Stop the World

Luke de Pulford is executive director of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China – a cross-party network of parliamentarians from more than 40 countries who share concerns about Beijing’s behaviour at home and abroad. Luke, a human rights activist and anti-slavery advocate, recounts how the group came together in 2020, the challenges it faces and how it works to shift the centre of gravity on debates relating to Beijing’s punishment of critics and defiance of international norms. He talks about the challenges of holding China to account even as many countries drift away from taking principled stands, the impact of the United States’ retreat from leadership of the liberal order, and the need to be the squeakiest wheel when pushing human rights cases. He discusses the recent conviction and sentencing of businessman and democracy activist Jimmy Lai in Hong Kong, Britain’s shifting position on China relations, and the dilemma for Australia—which counts 20 parliamentarians from the major parties as members of IPAC—in having an economy heavily invested in China and a security strategy invested in the US.

It’s STW’s 100th episode, so we had to make it a good one! Enter former Biden White House adviser Mira Rapp-Hooper, one of the sharpest minds around on Indo-Pacific Strategy. Mira served as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for East Asia and Oceania in Joe Biden’s National Security Council. She’s the author of two books and is now a visiting fellow at Brookings. She gives her thoughts on Donald Trump’s China strategy and the unlikely prospects for a grand bargain; the strategic options for US allies such as Australia and Japan; the fallacy of seeing Washington’s unreliability as a reason to move closer to China; Xi Jinping’s plans for Taiwan and the dependability of US support to the democratic island. And the big question: what happens to US grand strategy after Donald Trump? Can the US start afresh and help build a new international order that serves the interests of all nations?

Shashank Joshi is the Economist’s revered Defence Editor. He has deep strategic understanding combined with a rare gift for explaining things clearly. In today’s snappy half-hour episode of STW, Shashank shares his concerns about the future of democracy in the United States, the implications for the rest of the world, and the question of any emerging “Trump doctrine” from the US President’s international interventions. He talks about the impact of Trump’s short and sharp military operations without lengthy entanglements, his options on Iran, the significance of Europe’s firm stand against Trump over Greenland at Davos—which Shashank attended—the deep uncertainty as to Donald Trump’s overarching strategy towards China and the latest military purge by Xi Jinping. A key takeaway is the notion of derisking, which has traditionally applied to countries’ relationships with China but now is being discussed with respect to the US. As Shashank puts it, countries are having to think about a “ruthless purging of the sentimentality” in their US relationships

Constanze Stelzenmüller, Fritz Stern Chair at Brookings and trans‑Atlantic security expert, discusses NATO tensions, Mark Carney’s critique of the rules-based order, and whether Europe can build credible defence and strategic autonomy. She covers risks from the far right, de‑risking dependencies on Russia and China, pragmatic EU coalitions, and the limits of a European nuclear option.

The Bondi massacre of Jews celebrating the first night of Hanukkah on Sunday was the worst terrorist attack Australia has suffered on home soil and its first mass shooting in nearly three decades. With 15 innocent people murdered, Australia’s Jewish community is in deep mourning, while the nation and the world have been jolted into a stark conversation about antisemitism.In the final Stop the World episode for 2025, David Wroe speaks with John Coyne, Director of ASPI’s National Security Program and Chris Taylor, Head of ASPI’s Statecraft and Intelligence Policy Centre about the shockwaves the attacks has prompted—and the equal sense of inevitability to which many Jewish leaders are pointing, citing their insistent warnings over the past two years that antisemitic hatred was growing in intensity.David, John and Chris discuss the Albanese government’s response—and responsibility—the pathway from unchecked antisemitic rhetoric to violence, the idea of “moral” versus practical political leadership, the need for greater civic respect and virtue beyond daily politics, and the national security and social lessons Australia must learn, including Chris’s early call—since echoed by others—for a Royal Commission into the circumstances of the terrorist attack.

