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The purpose of this paper is to adopt an organisational network perspective to examine the structural properties underpinning the design and governance of multi-agency fusion centres and related environments, focussing particularly on how they are formed and internally managed.

The authors conducted several focus groups and follow-up interviews with executive and operational members of Australia’s principal fusion centres and related environments.

The authors argue that in order to understand the internal dynamics of fusion centres, and the ways in which they form and function, the analysis of interrelationships between partners and potential partners is critical. The authors have demonstrated that a network model can assist in this type of analysis. For example, hub-and-spoke network structures appear to be a particularly effective solution to the centralisation-density trade-off for such inter-agency networks.

The authors use a novel approach that combines a goal-oriented network framework with the existing literature on fusion centres to synthesise key features of the network structure of fusion centres and associated processes of information sharing.

This paper aims to examine the intensifying efforts by China and the West to harness the clean, limitless energy of nuclear fusion. However, it argues that this “holy grail” of a fusion future is only achievable through an optimal combination of mission-oriented public–private cooperation and genuine intergovernmental cooperation.

This study deploys a case-study approach, augmented by relevant literature, to analyse the advances in fusion technology.

Despite purported recent advances in fusion technology, these advances remain largely “proof of concept” experiments rather than commercially viable technologies that enable us to truly harness the infinite power of these “artificial suns”. To achieve the moonshot goal of delivering practicable “net energy gain” from fusion power, this study advocates shedding hubristic political “one-upmanship” amongst rival governments. Further, it urges focussing the ingenuity, along with the financial and scientific resources of all stakeholders (both public and private) across the globe to bring about this “fusion dawn”. Moreover, efforts to deliver fusion power face significant competition from other clean energy sources (wind, solar power and nuclear fission reactors) that are not only technically far less challenging but also economically more viable with their declining cost structures.

This study is possibly one of the few social science papers that examines the prospect of clean, limitless fusion power along with the challenges it faces and its societal implications.