To celebrate five years of Policy Forum, our special InFocus section is hearing back from the authors of some of our most popular articles on some crucial policy questions. Patrick Cooney reflects on what has and hasn’t changed since 2014, and on where policy needs to be headed in the five years to come.

Investigating the struggle of people against power, Quentin Grafton looks to the past, finding implications for people power today and Australia’s future prosperity.

In this Women in National Security episode of the National Security Podcast Chris Farnham speaks to the Hon Mariya Didi, Minister of Defence of the Republic of Maldives, about strategic relations in the Indian Ocean, the impacts of climate change and the price of securing and sustaining democracy. Minister Didi was the Maldives’ first female lawyer and is the first and only female chairperson of a major political party in the country. She is internationally recognised as a champion of democracy and human rights.

On this Democracy Sausage podcast extra we look at the state of centre-left parties around the world and whether they are in terminal decline.

With the government driving a push to the regions with Destination Australia Scholarships, the bush has welcomed an influx of students. Despite its potential as a regional location, South Australia has been conspicuously unsuccessful in securing the scholarships and deserves an explanation, Chris Ronan writes.

In the last five years, China’s power has only grown, but a major flashpoint for potential conflict is still yet to be resolved, Kerry Brown writes.