Defence and Security
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JOHN MENADUE. Quo vadis – the future of the US-Australian alliance. Part 3.
Summary. Is war in the American DNA? In his book ‘Dangerous allies’, Malcolm Fraser warned us how we can be drawn into US conflicts that are of no immediate concern to us. He warned of ‘dangerous strategic dependence’ on the US. The US has a long history of involvement in wars. In Washingtonblog.com in Continue reading »
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Quo vadis – the future of the US-Australian alliance. Part 2.
Summary. Malcolm Fraser warned us that we no longer have an independent capacity to stay out of America’s wars. Continue reading »
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JOHN MENADUE. Quo vadis – the future of the US-Australian alliance.
Next week I will run a series of short articles entitled ‘Quo vadis – the future of the US-Australian alliance’. In anticipation of that series, I will be posting three articles this week. Part 1, posted today, is by Michael McKinley concerning our reliance on the US relationship. He argues that whilst US military power Continue reading »
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MICHAEL McKINLEY. Quo vadis – the future of the US-Australian alliance. Part 1:
Summary. Donald Trump, Dylan Thomas, and the Australia US Alliance – A great power in decline. Continue reading »
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RICHARD BUTLER. Our white man’s media.
In this blog, I will be posting occasional pieces under the title ‘our white man’s media’ about the inadequate coverage of important issues in world affairs and in particular, in our region. So much of our media coverage reflects the interests and views of the US. Is the Wretched situation in Yemen of no interest Continue reading »
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MARK BEESON. Trump’s America: the irresponsible stakeholder?
Will China fill the void that will be created by Trump? How times change. A decade or so ago, former World Bank president and deputy secretary of state Robert Zoellick suggested to China that it needed to become a “responsible stakeholder”. Even at the time this advice looked slightly condescending and patronising. Now it looks Continue reading »
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MUNGO MacCALLUM. Trump, Turnbull and ANZUS.
So with a single bound across the Pacific, Trumpery has come to Australia – or at least to our elected leaders, which is the troubling bit. Last week Malcolm Turnbull was inveighing against the elites – yes, Malcolm Bligh Turnbull, the multimillionaire lord of Wentworth, Mr Harbourside Mansion himself. His complaint that the “elitist” ABC Continue reading »
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MACK WILLIAMS. Trump : Getting our priorities right
Is China going to fill the void? The media-hyped flurry to try to establish the likely policy guidelines of the Trump administration is timely and natural but should be approached very cautiously. Not only is it virtually impossible at this moment to reach many definitive conclusions it is no less easy to identify the Continue reading »
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RICHARD BUTLER. Attack on Mosul : Australian Involvement?
There does not appear to be a plan for the political disposition of Mosul, if and when the Iraqi/US led coalition frees it from ISIS. The political, economic, and confessional interests at stake have attracted all regional powers. Australia’s reasons for taking part, as the 4th largest contributor to the coalition, need clarification. Almost Continue reading »
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ANDREW FARRAN. Under Trump – A moment of truth may be approaching
Indications are that a Trump Administration will expect America’s allies to pay their way to a greater extent than former President Nixon’s expectations were pursuant to the Guam Doctrine of 1969 mid-point in the Vietnam War. By and large it could be argued that Australia has paid its way – through Vietnam, Afghanistan and Continue reading »
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GEOFF MILLER. Trump, Australia and the South China Sea.
The Trump victory has led to justified concern in Australia, as elsewhere, and few would carp at what seems to have been a successful and cordial talk between him and our Prime Minister. It’s a good thing that Trump thought enough of the relationship to include Australia among the countries to receive an early Continue reading »
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Why Trump should work with China on a massive infrastructure partnership
This is an extract from an interview on CNN on the 10th November 2016 with Kishore Muhbubani, Dean of the Lee Kwan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. Trump will have to make some painful choices, especially in regard to policy in Asia. His instinct will be to take a Continue reading »
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RICHARD BUTLER. President Trump: Foreign Policy and the Alliance
Donald Trump’s victory has shocked America and the world. America is deeply divided. Where he might take US foreign policy is unclear. We need to redefine the Alliance relationship. The competition between Trump and Clinton was widely described as savage, to an unprecedented degree. It was also a competition between two candidates who polling showed Continue reading »
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JOHN MENADUE. Donald Trump- the billionaire outsider!
But is there a possible silver lining? I am surprised and horrified by the election of Donald Trump as the Leader of the ‘Free World’. He is sexist, racist, xenophobic and a Muslim-basher. He doesn’t dog-whistle like our prime ministers, but speaks out bluntly on issues in ways I find offensive. Yet clearly large Continue reading »
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TONY KEVIN. Trumpageddon? Not quite …. not yet.
Trump’s victory speech said all the right things. No talk now of putting Hillary in jail. On the contrary: gracious tribute for her hard-fought campaign. And promises to heal wounds, to be a president for all Americans. And new jobs. And infrastructure. And looking after all citizens, including significantly the veterans (of America’s endless Continue reading »
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CAVAN HOGUE. US election.
