World Affairs
-
TOM FAWTHROP. Vietnam Mass Protests Expose Hanoi’s China Dilemma
The huge nationwide protests that rocked Vietnam last week have highlighted Hanoi’s headaches in dealing with China, both as a hostile power in the South China Sea and as a key trading partner and economic investor. Continue reading »
-
RICHARD BUTLER. Trump Banishes Compassion: “zero tolerance”
The events at the US/Mexican border of the last days have been marked by: a quintessential Trumpian mix of lies, obfuscation, an Administration in disarray and, above all, cruelty, with children and infants as its victim. There has been a ruthless manipulation of xenophobia and racism for domestic political purposes. A most fundamental ethical value: Continue reading »
-
LAURIE PATTON. The NBN won’t be finished on time. Simple as that!
In my opinion, the NBN will not be a completed project until everyone has access to fast, reliable broadband. On that basis, the rollout will take us well beyond the currently projected deadline of 2020. What’s worse, it will end up having cost more than the original 2009 version and far more than then communications Continue reading »
-
ROBERT KAGAN. Trump’s America does not care.
Since the end of the Cold War, it has widely been assumed that U.S. foreign policy would follow one of two courses: Either the United States would continue as primary defender of the international order it created after World War II, or it would pull back from overseas commitments, shed global responsibilities, turn inward and Continue reading »
-
Vietnam: Investigate Police Response to Mass Protests.
Hundreds Detained in Sweeping Crackdown Continue reading »
-
GARETH EVANS. How we should manage Donald Trump’s meltdown world (AFR 20/6/2018)
The assumptions that have sustained and underpinned Australian security and economic policy for decades are in meltdown. The post-Second World War global order – an open, rules-based system underpinned by a robust network of security alliances, and by effective multilateral institutions in which rules could be agreed and norms reinforced – is the only one Continue reading »
-
JOHN TULLOH. Turkey – Erdogan faces his toughest test.
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan would have been pleased when a recent edition of Time had him on the cover as one of the ‘Strongmen Era’. The Turkish president is indeed and he hopes the election this weekend will make him even stronger – a kind of 21st century sultan in the style of the Ottoman rulers Continue reading »
-
PETER RODGERS. Israel-Palestine – Vale the two-state solution; where to now?
With the two-state solution in the morgue, governments around the globe will need to consider anew the unpalatable realities of this long-running conflict. Continue reading »
-
FERGUS PEACE. Australia’s pitiless migrant policy is no model for Europe.
Italy’s refusal to let a migrant rescue ship dock feels alarmingly familiar to many. Continue reading »
-
RICHARD BROINOWSKI. North Korea and the Trump Bashers
President Trump declared at his post-Summit press conference in Singapore on 12 June that US-ROK war games were expensive and provocative and he would abolish them, starting with ‘Ulchi Freedom Guardian’ next August. His decision has drawn some surprising reactions. Continue reading »
-
RICHARD GLOVER. Move over, Emmanuel Macron. Australia has the true Trump whisperer. (Washington Post 19/6/2018)
Australia is the last U.S. ally standing. We’ve escaped America’s new tariffs, our leader has yet to be labeled weak or a liar, and the United States has even agreed to accept some of Australia’s unwanted refugees. President Trump called that refugee arrangement “the worst deal ever,” but he has allowed it to be implemented. Continue reading »
-
DER SPIEGEL Italy Sends a Jolt Through Europe.
Euro-skeptic Italian populists are posing a serious threat to the European Union. Following the drama over Greece and Brexit, the political situation in Rome could throw Europe into its next major existential crisis. Continue reading »
-
LEE JEON-HO. China adds to nuclear arsenal amid military modernisation drive
China now has 280 warheads, according to think tank, which calls nuclear states’ renewed focus on deterrence and capacity ‘a very worrying trend’ Continue reading »
-
GEOFF RABY. How Kim Jong-un can bring his economy in from the cold.
