Welcome to a milestone 50th issue of the Asia Pacific Security Magazine. As a special issue we fittingly feature an interview with Australia’s 25th Prime Minister, John Howard. Atop our Ambassador series, John Howard’s interview coincides with his keynote speech at the ASIS International Annual Seminar, Chicago, and Australia’s Security in Government Conference – SIG 2013. As proud media partners to these events we continue to welcome a host of new readers and a growing audience.
After 50 issues, a publication and its publishers have many thanks to give – to our readers, contributors, correspondents, advertisers and staff – on behalf of all, a big thankyou and congratulations. Let the work continue and enjoy the ride!
As professionals in a global world, we need to constantly look up and to the horizon – with a strategic mindset, as well as tactically and commercially. We are approaching a time when China is anticipated to exceed the USA as the world’s largest economy. There is naturally, the need to balance military and defence relationships. However, the region is unfortunately, renowned for significant and wide ranging conflict. Add catastrophic natural disasters, climate change and resource security (food/water/energy), and these regional issues create national and local commercial risk for all economies. Along with the commercial opportunities, the security of the region requires ongoing monitoring by security advisors, risk managers, operational managers, procurement advisors, supply chain managers and you – our readers.
Whilst evolution to a regional magazine was designed to recognise and accommodate the Asia Pacific as the most exciting and significant region on the planet, we have remained cognisant of broader security and media industry developments, and in my view, the exciting moments of the emergence of the security profession, globally. This accompanies growth in the fields of Risk Management, Corporate Governance, Business Continuity Management, Corporate Social Responsibility and a host of other specialist fields – intelligence, investigations, insurance, facility management and so on. We acknowledge also the austere commercial professionalisation of military, law enforcement and regulatory sectors.
With all this in mind, we present the John Howard interview for insight into how a national leader considers broad and critical issues amongst unique diplomatic situations. John Howard recounts the key regional dilemmas during his term in office with East Timor and Indonesia, and expresses his views on the future of Australia’s ties with both countries. He also gives frank thought to the consequences for Australia-China relations, the US rebalance to Asia and the future challenges to Australian foreign policy, and finally, the legacy of his decisions in Australian strategic policy. This is a timely and important interview given Australian foreign policy debate and the 2013 Australian Federal Election. We also await the outcomes of the reforms by the Rudd Government to the introduction of the Papua New Guinea solution for asylum seekers.
As a highlight, for our Women in Security feature we interview Christina Rose, Assistant Director, Department of Infrastructure and Transport – Office of Transport and Security. We examine Indian cyber security and the Indian Government’s Central Monitoring System (CMS), set up at a cost of Rs4 billion ($73 million), by the Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT). Like Australia’s reforms, the CMS will monitor all online activities such as electronic mails and social media communications, telephone calls and text messages.
And look out for ‘Big Data Transforms Security’ featuring Arthur (Art) Coviello, Jr, discussing the ways Big Data is transforming the security industry, information technology, business and society. Finally, for the lead up to the FIFA 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games we have a special report on Brazil’s preparations and some real challenges for major event and VIP security.
As a special issue I’d like to thank Jason Brown, current Chair of the Australian Security Medals Foundation for his support to this publication, and most recently the support provided by Matthew Curtis, Chair of the Australasian Council of Security Professionals and Geoff Craighead CPP, President of ASIS International. We also have leading SCEC Endorsed consultants Dr Kevin Foster, Mark Jarratt CPP and Tony Haddad JP, providing their views on Access Control within the Protective Security Policy Framework, being introduced across the Australian Federal Government. There remains much more to comment on and I will leave it to you to delve further and enjoy.
Stay tuned with us as we continue to explore, educate, entertain and most importantly, engage. I look forward to hearing from you and encourage you to connect with us and retain My Security Media as your personal professional library, willing to listen and accessible anytime, anywhere.
Yours sincerely,
Chris Cubbage
CPP, RSecP, GAICD
Executive Editor
NEXT ISSUE HIGHLIGHT
Feature interview with USA Ambassador to Australia, Jeffrey Bleich
