The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) is an independent, non-partisan policy institute. It was set up and funded by the Australian government to provide fresh ideas on Australia's defence and strategic policy choices. It was formally set up and began functioning in August 2001.

ASPI is charged with informing the public on strategic and defence issues, generating new ideas for the government, and fostering strategic expertise in Australia. It aims to help Australians understand the critical strategic choices Australia faces and help the Australian government make better-informed decisions.

The institute’s board is comprised of distinguished Australians including a member each nominated by the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition. The Secretaries of the Departments of Defence, Foreign Affairs and Trade serve on the board ex-officio. The institute brings in top scholars to conduct research and publish, including a program of visits by prominent international strategic thinkers.

The institute also does specific work commissioned by Government. They sponsor and organise a range of activities including lectures, seminars discussions and other events to encourage public discussion and the development of strategic policy perspectives.

Here is a list of the publications:

Strategy Reports:
ASPI publishes longer studies on issues of critical importance to Australia and the region. Current year back to 2004.

Strategic Insights:
These publications are intended to provide expert perspectives on specific current issues. Current numbered series back to Number 1 in 2004.

Special Reports:
These publications are intended to deepen understanding on critical questions facing key strategic decision-makers and, where appropriate, provide policy recommendations. This is a numbered series with the current issue back to the first issue in 2007.

Policy Analysis:
A series of shorter papers, often on contemporary hot issues. This series has been discontinued and shorter articles will now appear on the ASPI blog The Strategist (see below) or as Strategic Insights.

Strategic Policy Forums:
These are online roundtable discussions undertaken when a subject of critical importance requires debate. These debates have been migrated to the ASPI blog The Strategist (see below) (2007–12).

Specialist Publications:
The Australian Defence Almanac is a series produced annually from 2004-2005 to 2011-12.

Pre 2004 publications:
• Policy Reports
• Policy Briefings
• Major Studies
• Occasional Papers

Commissioned Work:
ASPI will undertake commissioned research for clients including the Australian Government, state governments, foreign governments and industry. For further information, contact ASPI.

Annuals:
This includes 2 annual ASPI publication series:
The Cost of Defence: ASPI's Defence budget brief – Current year back to 2002 – 2003.
Capability Annual, a planned series to begin late 2013. It will incorporate the Defence Almanac.
ASPI's Annual Report. – Current year back to 2002 – 2003.

Proceedings:
ASPI publishes the full-text of selected sponsored conferences.


All the above publications are available in full-text in Asia-Studies Full-Text.


The Strategist
Additionally, the ASPI publishes a weblog, The Strategist. This is the official blog of The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), and is set up to provide fresh ideas on Australia’s defence and strategic policy choices as well as encourage and facilitate discussion and debate among interested stakeholders in the online strategy community. This is an opportunity for individual authors and does not represent the views of ASPI or the institutions to which the authors are attached. Posts go from the current month back to June 2012.

The Strategist will be indexed and linked to in the forthcoming Asia-Studies Full-Text Plus section.

Here are the links to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute site and the weblog The Strategist.