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Category Archives: World Affairs
Pariah state: ‘Something really ugly’ about Australia’s foreign policy
In summing up the malign influence of the Murdoch media in the UK, Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger commented: “We’ve allowed something really ugly to happen in this country…” The same has to be said about the ugliness of Australian foreign … Continue reading
Spanner in the works: US tinkers with Mid-East foreign policy
The Biden administration has now made three significant moves in the cauldron of conflict that is the Middle East, although a deal with Iran looks set to be a sterner test.
US-India plot wrong course in Indian Ocean
The militarization of the Indian Ocean is in direct violation of United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2832, which designated the Indian Ocean as a “zone of peace” and called on the great powers to halt any further escalation of military … Continue reading
Two decades after 9/11, US war machine is in 85 countries
Since 2018, the US has provided “counterterrorism” training or assistance in 79 nations and its troops have carried out bombing or ground attacks in 10 countries, according to a new interactive map. Meanwhile, China has one official overseas base, in … Continue reading
Japanese Ambassador rapped over the knuckles by Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
But did he get the message?
The humble necktie (or ‘colonial noose’) remains a powerful symbol
It turned into a prickly day in the Beehive in Wellington when Rawiri Waititi walked into Parliament wearing a large greenstone taonga around his neck, rather than a necktie.
Posted in Politics, World Affairs
6 Comments
An unsentimental China policy: The case for putting vital interests first
Fifty years ago come July, US President Richard Nixon announced what would become his signature foreign policy achievement: the opening to China. The following February, in what the press called “the week that shook the world”, he flew to Beijing … Continue reading
Posted in China
22 Comments
Carbon tariffs and taxes should not be an item for the WTO
Carbon border tariffs would tie the World Trade Organisation in knots and detract from its core purposes. Such a tax would also discriminate against the poorest in the world. Without broad consensus they would be illegal.
Posted in World Affairs
3 Comments
Keeping an open mind: rules based order needs to be malleable
As countries like China continue to integrate into the world economy, the liberal “rules-based” order – centred around political governance and the military – needs to remain flexible.
Posted in China, World Affairs
6 Comments
Skilled operators: Europe is back in the Indo Pacific
The US might be coming back to the region, but so too is Europe, a nod to the fact that the central locus of global economic weight and geopolitical activity has moved. However, we need to beware the excessive zeal … Continue reading
Posted in World Affairs
37 Comments
Competition for technological primacy between the great powers will draw in ASEAN
Scott Morrison assumes the ASEAN states will line up with the US and Australia in attempting to blunt China’s growth and influence. Yet China can offer the ASEAN states solutions to their pressing problems of population growth, poverty and urbanisation … Continue reading
Posted in World Affairs
9 Comments
Brexit fallout: How London lost its place as the world’s financial capital
The Amsterdam stock market, which traded the first-ever equity in the Dutch East India company, has regained its position as the top European stock market after more than three centuries of trailing London.
What is the Japanese Embassy in Canberra up to?
Is it trying to stoke anti-China sentiment in Australia?
Posted in China
36 Comments
Indonesia still waiting for legislation to penalise sexual violence
Five years ago a Bill was put before Indonesia’s lower house (Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat) to penalise sexual violence. Activists stressed the need for urgency as the scourge was increasing. They’re still waiting.
Posted in Asia
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Diplomatic finesse in the offing? Possible modifications of Freedom of Navigation Operations under Biden
For years the US has purposely conceptually conflated freedom of navigation for commercial vessels with its claimed freedom for its military assets to threaten and probe weaknesses in its opponents’ defences including those of China.
Posted in World Affairs
1 Comment
Australia should stop blocking international justice in Israel and Palestine
The International Criminal Court last week handed down a historic ruling confirming that the court’s prosecutor has the power to investigate war crimes and crimes against humanity in Palestine.
Posted in Human Rights
37 Comments
People in glass houses should be careful about throwing stones
A group of Australian journalists in their never-ending hostility to China keep throwing stones at China for human rights breaches in Xinjiang, but largely ignore Australian and other breaches. Their ignorance of China explains a lot.
Posted in China, Human Rights, Media
54 Comments
Trump writes the rule book for future demagogues
What a cop out. The respectable Republican operatives who have used Trump’s populist appeal to maintain their position and privileges are more dangerous than the supporters of Trump who stormed the Capitol.
Colonial-type genocide in West Papua: living in constant fear
West Papuans are Indigenous people, easily ignored, their natural resources exploited, their homes and cultures destroyed, hundreds tortured, hundreds of thousands killed. Our media reports endlessly about genocide in remote Xinjiang but not about genocide in neighbouring West Papua. Why?
Posted in Human Rights
24 Comments
Understanding today’s USA
To understand a nation, look at its origins.
Posted in World Affairs
20 Comments
US government changes hands but Assange approach will stay the same
The Australian government’s unwillingness to protect one of its own, coupled with Biden’s contradictory remarks about WikiLeaks, means nothing is likely to stop the wheels of British and American justice grinding towards the predictable result.
Alas America, the outlook is difficult; but should not be aggressive
Ignorance of the world, along with a belief in American exceptionalism, combines with an obsession with a capitalism that is rapidly increasing inequity. That is the USA.
Posted in World Affairs
8 Comments
Morrison can barely hide his disdain for China; Labor fears being wedged
Until there is more positive signalling out of Washington, the Australia–China relationship will remain frozen. Neither Morrison nor Albanese has the grace, courage, or diplomatic skills to challenge the status quo.
Why should Australia be concerned about rising tensions in the Taiwan Strait?
The pivotal reason that peace has endured for 70 years has disappeared. President of the People’s Republic of China Xi Jinping has declared he wants to oversee movement toward unification during his lifetime.
Posted in China
25 Comments
A ‘rules-based order’ is ambiguous for good reason
The Rules-Based Order is a diplomatic tool as it can mean many things to many people. A helpful response to anyone using the term is to ask whose rules, which rules, and why are they using it?
Posted in World Affairs
3 Comments
China does not like the coup in Myanmar
Since the military coup in Myanmar on 1 February 2021, there have been reports and allegations that China approves of or is able to spin the military takeover to its advantage. This is unlikely to be true.
Posted in Asia
5 Comments
Stalemate in Australia-China relations
The People’s Republic of China continues to reject overtures for high-level ministerial dialogue while maintaining that Australia bears the lion’s share of responsibility to create a situation in which the relationship can be improved.
Posted in China
11 Comments
Myanmar: the US howls and seethes from the sidelines but it has no influence
America is calling the military takeover in Myanmar a coup. Not quite. Myanmar’s fragile democracy always existed at the pleasure of the military and the military became displeased when it appeared the people wanted to strengthen democracy.
Posted in Top 5, World Affairs
22 Comments
Covid-19 vaccine caught in the crossfire of EU, UK spat
Scientists and medical professionals are concerned that, in its attempts to justify the slow rollout of vaccines to the 448 million EU citizens, European Commission officials may have diminished faith in the efficacy of the vaccines globally.
Posted in World Affairs
1 Comment
Biden China team puts militarist cart before the diplomatic horse
By doubling down on Trump’s ‘in your face’ pursuit of military domination, the Biden China team seems to be proffering more of the same to the region — instability and a drift toward confrontation and conflict.
Posted in China
8 Comments