Security Challenges' annual Young Strategic Writer Competition, sponsored by the Australian Defence Business Review, is now open for submissions to the 2013 round.

A generous prize of $A2500 will be awarded to the best article or comment submitted by an author under 35 years of age.

Submissions close 4 October 2013 - for details and past winners, see the ADBR Competition page.

In the first issue of 2013, scholars and experts from across the Asia-Pacific region debate the contentious propositions in Hugh White's 2012 book The China Choice:

• Evelyn Goh
• Jingdong Yuan
• Robert Ayson
• Swaran Singh
• Ralph A. Cossa; and
• a reply by Hugh White.

In addition, this issue features comments and articles on Australia's Uranium exports to India; Singapore's defence industry, and lessons from Australia's 1999 East Timor experience.

For links to the full text of the articles in this edition, see the table of contents. Hard copies can be ordered here .

The Summer 2012 edition of Security Challenges contains up-to-date articles on the island countries to Australia's North and Northwest.

Leading scholars from Australia and the region review security developments in the 'inner arc', and debate whether the 'arc of instability' is becoming an 'arc of opportunity'? Guest editor Joanne Wallis introduces the issue and draws conclusions for Australia's relations with the region.

Ronald May, Sinclair Dinnen, Gordon Peake and Brij Lal provide assessments on the security and political developments. Paul Dibb and Graeme Dobbell review Australia's policy and perceptions of the region. Jack Maebuta and Jone Baledrokadroka provide analysis and insights from the South West Pacific.

This special edition aims to highlight the need for Australia to rethink its approach to the region, in light of improvements in regional security and development..

Full text PDFs of the articles in this edition are now available online - see the table of contents of this edition. Hard copies can be ordered here.

The authors in this edition focus on four key regional powers; Japan, China, Australia and Pakistan. The growing power of China and the development of missile technology by North Korea have led to major changes in the Japanese Self Defence Forces.

In this issue Norifumi Namatame traces the development of Japan’s ballistic missile defence program, highlighting the double edged sword of defensive orientated systems that may still be seen as a threat by neighbouring states.

Des Ball and Richard Tanter provide an in-depth assessment of the Japanese Air Self Defence Force’s intelligence and surveillance capabilities and argue that despite the commitment in 2010 for the JSDF to increase its ISR capabilities that these reforms have been underway for over a decade.

Anna Samson explores the links between Chinese grand strategy and multilateralism while in the field of bi-lateral relations Claude Rakisits explores the developing relationship between China and Pakistan.

In the final article Peter Layton investigates the complexities surround national security strategies and the need of Australia to consider an organising construct.

For links to article details and full-text PDF, see the table of contents of this edition. Hard copies can be ordered here.

Mid-2012 is a time of great strategic uncertainty for many countries in the Asia-Pacific, and our authors in this edition engage with those concerns over a wide range of issues.

At the regional level, Leszek Buszynski looks at the hot issue of the South China Sea, while Desmond Ball and Nicholas Farrelly go on the ground to examine violence in Thailand’s deep south, a threat driven by criminality, insurgency and politics.

Closer to home, several authors turn their heads to how to strengthen and adjust the Australian Defence Force in this time of upheaval. The contributions by Richard Brabin-Smith on force expansion and warning time, Michael Evans on the concept of 'centre of gravity' and its interpretation in Australia, and Will Clegg on the sustainment of the Australian Defence Force in the age of the 'Strategic Reform Program' are of particular policy relevance given the Australian Government’s recent announcement of a new Defence White Paper, due in mid-2013.

For links to the article pages including PDFs, see the table of contents. Hard copies can be ordered here.