Tim Beal

Tim Beal Author, Researcher, Educator; Asia specialist Tim is a retired NZ academic who has written extensively on Asia, with a focus on Northeast Asia. He also has an interest in imperialism, again mainly in respect of Asia but recently, also inevitably encompassing Europe

Recent articles by Tim Beal

Did North Korean troops disappear in the fog of the Ukraine war?

Did North Korean troops disappear in the fog of the Ukraine war?

On 30 January 2025, CNN carried a long, detailed article, accompanied by photographs entitled Suicidal tendencies and ’80s battlefield tactics: How North Korean soldiers are operating in Russia’s war on Ukraine. The article, by a team led by senior journalists Nick Paton Walsh and Rebecca Wright, offered an insight into the brutal and near-suicidal tactics of North Korean soldiers fighting the Ukrainian incursion into the Russian Kursk region.

On the verge of WWIII?

On the verge of WWIII?

‘Joe Biden allows Ukraine to use long-range US-supplied ATACMS missiles on targets in Russia, prompting threat of world war’ – so runs the ABC headline of 18 November. Serious stuff, not to be lightly discounted, and yet perhaps what we are seeing is primarily performative politics, viewed through the smoke of uncertainty and reflected in the distorting mirrors of propaganda. In short, whilst the consequences could not be more dangerous, when we unpack the narrative, it seems that, at the moment at least, the situation is not so critical as it might appear.

A contrived myth? North Korean troops battling the Ukrainians in Kursk

A contrived myth? North Korean troops battling the Ukrainians in Kursk

At the beginning of World War I, when the British Expeditionary Force in France was being battered by the advancing German army there was great anxiety in Britain. Then the Russians magically came to the rescue.

Lowy’s dangerous fantasy of a stable bipolar Asia

Lowy’s dangerous fantasy of a stable bipolar Asia

Lowy’s fudge doesn’t work – Australia has to choose between peace with China or following the US towards war.

Resisting US pressure for NZ to sacrifice itself to defend US hegemony against China

Resisting US pressure for NZ to sacrifice itself to defend US hegemony against China

Twenty years’ ago the then leader of the conservative New Zealand National Party, Don Brash, got into hot water when a Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) official reported that he had assured a visiting delegation from the US Senate that if his party were elected to office NZ’s ‘nuclear-free policy’ would be ‘gone by lunchtime’.

New Zealand nearly sanctions the United Nations

New Zealand nearly sanctions the United Nations

The Bank of New Zealand blocks a donation to UNRWA, then thinks again.

Putin warns the West: Russia is ready for peace in Ukraine

Putin warns the West: Russia is ready for peace in Ukraine

On the eve of the Russian election, Vladimir Putin exudes confidence, discounts nuclear war, but warns West on the dangers of escalation. Meanwhile the mainstream western media obfuscates and misleads as usual.

False flag: Asian NATO under a new guise

False flag: Asian NATO under a new guise

The United Nations Command provides the US with the perfect camouflaged vehicle for a global military alliance against China and North Korea.

The Washington curse

The Washington curse

Americas huge role in international affairs is undisputed but one aspect that tends to get overlooked is the way its support of local actors tends to inflame the situation. Indigenous political forces, be they governments or regimes in power, or movements or individuals seeking power, have their own agendas and motivations. If these objectives are compatible with American strategy a relationship can appear advantageous to both sides. Proxy relationships are not confined to the US of course, but America is by far the largest and most aggressive power in the world who else even contemplates fighting a war on...

The enemy within: Democracy and Boys in the backroom

The enemy within: Democracy and Boys in the backroom

The US national security establishment has long-standing, pervasive and influential linkages with civil and military bureaucracies throughout the world who see their primary role not as serving their own governments but subordinating them to the interests of the United States. There is need for constant vigilance against this enemy within.

Red line: Overshadowed by Gaza, Ukraine drifts beyond proxy war

Red line: Overshadowed by Gaza, Ukraine drifts beyond proxy war

The news that Ukraine has begun to use US-supplied long range ATACMS missiles against Russian forces has been overshadowed by the Palestine-Israel crisis, but it is an escalation that has profoundly dangerous implications.

From one fire into another

From one fire into another

New Zealand academic Robert Patman advocates back peddling on confrontation with China to focus on fighting Russia, but both promise disaster.

Self-destructive stupidity, New Zealand style

Self-destructive stupidity, New Zealand style

Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad What a pity it is that we no longer believe in capricious gods because that would offer a good explanation for the otherwise quite perplexing habit of governments, with intelligent and informed people theoretically at their disposal, to embrace policies which are manifestly an example of self-destructive stupidity. Clever people doing stupid things.

