World Affairs
-
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 »
-
MIKE SCRAFTON. Looking down from the Trump/Kim summit: a geopolitical view
Of the risks attendant on the summit between President Trump and Chairman Kim Jung-un, the most grave is that the geopolitical consequences will be ignored. Continue reading »
-
JOAN STAPLES. Foreign interference bills threaten civil society freedoms.
The government’s urgent pursuit of foreign interference bills prior to the July by-elections aims to wedge Labor for short term electoral gain. However as Labor agrees to support the bills, yet more of our political freedoms are being destroyed at great loss to our democracy. Continue reading »
-
ANDREW FARRAN. The fog of the Irish Sea still overhangs Brexit.
The House of Commons vote on 12th June has saved Prime Minister May for another day but has also left open the role Parliament might play in the outcome of the EU negotiations. A (definitive) White Paper on Britain’s negotiating terms can be expected after the European Economic Summit meets later this month. Continue reading »
-
SIMON ROUGHNEEN. How Beijing is winning control of the South China Sea (Nikkei Asian Review 13/6/2018)
Erratic US policy and fraying alliances give China a free hand. Continue reading »
-
AURELIA MULGAN. Deja vu all over again in US–Japan trade.
From the late 1970s until the 1990s, US-Japan trade relations were marred by regular bouts of economic friction. These periods often peaked in tandem with rises in the United States’ trade deficit with Japan and ended in ‘voluntary’ Japanese concessions to US pressure. Continue reading »
-
PAUL KRUGMAN. Debacle in Quebec. (New York Times, June 9,2018)
For all their pomp, most multilateral summit meetings are boring and of little consequence. I once spoke to a State Department official who had a role in putting these meetings together; he described his job as “policing the nuances,” which gives you an idea about how much is normally at stake. Continue reading »
-
DANIEL RUSSEL. A Historic Breakthrough or a Historic Blunder in Singapore?
Kim Jong Un May Have Outwitted Trump at the Summit. Continue reading »
-
PEPE ESCOBAR. The key word in the Trump-Kim show
By reaffirming the Panmunjom Declaration, the US President has committed to bringing its military back from South Korea and thus a complete denuclearization of the South as well as the North. Continue reading »
-
MICHAEL McKINLEY. A possible deep-seated flaw in the ADF’s third inquiry into allegations of misconduct and war crimes.
The allegations against rogue elements within the Special Air Service Regiment are, sadly, almost predictable: other, similar units in the military traditions of both Britain and the United States have succumbed to such behaviour in similar circumstances as those faced in Afghanistan. Indeed, they constitute a virtual template for the decline in discipline which is Continue reading »
-
HANS HENDRISCHKE and WEI LI. Chinese investment in Australia falls as political debate hits confidence
Chinese direct investment in Australia has declined, according to a new report by the University of Sydney and KPMG. In 2017, the value of investment fell by 11% in US dollar terms, from $11.5 billion in 2016 (A$15.4 billion) to $10.3 billion (A$13.3 billion). Continue reading »
-
GARETH HUTCHENS. Australia should not join US in South China Sea operations, says retired defence chief (The Guardian 21/2/2017)
Activities in the South China Sea continue to be in the news. Published below, are comments made in February last year by Sir Angus Houston, who was formerly Australia’s defence chief. John Menadue. Continue reading »
-
CAVAN HOGUE. Digger mates in Singapore?
We have two countries and individuals with a well established record of breaking treaties, agreements and promises who tell us they have established a relationship of trust. How reassuring! At least for the time being they have stopped threatening and that is a good thing but no clear definition emerged of exactly what is meant Continue reading »
-
THE LOCAL. Italy demands apology for France’s ‘hypocritical’ criticism on migrants.
Italy on Wednesday summoned the French ambassador and postponed planned finance talks, in an escalating diplomatic spat with France over the handling of a migrant crisis in the Mediterranean. Continue reading »
-
DENNIS ARGALL. Trump-Kim, Korea, China and the future.