Today we continue the AI theme with a TSD Summit Sessions conversation on China and AI with Selina Xu, who leads China and AI research and strategic initiatives in the Office of Eric Schmidt. Who is winning the AI race between the US and China? Are they focusing on the same things? Where do China’s capabilities stand today? How is AI being adopted and integrated into economies? What are the benefits of China’s open-source approach? Where does the US maintain a strategic advantage?  These are just some of the questions David Wroe tackles with Selina in today’s interview. This podcast really covers a lot of ground, and is a must listen for anyone interested in the development of artificial intelligence and why it matters who is leading the development. It is also timely given the US Administration’s decision this week to allow Nvidia to sell more powerful chips to China, which will likely impact key areas in which Selina says the US has a current advantage, in particular in the field of compute.  If you want more regular updates on cyber and tech issues, subscribe to ASPI’s Daily Cyber and Tech Digest via https://aspicts.substack.com/

In the first Summit Sessions interview post-Sydney Dialogue, David Wroe speaks with leading global AI safety expert, Dr Roman Yampolskiy. Roman is founding director of the Cyber Security Lab at the University of Louisville, and author of many books including “AI: Unexplainable, Unpredictable, Uncontrollable”.This week, ASPI convened the fourth Sydney Dialogue summit on critical technologies and security, and AI featured heavily across the two days. So we’re bringing some of that discussion to the pod this week. The conversation covers many aspects of AI safety and risks, including the issue of control, and whether we should be continuing apace in our pursuit of superintelligence if we don’t know how to control the technology. They also discuss the recent Genesis Mission announcement coming out of the US, the opportunities that AI presents and how they can be leveraged safely and the big questions on everyone’s minds - will AI make us happy? Or will it control us?

One of the hottest topics in the world is data centres. Demand for the computing power needed to drive modern economies and societies, especially with artificial intelligence, is climbing steeply. Cloud computing services, often provided by big tech firms known as hyperscalers, supply a lot of this power.In today’s episode, Microsoft’s regional vice president for corporate external and legal affairs in Asia, Mike Yeh, talks about the strategic importance of cloud computing and of turning critical data into national assets. Increasingly, the ability to access and process data effectively is a significant strategic commodity that will help determine the strength of nations.Mike discusses the meaning of digital “sovereignty”, the use of spreading risk so that a country doesn’t find itself cut off from computing power or from its own data. He talks about the energy demands of computing, the value of digitising and structuring data, the security considerations of cloud computing, Ukraine’s experience with data, and the relationship between strategic competition and rival cloud services in the Indo-Pacific region. He also covers the cybersecurity challenges of cooperation between China, Russia, Iran and North Korea, and levels of social trust in AI in the Indo-Pacific. Once you’re done listening folks, don’t forget to check out the Sydney Dialogue website.

Brian Schimpf, CEO and co-founder of Anduril Industries, dives into the future of defense innovation. He emphasizes creating scalable, affordable autonomous systems like the Ghost Shark unmanned submarine. The discussion touches on the strategic implications of Ukraine and Taiwan for deterrence and industrial capacity. Schimpf also highlights the importance of aligning defense with liberal democracies and the evolving tech industry's role in national security. The conversation wraps up with thoughts on human-AI collaboration and the need for accountability in defense technology.

Last month, some of the world’s leading artificial intelligence experts signed a petition calling for a prohibition on developing superintelligent AI until it is safe. One of those experts was Dan Hendrycks, director for the Center for AI Safety and an adviser to Elon Musk’s xAI and leading firm Scale AI. Dan has led original and thought-provoking research including into the risk of rogue AIs escaping human control, the deliberate misuse of the technology by malign actors, and the emergence of dangerous strategic dynamics if one nation creates superintelligence, prompting fears among rival nations. In the lead-up to ASPI’s Sydney Dialogue tech and security conference in December, Dan talks about the different risks AI poses, the possibility that AI develops its own goals and values, the concept of recursion in which machines build smarter machines, definitions of artificial “general” intelligence, the shortcomings of current AIs and the inadequacy of historical analogies such as nuclear weapons in understanding risks from superintelligence. To see some of the research discussed in today’s episode, visit the Center for AI Safety’s website here.