World Affairs
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RAMESH THAKUR. All the way with Donald J? No way Jose
Has the quality of Australia’s decision making on issues of life and death for the country and its people – not to mention Planet Earth – truly become reform proof? Going by the lack of any serious process before lining up dutifully behind the most strategically challenged president in American history and the most irresponsible Continue reading »
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RICHARD BUTLER. Turnbull’s Appalling Statement
Australia is not compelled to accompany the US in a war on North Korea, as PM Turnbull has asserted. His recent statement would seem to reflect his need to distract attention from the serious disputes within his government. That it has resulted in his endorsing the possible use of nuclear weapons is a profound moral Continue reading »
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TONY SMITH. After the high hopes of Garma, disappointment sets in.
Last weekend, Indigenous leaders gathered at the Garma festival in north east Arnhem Land. The coverage on NITV showed a distinct slide from initial politeness and hope to disappointment and anger. Continue reading »
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JEAN-PIERRE LEHMANN. The Empires continue to strike back as international order continues to collapse
…as the international order continues to collapse. The best check is a return to a liberal, rules-based, multilateral order. Continue reading »
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JIM COOMBS. “Just good business” or gun-running.
The “Neo-liberal” language speaks of arms sales as just good business, notwithstanding the concomitant death and destruction. Continue reading »
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From the Nuclear Non-proliferation to the UN Prohibition Treaty
There are currently no negotiations or discussions on arms control being conducted at all between any of the countries that possess nuclear weapons (China, France, India, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, UK, USA) Continue reading »
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Australia’s Desperate Refugee Obstinacy
[An article by Roger Cohen reposted from the New York Times] BYRON BAY, Australia — Now we know how desperate Australia is to close the shameful chapter in its history that has seen about 2,000 asylum-seekers and refugees — some now dead, most suffering from depressive disorders — dumped on two remote Pacific islands for Continue reading »
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BOB CARR. The Case for Recognition of Palestine
A speech given by the Honourable Bob Carr at the NSW ALP Conference on 30 July 2017 Continue reading »
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RICHARD BUTLER. The Myths of Australian Foreign Policy. (Reposted from 31 March 2017)
The review of Australian foreign policy needs to be freed from the myths of our dependency and take serious account of the current and likely state of US foreign and military policy. Continue reading »
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LYNDSAY CONNORS. The Coalition applauds most queue jumpers.
The sound of transactional businessmen – Trump and Turnbull-brokering a Faustian bargain was never going to be edifying. The question is how Australians want to deal and to be seen to deal with the world as it is, while working out how we would like it to be. Continue reading »
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RICHARD BUTLER. Trump: A Sideshow? (This is a repost from 27 January 2017)
It is not only Trump that has assumed power in the US but also a set of deeply ideological and introverted Republicans. Both will shape US policy and actions. Australia should now review the conduct of its relationship with the US, and develop an independent foreign policy, freed from the dictates of internal US politics. Continue reading »
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JOHN MENADUE. Australian business in Asia – ‘pale, male and stale’. (Repost from 8 August 2016)
A recent report on ‘Australia’s Diaspora Advantage: Realising the potential for building transnational business networks with Asia’ reveals that social class and racism, either conscious or unconscious, still excludes many Australians of Asian origin from many Australian institutions and particularly business institutions. The bamboo ceiling is still in place. It limits opportunities for people in Continue reading »
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ANDREW FARRAN. Afghanistan in the wake of the Pakistan Prime Minister’s dismissal
President Trump must decide soon whether the US should remain in a holding pattern in Afghanistan. As Trump has little personal skin in the war to this point he may decide that enough is enough leaving everyone to ponder what it was all about. Is the recent dismissal of the Pakistani Prime Minister a further Continue reading »
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ALISON BROINOWSKI. Still losing the last Afghan war.
President Trump’s many current distractions did not prevent him telling his military advisers the simple truth about Afghanistan on 19 July: ‘We aren’t winning. We are losing.’ Continue reading »
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China’s Maritime Provocations Are Nothing Next To America’s Adventurism A Century Ago
The message from the U.S. is that China should be more like us. But Americans should be careful what they wish for. Continue reading »
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How Trump is trashing the US Department of State.