The underpinnings of Australian strategic utterances are slipping away. There will be, it is the way the world is, a flood of “yeah, but…” comment on the Trump-Kim Singapore summit. Not least because the number of experts on Korean affairs has risen multifold in the past several months much as did the number of experts Continue reading »
-
RENE PFISTER. Merkel’s dark view of the world we live in.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is watching with deep concern as the pillars of the postwar international order collapse. But what is she doing about it? Continue reading »
-
MARIAN SAWER. Foreign donations and beyond.
In the furore over Chinese political donations, the broader electoral reform agenda can easily be forgotten. Australia was once a pioneering democracy but it has fallen behind in protecting its reputation for electoral integrity and political equality. Continue reading »
-
PAUL WALDMAN. Trump’s effort to isolate us from the world is going great.
In 2013, before travelling to Moscow for the Miss Universe pageant, Donald Trump asked plaintively on Twitter whether Vladimir Putin would be attending, and “if so, will he become my new best friend?” Putin never showed, and President Trump is apparently still pining for the Russian president’s approval. Meanwhile, there may never have been a Continue reading »
-
YANIS VAROUFAKIS. The Italian crisis was the left’s final warning: it must adopt a new, credible EU policy agenda.
It’s time to explain how the bloc, and the euro, could be run differently, democratically and sustainably. Continue reading »
-
NORMAN BAILEY. The Russian Gordian Knot begins to unravel.
Winston Churchill famously described the Soviet Union as “A riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.” Many commentators and politicians say Vladimir Putin’s Russia is every bit as mysterious and enigmatic as its predecessor. An astonishing recent declaration by the president, however, at the Russian equivalent of the Davos conclave, in St Petersburg, casts Continue reading »
-
STEPHEN F COHEN. The Necessity of a Trump-Putin Summit.
Ten ways the new US-Russian Cold War is increasingly becoming more dangerous than the one we survived. Continue reading »
-
TIM COLEBATCH. Underestimating China.
Let’s clear up any confusion about the size of the Chinese economy. Continue reading »
-
MIKE YEO. France is deploying forces to the Indo-Pacific for more than just a drill.
MELBOURNE, Australia ― France will be deploying a detachment of combat aircraft to the Indo-Pacific region for a major air exercise in Australia and for additional interactions with Asian air forces, as France seeks to increase its presence in the region. Continue reading »
-
MIKE WALLER. Welcome to the Panopticon: time for an Australian bill of rights?
Panopticon: a circular prison with cells arranged around a central well, from which prisoners could at all times be observed (Jeremy Bentham). Mr Turnbull has told Neil Mitchell security and police will be given extra power to conduct random checks at airports. Neil: “That’s a big step”. PM: “It is”. Neil: “Why do we Continue reading »
-
JOHCHKA FISCHER. ‘The U.S. President Is Destroying the American World Order’
In an interview with DER SPIEGEL, former German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer talks about the danger of war against Iran, the deterioration of trans-Atlantic relations under U.S. President Donald Trump and the serious need for Germany to invest massively in the European Union’s future. Continue reading »
-
MICHAEL KEATING. What country seeks to go to war with its banker? (Repost from 30/1/2018)
This article supports Hugh White’s conclusion that the US is unlikely to succeed in fighting China for primacy in Asia. The US has been living beyond its means for a long time, and has depended on foreign finance, and especially Chinese finance, to sustain its living standards. Challenging China would require sacrifices from the American Continue reading »
-
JOHN MENADUE. Joined at the hip to a dangerous ally that is almost always at war. A Repost
We are a nation in denial that we are ‘joined at the hip’ to a dangerous ally. Apart from brief isolationist periods, the US has been almost perpetually at war; wars that we have often foolishly been drawn into. The US has subverted and overthrown numerous governments over two centuries. It has a military and Continue reading »
-
ABBAS NASIR. In Pakistan, the art of undermining democracy. What is Imran Khan about?
The country’s military is disempowering politicians who stray from its positions on security policy and choking the press for reporting about its critics. Continue reading »
-
RAMESH THAKUR. Did John Bolton try to sink the Trump-Kim summit?
Had former U.S. President Barack Obama “done a Trump” with North Korea — agreed to a summit with Kim Jong Un without requiring denuclearization first, secretly sent his secretary of state to Pyongyang, described Kim as “honorable.” canceled joint military exercises with South Korea, been prepared to consider pulling U.S. troops out of Korea — Continue reading »