It looks like a Trump victory with a Republican Congress, albeit one which contains Republicans who don’t like Trump. But it is far too early to speculate sensibly on what President Trump will actually do. There are more questions than answers. The problem is that we really don’t know what Trump will do and Continue reading »
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MACK WILLIAMS. General Macarthur, the Philippines and Australian troops in WWII.
The very good Boston Globe article reminded me of two other events in Philippines history of WW11 about which so little is known in Australia. They have some relevance to the contemporary scene. For a long time prior to the famous Macarthur landing in Leyte, the Australian Government lobbied Washington right up to the Continue reading »
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TONY KEVIN. Is Hillary the Russia-hater a safer American choice?
The final days of the US presidential campaign – a disgraceful saga at best – have been marked by a frantic race to the bottom by both sides. On the Trump side: an anonymous but skilfully made video is doing the social media rounds, alleging improper links between Hillary Clinton’s long-standing personal assistant and Continue reading »
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Blowback for American sins in the Philippines – The Boston Globe.
In this article in the Boston Globe on October 15, 2016, Stephen Kinzer points out that President Duterte’s grievance ‘is rooted in history’. President Duterte asserted that the US had unjustly seized the Philippines in 1899 and waged a horrific military campaign to suppress native resistance. Stephen Kinzer is a senior fellow at the Watson Continue reading »
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RAMESH THAKUR. The nuclear refuseniks: Australia follows the US again.
In voting against the UN resolution calling for negotiation of a treaty to ban nuclear weapons, Australia, Japan and South Korea are swimming against the global tide of opinion and that of their Asia and Pacific neighbours, argues Ramesh Thakur. Continue reading »
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JOHN TULLOH. U.S. finally starts to ease its Cold War punishment of Cuba
It is astonishing that an impoverished speck on the rump of the most powerful country in the world has managed to intimidate it for more than half a century. Cuba, only 144 kms off the coast of Florida, has had to suffer Uncle Sam’s unforgiving wrath because it became a Communist regime, locked up Continue reading »
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JEFFREY SACHS. The fatal expense of American imperialism.
In this article, Jeffrey D. Sachs says “the United States … is squandering vast sums and undermining national security. … today the United States has similarly over invested in the military and could follow a path to decline if it continues the wars in the Middle East and invites an arms race with China.” See Continue reading »
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MACK WILLIAMS. The real shipping choke point for Australia – Sibutu Channel
Neither the Australian government nor the Australian media have informed us about the critical nature of the Sibutu Channel. As mentioned in this blog some time ago. the active political and media discussion in Australia about the South China Sea has continued to ignore the fact that the most critical choke point for Australia’s huge Continue reading »
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MACK WILLIAMS. President Duterte and high stakes poker.
Following President Duterte’s recent trips to China and Japan he has continued to play his hand in what has become a high stakes poker game with the US and China attracting a growing number of interested onlookers. Despite the twists in his game, which have often been interpreted as wobbles or even backflips by many Continue reading »
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RICHARD WOOLCOTT. The present threat to global security.
In the second decade of this century we are living in a greatly changed world, compared with that to which we accustomed ourselves, following the defeat of Japan and Germany in WWII in the second half of 1945. The international “rules based “situation of the late 40s and early mid 50s was essentially created by the US Continue reading »
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RAMESH THAKUR. Has NATO become a threat to world peace?
NATO is endangering Earth This article was first published in the Japan Times on 8 September 2014. Have NATO leaders created a crisis to justify NATO’s continuation after its original purpose expired? Former Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul says: “Without U.S.-sponsored ‘regime change,’ it is unlikely that … the Malaysian Airlines crash would have happened.” Continue reading »
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DOUGLAS NEWTON. The Slide to World War I. Shades of 1914 today?
Are there shades of 1914 in today’s international collisions? So much is different. Talk of ‘parallels’ is probably overstatement. But there are disturbing continuities. The setting in 1914 In 1914, the ‘Hobbesian’ fatalists who believe that nation states are always natural enemies, and that warfare is more or less inevitable, held sway in many Continue reading »
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RICHARD BUTLER. Putin is different.
A special issue of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, just published, focuses on the deteriorating US-Russia relationship. It poses the question of whether a new Cold War has started and publishes a range of relevant, articles. The article by Fiona Hill, Director of the Center for the United States and Europe at the Continue reading »
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RAMESH THAKUR. The slide to war with Russia.
‘God created war so Americans could learn geography’ (1) On 3 October, taking another step on the road to a new cold war, Russia suspended the 16-year bilateral plutonium disposition agreement with the US. Are the two countries sleepwalking into a war that could cross the nuclear threshold – remembering that those sleepwalking are unaware Continue reading »
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RICHARD BUTLER. Russia and the US Elections
The US elections campaign has set-up a deeply negative framework for the future management of US/Russia relations. If Hillary Clinton is President her past attraction to military solutions to foreign policy problems will need revision, if conflict is to be avoided. Speaking at the Alfred Smith dinner, in New York, on October 20th, Hillary Continue reading »
