Writer
Alison Broinowski
Dr Alison Broinowski AM is a former Australian diplomat and a member of Australians fr War Powers Reform
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Armenia, genocide, and Australia
For all our talk about not forgetting, Australia has a selective memory about Armenia and other atrocities. Continue reading »
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Out of this war, ready for the next?
Afghanistan has joined Australia’s list of lost wars, and it’s our longest. The Prime Minister’s tears on announcing it may have been for that, or for Australia’s 41 dead, 249 wounded, estimated 500 veteran suicides, and innumerable cases of PTSD, at a cost of A$10 billion. Continue reading »
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Who wants war with Iran? Not Australia
Iran has resented the US ever since the CIA and MI6 overthrew Prime Minister Mossadegh in 1953. For its part, the US has wanted vengeance against Iran ever since the Islamic revolution ousted their ally and Israel’s, Mohammad Reza Shah. Iran is the last of the seven countries listed in 2000 by the Neo-conservatives to Continue reading »
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Throwing stones in the Uighur glasshouse
On his last day at work for the Trump Administration, Mike Pompeo accused China of genocide against the Uighurs in Xinjiang province, which the Chinese Foreign Ministry vehemently denied. His successor as Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, supports the accusation and has repeated it. Continue reading »
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US government changes hands but Assange approach will stay the same
The Australian government’s unwillingness to protect one of its own, coupled with Biden’s contradictory remarks about WikiLeaks, means nothing is likely to stop the wheels of British and American justice grinding towards the predictable result. Continue reading »
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Why does Australia allow the US to choose our enemies?
Trump was right: the US fights ‘forever wars’, and only the names of the enemies change. America is never without an enemy, an heir and a spare. Military force remains the default American response to most problems. Australia needs to warn the new US administration that we’re not interested in illegal, expeditionary wars. Continue reading »
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Right outcome, wrong reasons on Julian Assange
British justice has been done, but it is hard to fathom. Assange’s crime is different from the usual. He embarrassed the US by revealing activities recorded by Americans themselves, and the lawlessness of the US military that continues every day, all round the world. Continue reading »
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Can it get worse after Trump?
When Joe Biden is in the White House and Donald Trump is back in his tower or at his resort, some things about the Trump years will be missed. Continue reading »
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Darylgate: a Federal matter as well
A week is a short time in politics. In less than that time, an affair emerged that had lasted five years if you believe Gladys, or seven if you believe Daryl. Continue reading »
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Julian Assange and failure of mainstream media
On 18 September, a little over a year since Amal Clooney was appointed as the UK’s special envoy for media freedom, she resigned. Among Clooney’s barrister colleagues are Geoffrey Robertson, Jennifer Robinson, and Gareth Pierce, all of whom, at their Doughty Chambers human rights practice, are advocates for Julian Assange. Continue reading »
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It is time for a political solution to the Julian Assange persecution.
A travesty that passes for British justice has now run its course at the Old Bailey. Continue reading »
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The National Insecurity State
When the ‘war on terror’ was only seven years old, an Australian former Ambassador to Beijing pointed to its risks and costs for Australia. Garry Woodard warned that rather than protecting ‘national security’, such an open-ended war could widen our obligations to the US and narrow our options in dealing with China. Continue reading »
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The military-industrial-intelligence-security complex
In 1961 President Eisenhower warned that a vast and permanent ‘military-industrial complex’ could produce ‘the disastrous rise of misplaced power’. Earlier, US Senators Robert La Follette and J. William Fulbright also foresaw the dangers of militarisation. Now we have a military/industrial/security/intelligence complex, and it is dangerous. Continue reading »
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What else have the Archives got?
Jenny Hocking’s persistence has revealed the ‘Palace Letters’ between Canberra and London which the National Archives didn’t want Australians to see. If there were other exchanges with Washington and Langley they may be even more reluctant. Continue reading »
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Australia-‘The most oppressive of the Western Democracies’
When there’s a concerted attack on the interests of the Australian mainstream media they will rise in joint defence of journalists’ freedom. But they are slow to support five other Australians who have already lost their freedom. Continue reading »
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ALISON BROINOWSKI. The crisis is political too.
