Defence and Security
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America, We are out of your China fight
Australia must leave the China debacle, constructively. In withdrawing from America’s aggression against China, we should offer our diplomacy as a patient bridge between China and the US. That will take time. America will become even more extreme before it considers peaceful coexistence with China. Meanwhile our action will be a moderating influence, as we Continue reading »
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Australia defies UN in defence trade with Israel
Australia is continuing to expand its relationships with Israel’s defence sector, defying the UN’s International Court of Justice. Continue reading »
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AUKUS, the China threat and Chinese-Australian communities
The recent election of Donald Trump to the US presidency has cast further doubt on the feasibility of the AUKUS trilateral security partnership, particularly Australia’s acquisition of nuclear submarines under Pillar I. Yet the AUKUS trilateral security partnership has become a fait accompli without the Australian public having expressed much in the way of opposition, or even a Continue reading »
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Is AUKUS safe under Trump?
Former Labor Foreign Minister Bob Carr joins Steve Cannane to discuss: is the country’s key strategic military agreement with the US under threat from a Trump presidency? Continue reading »
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A five-minute scroll
British surgeon Nizam Mamode describes how Israel’s quadcopters target children and Norwegian physician, Dr. Mads Gilbert speaks out on 400 days of genocide. Israel, meanwhile, has passed laws allowing children under under the age of 14 to be jailed. Sarah Schwartz of the Jewish Council of Australia speaks out on the false reporting of weekend Continue reading »
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With Trump victory, is it time to shut Pine Gap?
It’s a time of major events: Donald Trump has again been elected President of the USA and its biggest foreign spy base Pine Gap features in the movie Twilight Time to be screened in Alice Springs on Saturday. Continue reading »
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Does Australia really want to be the “tip of the spear”, projecting Western power?
AUKUS, increasingly seen as a dud deal, though an expensive one, with a $368 billion price tag, stands as the clearest example of the cognitive dissonance besetting the Australian body politic. Continue reading »
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Trump victory makes AUKUS a further danger to Australia
Grassroots anti-AUKUS campaign, Labor Against War, has called on the federal Labor government to withdraw Australia from the AUKUS military pact. Continue reading »
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South Korean support for own nuclear arsenal grows as confidence in U.S. wanes
Public distrust in the reliability of the U.S. nuclear umbrella has sharply increased, with a majority of South Koreans now supporting the development of their own nuclear weapons, a recent survey shows. Continue reading »
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The doomed conceit of a political AUKUS
Three years on, there is still no compelling argument, strategic or otherwise, for Australia’s acquiring eight Virginia-class nuclear-propelled submarines (SSNs). Nor is there any compelling calculation of the large lick of funding – $368bn and more – that the program will soak up. Only Defence seems able to command such stupendous outlays when childcare, aged Continue reading »
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Australia neither moral nor powerful
Australia is no longer a middle, nor moral, power although its political leaders think Australia is both. When did Australia lose its morality, and along with that loss, its status as a respected middle power? Continue reading »
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Who really owns the South China Sea?
We are told the AUKUS ‘security partnership’ requires Australia additionally to acquire a fleet of nuclear -powered submarines (SSNs) to accompany AUKUSThey will operate mainly in the South China Sea, allegedly to deter China’s expansionist goals Continue reading »
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“Reveal government secrets on AUKUS and Gaza war”
Grassroots anti-AUKUS campaign, Labor Against War, has called on the federal Labor government to reveal the secret political undertakings it has said it has made to the US government as a condition for the continued pursuit of nuclear-powered submarines. Continue reading »
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Australia’s evolving nuclear posture: avoiding a fait accompli (Part 2 of 2)
The significance of US strategic bomber deployments:Defence Minister Richard Marles played down revelations in late 2022 that up to six US B-52 strategic bombers are to be forward-deployed to Tindal Air Force Base, telling reporters at the time that ‘everyone needs to take a deep breath here.’ Marles implied that there was nothing new about Continue reading »
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Australia’s evolving nuclear posture: avoiding a fait accompli (Part 1 of 2)
A monumental transformation: There has been a great deal of public criticism of Australia’s decision to acquire a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines (SSNs) via the AUKUS security partnership. The criticism has been both broad and deep, spanning political and industrial challenges, budgetary consequences, safety and environmental concerns, strategic risks, and the erosion of national sovereignty. Continue reading »
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The unsustainable costs of war
