Writer
Joseph Camilleri
Joseph Camilleri is Emeritus Professor at La Trobe University in Melbourne, a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Social Sciences, Convener of Conversation at the Crossroads, and Co-Convener of SHAPE (Saving Humanity and Planet Earth)
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The parlous state of our security policies – thinking through the hard questions
In Australia security policy is made largely behind closed doors, and subject to remarkably little scrutiny by parliament or our mainstream media. It has at best a fleeting presence in our political and public discourse. Continue reading »
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It’s time to strip ‘national security’ of its sacred cow status. Part 2
On closer inspection, the immense financial, institutional, and rhetorical investment in this elaborate security edifice rests on questionable assumptions. The costs may far outweigh any likely benefits. Continue reading »
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It’s time to strip ‘national security’ of its sacred cow status. Part 1
The Prime Minister has just announced the most hawkish turn in Australia’s defence policy since the end of the Cold War. All in the name of national security, the mantra of governments intent on justifying sprawling, costly and often unaccountable security establishments. Continue reading »
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Living with China: There is a way, but is there a will? Part 3
To enter into a sustained and productive dialogue with China, Australia needs to do its homework. As indicated In Parts 1 and 2, both government and society have to cultivate a better understanding of contemporary China, its history, culture, economy and politics. Continue reading »
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Living with China: There is a way, but is there a will? Part 2
In Part 1 we saw that the post-1945 Western dominated world order is rapidly giving way to a multicentric world, in which different players, each with its own system of governance and civilisational inheritance, are vying for power and influence. In this part, we examine How Australia can accommodate this shift, as it goes about Continue reading »
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Living with China: There is a way, but is there a will? Part 1
There is a growing sense that it’s time to step off the merry-go-round of China bashing and the Australia bashing that inevitably follows. But what is to take its place? Many would like to see a more solid foundation for our relationship with China. But what would this look like in practice? And how well Continue reading »
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JOSEPH A. CAMILLERI. Can we rescue the China relationship from the abyss?
For some time now we have been routinely mishandling our relations with China. Our petulant demand for an international Covid-19 inquiry, whose thinly veiled purpose was to point the finger at Beijing’s misdeeds, is the latest in a long series of missteps. Continue reading »
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JOSEPH A. CAMILLERI. Covid-19 – Lessons Not Yet Learnt
For weeks now Covid-19 has dominated the world’s media. We’ve had endless facts, advice and commentary on the virus itself, the number of deaths and infections, the level of testing, the do’s and don’ts of hygiene and social distancing, the flattening of the curve, and much else. But on the underlying significance of the pandemic Continue reading »
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China policy drowning in empty rhetoric – time for an informed public debate
China is in the news and rightly so. If it’s not events in Hong Kong, it’s the China-US trade dispute, or tensions in the South China Sea, Beijing’s expanding influence in the South Pacific, the prospect of a Chinese military base in Cambodia, China’s treatment of the Uighur minority, or China’s massive Belt and Road Continue reading »
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JOSEPH ANTHONY CAMILLERI. Was this ‘the election we had to have’?
It is two weeks since Australia went to the polls, but are we any wiser as to what actually transpired at the ballot box and during the preceding weeks of mind numbing electioneering? Politicians and commentators alike have single-mindedly focused on the ‘surprising’ election result – shocking for some, miraculous for others. But few if Continue reading »
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JOSEPH A. CAMILLERI. Just Peace: A timely roadmap for Australia or impossible dream? – Part 2
If ‘just peace’ requires peacemaking and peacebuilding to be sensitive to the cries of the poor and the cries of the Earth, how relevant is it to Australia’s present circumstances? If what is proposed is a holistic approach to the problem of violence that encompasses social and ecological violence as well as physical violence, is Continue reading »
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JOSEPH A. CAMILLERI. Just Peace: The only antidote to the age of violence – Part 1
Endemic violence, the hallmark of the last hundred years, shows no sign of abating. The death toll resulting from war in the 20th century is 187 million and probably higher. The number of armed conflicts in the world has risen steadily since 1946 and now stands at 50 or more in any one year. In Continue reading »
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JOSEPH CAMILLERI. The seismic shift we can no longer ignore
The acute tensions that disrupted the recent APEC summit, the Brexit fiasco in Britain, the rise of populist discourse and movements in much of Europe, the ‘theatre of the grotesque’ in Trump’s America, are just a few of the symptoms of the seismic shift that has been in the making for over three decades. It Continue reading »
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JOSEPH A. CAMILLERI: Australia’s China policy mired in phobia and confusion.
Australia’s handling of its relations with China is rapidly descending into farce. Geoff Raby’s excellent piece (30 April) makes abundantly clear the principal factor at work, namely a nostalgic attachment to the US-led regional and global order of earlier years. Continue reading »
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Many are thinking: we can surely do better as a nation
Across the country there is much amusement, and a good deal of bewilderment. People are asking: how can our subservience to Washington’s bidding hit such an all-time low? How can a government think it can shape Australia’s future security and prosperity by mouthing one inanity after another? Continue reading »
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JOSEPH CAMILLERI. For our misdeeds in Korea we shall pay dearly
The result of the recent snap election called by Shinzo Abe and Japan’s steady military build-up are a portent of things to come. The Korean crisis, which owes at least as much to Washington’s flexing of military muscle as to Pyongyang’s misguided nuclear antics, holds the key to many of these ominous developments. Continue reading »
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JOSEPH A. CAMILLERI. Australia’s engagement with Asia and the world has fallen on hard times.
In the vain hope of minimising the catastrophic consequences of America’s 16-year long military intervention, Donald Trump has just announced yet another surge in its military presence in Afghanistan. Australia, like other allies, will also be asked to do more, and will almost certainly agree to the request. This is part of the now familiar Continue reading »
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JOSEPH CAMILLERI. The Politics of Paralysis: Australian style
It is hard not to conclude that our major parties have been the primary stumbling block. They seem singularly ill equipped to envisage, let alone manage, the institutional changes called for by a globalising and increasingly interdependent world. If innovation holds the key to the future, we would do well to look elsewhere for leadership Continue reading »
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JOSEPH CAMILLERI. New series. We can say ‘no’ to the Americans.
Australia at the crossroads of time and imagination Can Australia rise to the challenge of a rapidly transforming world or is it bound to the myths of a bygone age? Continue reading »
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JOSEPH CAMILLERI. The election of Hillary Clinton promises a more dangerous world.
In a long and often exasperating presidential campaign, Americans and the world have been subjected to Donald Trump’s odious and often incoherent rhetoric, and from both sides much vitriol and endless accusations of deceit, crookedness and sexual misconduct. In this largely policy-free contest, Hillary Clinton’s approach to the immense challenges facing the United States has Continue reading »
