Defence and Security
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Australia’s defence strategic review – facts and fallacies
In preparation for the Defence Strategic Review the government has not informed Australians of any threat which challenges our security, much less a spectrum of them up to “most concerning”. Continue reading »
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John Menadue: The Ukrainian / Zelensky propaganda war
Amnesty International has just released a report that drew attention to Ukrainian violations of International Law in its war with Russia. It quickly became a footnote in the propaganda war. Continue reading »
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Diego Garcia: Stealing a nation and how ‘international rules’ don’t apply if it is the US or UK
One of John Pilger’s most remarkable documentaries, bringing a little-known story to a wide audience, is Stealing a Nation, about how British governments ruthlessly expelled the population of the Chagos Islands, a crown colony in the Indian Ocean, in the late 1960s and early 70s to make way for an American military base on Diego Continue reading »
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Ausmin and Aukus: It’s even worse than you think. Australia is now openly a cog in America’s war plans
Nothing exemplifies the loss of national sovereignty, and the abandonment of strategic autonomy, like handing the war decision over to the US. The submarine issue is simply a blind. AUKUS is just a distraction. 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 »
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Andrew Bacevich: American Imperium – Untangling truth and fiction in an age of perpetual US wars (Repost from 1/1/2018)
‘Republicans and Democrats disagree today on many issues, but they are united in their resolve that the United States must remain the world’s greatest military power. In its most benign form, the consensus finds expression in extravagant and unremitting displays of affection for those who wear the uniform. Considerably less benign is a pronounced enthusiasm Continue reading »
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The US lectures us about a ‘rules based international order’ but ignores rules when it suits – think Diego Garcia
China is rightly criticised for building islands for military purposes in the South China Sea while ignoring an advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) brought by the Philippines. But what of the huge US base in Diego Garcia? Continue reading »
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Our dangerous ally could drag us into war with China.
The most likely way we could get into a war with China is if we continue to act as a proxy or deputy sheriff for the US in the region. Nancy Pelosi is doing her best to provoke China. Continue reading »
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Could a second Trump Presidency leave Australia stranded?
Peter Hartcher’s recent piece on the ramifications of another Trump presidency undermines his usual argument that Australia must join America in confronting China and prepare for war with it. Continue reading »
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Nuclear submarines – disaster impending
Australia’s decision to acquire nuclear-propelled submarines will be staggeringly expensive and is unfit for the purpose of defending the country. It is prone to reinforce Chinese suspicions that we are determined on joining the United States in ‘containing’ it. Continue reading »
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A Significant People’s Forum on Peace, not just in Ukraine
Citizens in Australia speak of peace and show how to reach that goal. They do not trust politicians stifled into thinking that security means militarism, or think tanks funded to promote the idea that national defence and arms industry interests are the same. Continue reading »
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Ending the Ukraine and other wars: putting victims at the centre
A common response from Western nations to the Ukraine war is one of “support for Ukraine” or “standing with Ukraine” as it suffers ongoing attack from Russia. Continue reading »
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Deceiving cabinet colleagues on submarines? Surely not
Which Australian Defence Minister convinced the Hawke Cabinet to create a submarine production industry at Port Adelaide with no commercial prospects, its product being of only marginal benefit to our defence, with zero local construction expertise, at extraordinary cost to taxpayers yet available economically elsewhere – while obscuring the finding by his Department that submarines Continue reading »
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A reckless and provocative visit by Pelosi to Taiwan
When the United States has a divided foreign policy on an issue of such grave importance, the world begins a slide onto very thin ice. Continue reading »
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International law and rules-based order are different in important ways for Australia
Australian politicians appear purposefully blind to domestic developments in America; and especially poorly briefed on the subterranean scholarly debates that suddenly emerge as new policy directions. For instance, understanding the intellectual battle over international law that has been taking place in professional journals and academic monographs is of vital importance to Australia’s public diplomacy and Continue reading »
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John Quelch: When will Australia break the habit of sucking its thumb whilst clutching the imperial coat tail?
We need to develop the habit of thinking independently in our own national interests. Continue reading »
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Customary barbarity: Britain’s SAS in Afghanistan
The insistence that there is a noble way of fighting war, one less bloody and brutal, has always been the hallmark of forces self-described as civilised. Restraint characterises their behaviour; codes of laws follow in their wake, rather than genocidal impulses. Killing, in short, is a highly regulated, disciplined affair. Continue reading »
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Richard Falk: When the centre does not hold in America
I find the prospect of civil wars less disheartening than the related drift toward fascism or the torments of anarchy. Continue reading »
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Our Defence Minister spurns realism, imperilling Australia
Behind the militarese the professionals know this means that Australia will cough up as much money and forces as necessary to fight China in a high-intensity war on China’s doorstep. Continue reading »
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Fighting to the last Ukrainian
Ukraine is a pawn in the US struggle against Russia Continue reading »
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Australia should show leadership in nuclear disarmament – a resolution in the UN General Assembly on the use of tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine would help
Australia needs to show leadership in the area of nuclear disarmament, and of more immediate importance, (like, ‘….could happen next week’), of nuclear risk reduction. Continue reading »
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NATO has an overriding institutional commitment to its permanent existence, if not expansion
This is a comprehensive, sobering review by Jonathan Cook who concludes that Washington’s greatest fear is that, as its economic muscle atrophies, Europe’s vital trading links with China and Russia will see its economic interests – and eventually its ideological loyalties – shift eastwards, rather than stay firmly in the western camp. Continue reading »
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Anthony Albanese must get real about China
Penny Wong is professional and diligent, but Prime Minister Anthony Albanese needs to change his advisers on China. Continue reading »
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Mr Marles tugs the forelock in Washington
New Defence Ministers ritually wend their way to Washington to offer up jaded homilies. Full of hagiographic accounts of ANZUS and strained assertions of shared values, they often also display a submission to America’s strategic objectives. The new Minister’s visit, however, foreshadows a dangerous abandonment of fundamental elements of national sovereignty by the Labor government. Continue reading »
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NATO hasn’t got our back as some think
Anthony Albanese demonstrated that in some respects he remains a prisoner of his predecessor’s national security policies. Amid the glamour of Europe, he revealed once more that Canberra’s security agencies still control how Australia projects itself to the wider world. Continue reading »
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American authoritarianism and ANZUS
Australia’s major ally, the United States, may soon cease to be a democracy. The Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade – a decision opposed by a majority of Americans – is just the latest example of a country hurtling towards minority rule. Today, it is abortion rights on the judicial chopping block. Tomorrow, Continue reading »
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The journey from nuclear non-proliferation to prohibition and disarmament: roadmaps, roadblocks and speedbumps
This is the text of the address delivered by Ramesh Thakur at the launch of The Nuclear Ban Treaty: A Transformational Reframing of the Global Nuclear Order (Routledge, 2022) at the Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation on Friday, 24 June 2022. Continue reading »
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What is Anthony Albanese up to!
Anthony Albanese has shown during his recent trip to Europe that he is a prime minister addicted to hyperbole and oblivious to how countries can change in unexpected ways. Continue reading »
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Is Australia in the firing line of a new Chinese campaign against the US?
How can Australia navigate the tough and dangerous strategic environment in Asia today with America and China competing to be the leading regional power? The consensus in Canberra – on both sides of politics – is that we should stick as close as we can to America, in the hope it will win the contest. Continue reading »
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It’s time – for a top-down review of defence
Labor has a big reputation to protect on defence reform. At historic turning points in Australia’s security it was mostly Labor governments which turned up and delivered. Continue reading »
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