In a world of simultaneous military and environmental crises our capacity to finance both has become unsustainable. Globally, military expenditure over the past decade has been rising at double that of GDP reaching an all-time high of $2.4 trillion in 2023. Continue reading »
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We can resist the US military empire that threatens us all
Australia has always been aligned with military empires: first the British Empire and now that of the USA. In the current era this alignment is misguided. Continue reading »
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Chagossians ‘deplore’ deal allowing US-UK to keep Diego Garcia Air Base
“We remain powerless and voiceless in determining our own future and the future of our homeland,” one diaspora Chagossian said in response to the agreement. Continue reading »
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The wrong trousers: focusing on the real AUKUS issue
The AUKUS agreement is controversial. It covers advanced military technologies whose future is contested by experts. There is also a vigorous discussion over whether the agreement has compromised Australia’s autonomy on strategic policy making and implementation. Yet this latter debate completely misses why AUKUS is at risk of failure. Continue reading »
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How civilisation could end – an all-too-possible nuclear scenario
On 12 September, Vladimir Putin threatened retaliation, not excluding nuclear, against NATO countries if Washington allows Ukraine to attack targets inside Russia with US missiles. President Joe Biden backed off – for the moment. But the doomsday clock of the Atomic Scientists now stands at 90 seconds to midnight, the closest it has ever been Continue reading »
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Suppose Australia was more independent and less dumb
Look at how favourably situated Australia is in the world. As the foundations were put in place for the Asian Century, most profoundly by China, Australia was in the right place at the right time and it benefitted inordinately. Looking forward, as the rise of China continues and a range of Asian countries, including India, Continue reading »
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US makes WA vital for fighting its wars and a target for its enemies
Successive Australian governments have allowed the United States to carry out a program of militarisation in Western Australia which has made it a vital U.S war-fighting base and thus an inevitable target for retaliatory strikes should hostilities commence, for example between the U.S and China. Continue reading »
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Marles, with all pretension, flogging a dead seahorse
Richard Marles and his mate, the US defence secretary, are beginning to wilt under the weight of sustained comment in Australia critical of the AUKUS arrangement. Continue reading »
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Defending nation’s sovereignty is not the act of an ‘appeaser’
Could the Alexander Downer who accuses me and Paul Keating of appeasement possibly be the same Alexander Downer who recently wrote in The Australian that if he had a vote in the US Presidential election it would be for Donald Trump? The same Donald Trump whose willingness to accommodate Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine makes Continue reading »
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Whither Australia’s war against China ?
Those espousing our embrace of America’s war against China start with the assertion that it is China’s aggression and aim for regional hegemony which must be resisted. No doubt China sees that in reverse – America as an overbearing, deeply hostile power perched on the edge of Asia pursuing hegemony at each end of the Continue reading »
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Will the QUAD go the same way as SEATO – another lame duck?
Almost the first thing Anthony Albanese did after becoming PM was to jump on a plane for a QUAD meeting in Tokyo. He was accompanied by Andrew Shearer, the head of the Office of National Intelligence. Ever since, Albanese has been in the grip of our intelligence services which have been effectively colonised by the Continue reading »
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Secrecy Australia: big gap between official information and reality: Peter Cronau, Declassified Australia
Australia is blanketed in a climate of secrecy with over 800 secrecy offences criminalised with jail terms and large fines under nearly 200 pieces of legislation. Continue reading »
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AUKUS and Australia, Asia, and the Anglosphere
Building the AUKUS nuclear-powered submarine is an Anglosphere quest for a military capability to serve Australia’s life in the Indo-Pacific. As an Anglosphere answer to an Asian future, AUKUS asks questions about Australian identity as well as strategic ambition. Continue reading »
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The AUKUS project is being submerged in twaddle
Cameron Stewart recently attempted to vaunt the virtues, so to speak, of the AUKUS nuclear submarines via an article in The Australian newspaper. In part, it’s threaded together with tufts of intellectual fluff from Kim Beazley, his one-time offsider, Paul Dibb, Peter Dean from the United States Study Centre in Sydney, Mike Pezzullo formerly of Continue reading »
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Melbourne weapons expo protests
I’m guessing that anyone who reads Pearls and Irritations knows that Land Forces, Australia’s largest weapons expo, was held in Melbourne from 11 to 13 September in the face of strong opposition. Given the blanket coverage, it’s likely the great majority of those in the city also knew this was happening, as well as a Continue reading »