In the New York Times International Edition of 29 July 2017, Roger Cohen writes – Why is Trump hollowing out the State Department? Is it punishment for Hillary Clinton’s department? Or an extreme iteration of the “deconstruction of the administrative state” sought by Trump’s chief strategist, Steve Bannon? Roger Cohen writes… Continue reading »
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It’s high noon on the roof of the world
The territorial standoff in the Himalayas is a lose-lose proposition for both India and China. Continue reading »
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DOUGLAS NEWTON. The Centenary of the Third Battle of Ypres
On 31 July 1917, one hundred years ago, Britain launched the Third Battle of Ypres on the Western Front. It would climax in the Battle of Passchendaele in November. During this centenary, will the Australian people be showered with stories of special valour? Or will there be more clear-eyed commentary? The catastrophe that unfolded in Continue reading »
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JOHN TULLOH. “Hell on earth” lies just across the Indian Ocean
If you travelled from Western Australia north-west across the Indian Ocean, the first country you would encounter has been described as ‘Hell on Earth’. You will find there civil war, famine, drought, refugees, destruction and a blockade for starters. Now it has a cholera epidemic. No wonder it has been called the worst story Continue reading »
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SPENCER ZIFCAK. What’s Wrong with Peter Dutton’s New Super Ministry? The Preparation, the Institution, and the Politician Perhaps?
Peter Dutton is to be given a fiefdom – the new, massive Department of Home Affairs. Peta Credlin responded immediately by saying that the creation of the new department had the ‘stink of a prime minister who’s under pressure and has to be seen as doing something.’ That’s unfair. Continue reading »
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GREG LOCKHART. What were we fighting for at Gallipoli, in Palestine and on the Western Front? (Part 5 of 5)
Part 5: Narrative Overview and Conclusion The emphasis in our military history and remembrance on asking how we fought does not inherently preclude an interest in what we were fighting for. The two narratives could co-exist and interact. But not effectively in our culture – yet. We still lose sight of what our remembrance confirms: Continue reading »
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TED TRAINER. Terrorism and Our Empire: Some Neglected Questions.
There is a very strong tendency to avoid asking some key questions about terrorism, thereby maintaining various myths and delusions that prevent a number of unpleasant realities from being faced up to. Continue reading »
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TIM LINDSEY. Jokowi’s dilemma: turning Islamists into civil rights heroes?
Indonesia’s emergency law, enacted in response to the growing disruptive influence of Islamist hard-liners, could be a blow to the open, liberal democracy that Indonesian reformers have been trying to build ever since the fall of Soeharto in 1998. And it has the ironic result of forcing civil society groups that are usually against the Continue reading »
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GREG LOCKHART. What were we fighting for at Gallipoli, in Palestine and on the Western Front? (Part 4 of 5)
Part 4. A race strategy to save ‘White Australia’ Political manipulation of the society’s racially inflected anxieties was a major factor in the imperial ascendency over national defence policy in the Commonwealth in 1911. The secret implementation of a race strategy then determined our entry into the Great War. This information was not available to Continue reading »
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GREG LOCKHART. What were we fighting for at Gallipoli, in Palestine and on the Western Front? (Part 3 of 5)
Part 3. Empire over nation. In 1914-18, the fight for Empire against Asia minimised independent Australian national interests. Ambiguous, interchangeable use of the terms ‘empire’ and ‘nation’ also protected that ‘imperial’ bias in our political culture. Continue reading »
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LOUIS COOPER. President Trump’s 17-page list of changes to the North American Free Trade agreement [NAFTA] are causing some political problems for Canada’s Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau.
NAFTA came into force on January 1 1994. It replaced the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement. NAFTA’s basic premise was to ignore the international borders and reduce or eliminate tariffs for much of the trade between Canada, the United States and Mexico. For the most part, it has been beneficial to the North American economies Continue reading »
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JAMES O’NEILL. Germany’s Ostpolitik in the Modern Era
Germany recognises that there is a fundamental shift in the economic, political and military balance of power to the east. It is now flexing its political muscle to match its economic might. Continue reading »
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GREG LOCKHART. What were we fighting for at Gallipoli, in Palestine and on the Western Front? (Part 2 of 5)
Part 2. Empire against Asia The ‘imperial’ nature of Australia’s involvement in the Great War was distinctively Australian and, it should be said, a sign of the doubt white settler society had about its survival as a remote outpost of the British Empire in Austral-Asia. Continue reading »
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RICHARD WOOLCOTT. Government policies have made us less safe.
The establishment of an enlarged Department of Home Affairs under the ministerial control of Peter Dutton is an unnecessary mistaken policy. Continue reading »
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What were we fighting for at Gallipoli, in Palestine and on the Western Front? Part 1 of 5-part series.
To find out what we were fighting for in the Great War we must get past the usual fig-leaf explanation, which is as remarkably effective as it is short on cover in Australian culture. Continue reading »