In the early spring of 1990, Pyongyang was more prosperous than many foreign analysts, who had never been there, had thought. The CIA, for decades, had believed the country was on its knees, on the verge of economic collapse, although the Agency had not had any first-hand contact there. Continue reading »
-
ATUL ANEJA. India rebalancing ties with Pakistan to open path to Eurasia
In a significant gesture, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Pakistani President Mamnoon Hussain shook hands and exchanged pleasantries after a press conference by the leaders of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) here on Sunday. Continue reading »
-
MIKE SCRAFTON: NATO 2018 and Communique Dread
Dread and angst must be haunting the corridors of Europe’s foreign and defence ministries. The NATO Heads of State and Government will meet over 11 to 12 July 2018 in Brussels and the question of the communique will already be weighing heavy on ministers, advisers and officials. NATO is a consensus decision-making body but the Continue reading »
-
German chancellor’s tense standoff with hardline interior minister “endangers existence of gvernment as substantially as the stability of the country”
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is facing strong pressure to tighten her country’s refugee policies to avoid the collapse of her coalition government as the heated row over the handling of migration intensifies. Continue reading »
-
KEN MOAK. US-led naval operation will not change China’s posture.
At the 2018 Shangri-La Dialogue, the defense ministers of France and the UK announced that their governments will send warships to join those of the US in challenging China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea (Naval Today, April 6). However, they did not specify how many ships the two European powers will commit to Continue reading »
-
RICHARD BUTLER. Singapore: Sound and Lights
Trump told us that, in Singapore, he would make it up as he went along. It appears that he kept his word on that. Afterwards he told the world that if it all tanks, he will “make up an excuse for it”. His central motive for the Summit was domestic distraction and, the usual addiction Continue reading »
-
MUNGO MacCALLUM. America’s frightened allies.
Donald Trump has spent the last three years scaring the crap out of his allies, but suddenly it has become serious. His predilection for ruthless dictators, traditionally anathema to America and its allies, has now got to the point where those same allies are disposable. Continue reading »
-
GEOFF MILLER. Trump-Kim Summit: What happens after a “day from a science fiction movie”?
Kim Jong Un was reported to have said that his meeting with Trump was like scenes from a science fiction movie. At times the TV coverage—all those banners—did seem rather like that, but what happens next? I think that at least the medium-term outcome could be much more like the Chinese and Russian prescription of Continue reading »
-
ANDREW LEIGH. Rising to the challenge of inequality.
Thomas Piketty and his colleagues have used new data to track inequality and sharpen the choices we face. Continue reading »
-
North Korea: Beyond Charismatic Politics, an Interview with Byung-Ho Chung
The following is an interview of Byung-Ho Chung Professor at Hanyang University and President of the Korean Society for Cultural Anthropology, conducted by AAA Executive Director Ed Liebow. Continue reading »
-
MICHAEL KELLY SJ. Bangladesh wake-up call on sexual abuse for Asia’s bishops.
The case of Father Walter Rozario bears all the hallmarks of denial, cover-up and silencing victims seen in the West. Continue reading »
-
MACK WILLIAMS. North Korea – managing Donald !
Amid the avalanche of reporting and commentary of the Singapore Summit one needs to step back to assess just how the Trump’s much vaunted (by him) negotiating style so far has played out . This is not just an academic exercise. It is vital for countries like Australia whose future has become so entwined within Continue reading »
-
RAMESH THAKUR. The Kim–Trump Summit: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Australian Outlook. 15/6/2018)
Despite praise for Tuesday’s “unprecedented” meeting, there were good reasons why previous US administrations had refused multiple requests from North Korean leaders to meet. The results of the Kim–Trump summit so far can be divided into the good, the bad and the ugly. The words ‘historic’ and ‘unprecedented’ to describe the meeting between President Donald Continue reading »
-
ANDREW JAKUBOWICZ. A peace treaty to end the low-intensity guerilla campaign against the indigenous population.
Australia is a nation and a state established on grounds belonging to Indigenous owners, through a war which has never ended. Continue reading »
-
ANDREW HAMILTON. Triggs champions common compassion (Eureka Street 12/6/2018)
Common compassion is an aspiration more widely praised as a gift of Western Civilisation than accepted and practiced. But once government trash it with impunity we are all the losers. Continue reading »
-
ELAINE PEARSON. Australia’s Government must guard against foreign interference, but not by curbing our rights.
Authoritarian governments around the world use broadly drafted national security laws to silence human rights defenders, journalists, bloggers, and critics of the government. Australia should not join them by passing a revised espionage and foreign interference law that excludes safeguards for legitimate disclosures in the public interest. Continue reading »
-
KARL HOWARD. The importance of community .
Communities are a fundamental requirement for the human condition; they consist of a group of people with shared interests, similar attitudes – often with aligned social values -resulting in delegated responsibilities. A community is a product of independent actors joining together, operating in a specific habitat, whether a neighbourhood, a gym, a workplace, or a Continue reading »