Is there a place for an honest person in the mainstream media?

Is there a place for an honest person in the mainstream media?

It is becoming increasingly unlikely. Julian Assange is in prison; the dissenting voices of Seymour Hersh, John Pilger, Glen Greenwald and Tucker Carlson have been excluded from the mainstream, moving into self-publishing; and Mick Hall has resigned from Radio New Zealand after it tightened control to safeguard the pro-American narrative.

Global NATO  bringing extra danger to our neighbourhood

Global NATO bringing extra danger to our neighbourhood

On the eve of the Vilnius summit Foreign Affairs published an article by long term, and recently reappointed, Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg entitled A Stronger NATO for a More Dangerous World: What the Alliance Must Do in Vilniusand Beyond. Foreign Affairs is the bible of the American foreign policy establishment, being the journal of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), and NATO is a major instrument of US power, so the article is significant. That does not mean it should be taken literally; it is a travesty that distorts and inverts reality in a way that would leave Orwell bemused. Nevertheless...

War propaganda: Western media suspends editor for publishing facts on Ukraine

War propaganda: Western media suspends editor for publishing facts on Ukraine

If truth is the first casualty in war, then truth-seekers are surely next.

Layers of deceit: exposing the hidden histories of our wars

Layers of deceit: exposing the hidden histories of our wars

There are distinct parallels between I F Stones expos of the ongoing Korean War and both the Ukraine War and preparations for a second war with China. Izzy Stone did not travel to war zones like the intrepid Wilfred Burchett, nor had he the whistleblowing sources that Sy Hersh uses. His approach is different and one that that we can all use to some degree. He read the official accounts and the mainstream press closely and carefully, revealing discrepancies and peeling back the layers of deceit.

NZ and China's Defence Dialogue: no news is bad news

NZ and China's Defence Dialogue: no news is bad news

On 10 May New Zealand and Chinese military officials met in Xian, China for their 11th Strategic Defence Dialogue, the first after a Covid gap of three years. The press releases from both sides were brief, anodyne and uninformative.

The Ukraine war - lessons for Australia and the Asia/Pacific

The Ukraine war - lessons for Australia and the Asia/Pacific

We often look to history or contemporary events to help explain issues and to seek guidance. Thus Graham Allison went back millennia to explain Americas current drive to war with China in his Thucydides Trap. Recently Gregory Clark joined others in making the natural comparison between Ukraine and Taiwan. Analogies are admittedly fraught with danger - parallels are never exact, the present never fits easily into the past and superficially similar events may be essentially very different but they can be fruitful.

Taiwan: two journeys, two roads, war or peace?

Taiwan: two journeys, two roads, war or peace?

Despite all the determined, and well-funded, efforts of Greg Sheridan, his mates at ASPI and in the media to beat the war drums and the legal shenanigans around the role of the Governor General in declaring war, it is by no means inevitable that Australia will go to war against China.

Goodbye to Ukraine? US prepares public for defeat

Goodbye to Ukraine? US prepares public for defeat

The New York Times report of 8th March that Intelligence Suggests Pro-Ukrainian Group Sabotaged Pipelines, U.S. Officials Say elicited two sets of responses.

Instrumentalist hypocrisy: concepts of territorial integrity in Ukraine and Taiwan

Instrumentalist hypocrisy: concepts of territorial integrity in Ukraine and Taiwan

The different way in which the concept of territorial integrity is applied by the West in Ukraine and Taiwan sheds light on the instrumentalist hypocrisy at the heart of American foreign policy, and the role of the media in obscuring that hypocrisy.

RAND: Ukraine procrastination unwise for American imperialism - Biden must negotiate

RAND: Ukraine procrastination unwise for American imperialism - Biden must negotiate

The unravelling military situation in Ukraine means that Bidens best option is to negotiate, a new RAND report argues. The sooner the better. There is the awful danger that continued procrastination will propel the hapless Biden administration into precipitating nuclear war.

Pride, power and exorbitant privilege: Theres more to US decline than loss of face

Pride, power and exorbitant privilege: Theres more to US decline than loss of face

It is not just pride which motivates the US elites fear of China and of multipolarity. Their exorbitant privilege rests on power conferred by hegemony. The struggle of Australia, and countries around the world, to reclaim sovereignty in resistance to that power will be difficult because so much hinges on it.

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