In his almost daily televised updates, Scott Morrison’s successive rescue packages turn conservative orthodoxy on its head, and without resorting to Trumpian monologues. Yet his response to the international questions shows no new thinking. Continue reading »
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ALISON BROINOWSKI. Outstaying our welcome in Iraq.
As US installations in Iraq come under increasing attack, the message that they are no longer needed is clear. Camp Taji near Baghdad, where a few hundred Australians are still based, has been hit by missiles in recent days. How much longer before they get out? Continue reading »
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ALISON BROINOWSKI. Organised violence: the US and China compared
The world has seen the rise and fall of some 150 empires. That number doesn’t even include the United States, whose unacknowledged empire includes more than 800 military bases in some 70 countries. Continue reading »
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ALISON BROINOWSKI. Quiet Australians wait for the truth
Forty-four Australian servicemen have been killed in action or have died in accidents since our forces went to Afghanistan in 2001, and since the deployments to Iraq and Syria. But in that period, at least ten times that number of Australians serving or no longer in the military have died of suicide. This week, former Continue reading »
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ALISON BROINOWSKI. Friends of Assange, at last.
Influential Australians are suddenly stirring in support of Julian Assange, who will face extradition to the US and several life sentences unless political intervention heads it off. Is it too late? Continue reading »
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ALISON BROINOWSKI. October and a discontented world
This is the October of our discontent. Suddenly, its manifestations are everywhere. Unless the few in power heed the shouts, slogans, and strikes of the many demanding change, worse may occur. Continue reading »
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ALISON BROINOWSKI Iran: Maximum Falsification
Step by predictable step, President Trump has been tempting Iran to come out and fight. Most of the mainstream Western media have obliged him by suggesting that every recent hostile event in the Gulf is Iran’s doing, and have dismissed protests from Tehran that these reports are lies. But so far, the US hasn’t got Continue reading »
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ALISON BROINOWSKI. Julian Assange – ‘Find Justice and Make It Quick’ (American Herald Tribune 28-9-19)
With the US on the warpath and Australia sending military, air, and naval support for American activities in the Gulf, three Australian and British nationals are being made an example of in Iran, where they are in solitary confinement on charges of espionage. British politicians have been quick to accuse Iran of ‘hostage diplomacy’, saying the allegations Continue reading »
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Julian Assange One case dismissed: one to go
From the Australian mainstream media most readers won’t know it, but on 29 July a Federal Court in New York dismissed the Democratic National Committee’s case against Julian Assange for publishing leaked internal emails in 2016. Continue reading »
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‘Australia agrees to everything’
Australia and the United States see the world through the same eyes, Scott Morrison told sailors on USS Ronald Reagan during the Talisman Sabre war games on 12 July.But after hearing what Mike Pompeo and John Joseph Mearsheimer had to say in Australia in recent days, we might conclude that if our eyes are the Continue reading »
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ALISON BROINOWSKI. Who are the terrorists, Iran or the US?
In April 2014 John Howard surprised an audience in Sydney by saying that war with Iran would be next. He didn’t know then about Syria but his alarming prediction about Iran looks like coming true. Continue reading »
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ALISON BROINOWSKI. How long to extradition for Assange?
WikiLeaks watchers had been expecting it for weeks, but when news came on 11 April that Ecuador had revoked Julian Assange’s asylum, a collective shudder went around the extended community. Next day the pictures appeared, and they made it worse. Images familiar to everyone of a young man waving from the Embassy balcony were suddenly Continue reading »
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ALISON BROINOWSKI Integrity ,initiative and imposed ignorance
The US and UK are still fighting the cold war in new ways about which Australians know little. Continue reading »
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ALISON BROINOWSKI Beware the Ides of March in Christchurch
It is better when a terrorist is not shot dead but arrested. So we eventually learn what is his – usually male – motivation, and governments and the courts are then able to respond rationally. But Brenton Tarrant made his motivation quite clear, documenting his crime in Christchurch with a 74-page manifesto, as well Continue reading »
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ALISON BROINOWSKI. Australian values in free fall.
What Australians value and what they fear are not, apparently, clear to the latest Prime Minister. Scott Morrison’s election campaign, which began at the National Press Club on 11 February, failed to assure voters that his government understands either what they resent or what they want.Two days later, the Coalition lost a vote on the Continue reading »
