian War Memorial. Today, Mark McKenna, on what our preoccupation with war tells us about who we are.

The timing of Scott Morrison’s $270 billion defence announcement is being linked to votes in Eden-Monaro as much as it is to the country’s strategic future.

As China seeks to assert dominance, Australia finds itself upping the stakes in a game it doesn’t want to play.