Writer
Dennis Argall
Dennis Argall's degrees were in anthropology and defence studies. his governmental work in foreign, defence and domestic departments and for the Australian parliament. His overseas postings included Beijing as ambassador, and Washington. He regrets the extent of his personal experience with disability but it has perhaps sharpened his desire that the future be a better country.
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China has no need for the United States, for now
In ordinary anticipatory history the game is waiting for Trump. Continue reading »
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The Shangri-La dialogue and aUStralian strategic thinking
Interpretations are being offered about prime minister Albanese’s speech to the so-called Shangri La Dialogue in Singapore. This sounds like an Asian event but is hosted each year by the International Institute for Strategic Studies of London, an august and AUKUSian institution of such eminence that I was once invited to join. I declined. Life Continue reading »
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B52s refurbished with cruise missiles are a threat to peace
It’s not just the Australian senate that cannot know whether such missiles are conventional or nuclear, it’s also the receiving country. This uncertainty increases risks of nuclear war. Continue reading »
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‘Red Alert’! Knott spouts more drivel over Solomon Islands ‘threat’
In the Sydney Morning Herald of 2 May, Matthew Knott, foreign affairs and national security writer, has written an alarmist piece on the inability of the Australian defence force to respond to alarming but plausible scenarios such as China establishing a military base in a nearby Pacific nation. Continue reading »
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The Defence Strategic Review is a claim to command civil society
The kind of strategic study Australia needs, to preside over this kind of defence staff college scribble, is one which gives a sense of our civil society’s capacities, needs, aspirations — and our neighbourhood. The Flippingbook is an entirely inappropriate, narrow minded, chauvinistic, militaristic thing that belongs in a country practising for fascism, the submergence Continue reading »
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If we spit the American dummy, what becomes of us?
Very simply, we have to shake out cobwebs and think for ourselves. While it sounds simple, it is actually hard when trying to separate from a dominant ally and the “illusory truth effect” which envelopes us daily. Continue reading »
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To justify nuclear submarines as protecting trade routes is nonsense
We just need to look at the facts to see how foolish the assertion is that SSNs have the capacity to prevent disruption to our trade in the event of a war. Forty percent of our exports are to, and 20% of our imports are from, China. Throwing money at submarines weakens the national economy. Continue reading »
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End-game for American exceptionalism?
The march to maintain hegemony is pursued with a sense of ‘exceptional America’. But it is now taking place in a world without elbow room. The planet is imperilled. We have to call out folly, not run with it. I cannot see how, without regime change in Washington, trust in high level relations can be Continue reading »
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The ‘Teals’ and Australia’s international situation
We know little of the views of Teals on foreign and strategic issues. There are some big issues coming, on which they will need to focus. Continue reading »
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US policies: killing our region while we sit silent
We live in an integrated and connected world, not well understood by political leaders or military moguls. Nowhere is this more important than in East Asia. Destructive action towards important neighbours who are central to our trade with the world is of course contrary to our national strategic interests. We should not sit silent. Continue reading »
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Mr Blinken goes to China
There is in the American psyche, the Hollywood psyche, the false notion that any other major power will be just like America. The view can be terrible but wrong. Continue reading »
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Ukraine: can we make sense of the war situation?
There is hectic media attention to the pressure on Germany to allow a few of its Leopard 2 tanks to be given to Ukraine by countries that have bought them from Germany. The words “self-deception and fantasy” come to mind. But it does make clear Ukraine’s underlying logistical problem. Continue reading »
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At war, the US dollar is on the brink of collapse
The US is at war, and the dollar is at risk of imminent collapse. Australia’s lobbying of the United States as a good ally should focus on these issues above all else. Continue reading »
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All warfare is based on deception
“All warfare is based on deception”. Sun Tzu, The Art of War Continue reading »
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A feast of new reading: Volume 3
With changes in the world, the media landscape also changes. There are shifts in particular outlets and new outlets emerge. In this changing landscape, we need a few tools and guide posts for what will be a lively ride in 2023. Continue reading »
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“No relationship more important” than China for Australia
Xi Jinping is the only foreign head of state who has visited all Australian states and mainland territories, very warmly welcomed. Let’s not accept the blarney that he’s changed. He’s had to fight a lot and has a bad press in the west, engineered. As Bob Hawke once said: “There is no relationship Australia has Continue reading »
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The breakdown of US hegemony is the defining feature of our strategic environment
The defining feature of our present strategic environment is not a competition between the US and China. It is the breakdown of the singular hegemonic command of the United States, under its own weight. Continue reading »
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The crushing of the Unipolar World in the Middle East
The unipolar world is dead and American control of the Middle East is a wreck. Continue reading »
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How the US is rupturing the Transatlantic alliance with Europe
We are at an inflexion point in world affairs in which the economies of Europe and East Asia are paying the price for a misguided US strategy to re-establish its position as leader of a unipolar world and defeat competition from China and Russia. Continue reading »
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Prime Minister Albanese has little understanding of regional issues
It is puzzling that the Prime Minister would choose to make this presentation to Greg Sheridan the arch conservative writer of the Murdoch stable. Continue reading »
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It’s impossible to understand China’s Party Congress through White Man’s Media
While the worlds of the democracies have been afflicted by growing inequality and corruption, the Chinese government has worked to stop corruption and gross inequality of wealth. Here are six basic points to better understand China’s recent Party Congress. Continue reading »
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We are at war and it may soon be nuclear war
We are in a far more dangerous situation than the Cold War, or either of two world wars. Continue reading »
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A feast of new reading outside the grip of corporate Western media: Part 2 – Asia
Australian mainstream media is generally lacking in coverage of Asia, with occasional fly-in-fly-out-shock-horror or dependence on Reuters or AUKUSWORLD news sources. This isn’t consistent with any claim to be an advanced member of our region. We can however turn to local newspapers in the region. Continue reading »
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A feast of new reading outside the grip of corporate western media
John Menadue has drawn attention to how our views of the world are dominated by ‘white man’s media’. Continue reading »
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The Defence Strategic Review must not confine itself to “more of the same” but address a new world
The government is conducting a Defence Strategic Review: “an independently-led review that will consider Defence’s force posture and force structure.” The terms of reference are narrow. What is needed, what this Defence Review may not be able to do, is a review of Australia’s overall strategic circumstances. Courage is needed to choose between allocation of Continue reading »
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The Ukraine war prequel
Americans will not support those who seek independence in order to replace a far-off tyranny with a local despotism. They will not aid those who promote a suicidal nationalism based upon ethnic hatred. President George H W Bush to the Ukraine parliament, August 1991. Quoted in Lawrence Freedman, Ukraine and the Art of Strategy, Oxford Continue reading »
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Following the war in Ukraine
To write in real terms about war is not to condone war. War is an inappropriate activity for a species calling itself sapiens. Continue reading »
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The age of stupidity and enthusiastic folly – Australia, an endangered nation
It is difficult to understand how weirdly Australia now conducts itself internationally, the postures it adopts. We have notionally a new government with a sense of social justice and a vision opposed to inequality. But it is promptly, a neocon enthusiast. Continue reading »
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Nuclear non-proliferation treaty review conference in historical context
The Tenth Review Conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty is underway at the UN in New York. The record of the treaty is not perfect but it is the major persisting arms control agreement. If peace means a continuing negotiating process with the other, as President Kennedy asserted, we need more of this. Continue reading »
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The United States, in decline but still able to kill us all…
The global dominance of the United States, in so many fields, from space, to science, to entertainment, to sport, to novelty in the development of the English language, has been taken for granted, is part of our fabric of Australian existence. Continue reading »
