World Affairs
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The Honest History Book (UNSW Press 2017)
This is a book of singular importance. It provides the evidence and materials for the correction of the distortion of Australia’s history resulting from Anzackery and the continuing insistence that our national character was forged in and remains defined by our participation in foreign wars. Continue reading »
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LOUIS COOPER. Trump and Trudeau – Trouble at the border
The political, economic and social connections between Canada and the United States of America are being kicked and stomped on. Continue reading »
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Is the sun setting on the US imperium?
China is on the march to a dominant military footprint while American policy lacks strategic intent. Continue reading »
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NICK DEANE. Keep Australia out of US wars
In the event of war between the USA and any other nation in our region, Australia could not avoid involvement, because of its alliance with the USA. That is the reality we need to address. To avoid the possibility of war, an independent foreign policy for Australia is urgently required. Mr Trump’s presidency only adds Continue reading »
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MACK WILLIAMS. Trump’s ‘smart cookies’
President Trump’s characterisation of Kim Jong-un as a “smart cookie” illustrates the learning process he is undergoing about how to operate in Asia and who might be contributing to it. Learning how to manage President Duterte may be another challenge. Continue reading »
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RICHARD BUTLER. Afghanistan: Early Warning.
The US is planning to increase its forces in Afghanistan. It is bound to ask us to do the same. In the light of his performance in New York, our Prime Minister seems certain to accede, and do so without prior public or parliamentary discussion. Continue reading »
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Appeasement and learning the right lessons of history
The lesson of Munich for major powers Britain and France was that you do not buy peace with fellow major powers tomorrow by giving in to their demands today. But for smaller powers, the lesson was that faced with the prospect of war with a major power, your allies and guarantors will rather sell you Continue reading »
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ELAINE PEARSON. Australia Should Suspend Military Sales to Saudi Arabia
The Australian government should immediately halt military sales to Saudi Arabia following numerous unlawful Saudi-led coalition airstrikes in Yemen, Human Rights Watch said today in a letter to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. Australia should also release details about military weapons and material it has sold to other members of the Saudi-led coalition carrying out the Yemen campaign and whether any Australian-made arms Continue reading »
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MARK BEESON. ANZUS: Too obliging for our own good?
Malcolm Turnbull is dropping everything and travelling to America to meet a man that only recently subjected him to a very public humiliation. Although members of the Trump administration have tried to make amends for this initial snub to a supposedly valued ally, one might have thought the damage had been done. Continue reading »
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RICHARD BUTLER. Malcolm’s Anzac Day Gift. Australian troops will be in the Middle East for the ‘long term’.
The Prime Minister’s statement that Australian military forces will need to remain in Afghanistan and the “Middle East” indefinitely must be clarified as must be the powers under which such decisions are legitimately made. Continue reading »
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JOHN TULLOH. Trump’s first 100 days – so what?
The media have been besides themselves in anticipation of Donald Trump’s first 100 days in the White House this weekend. It’s as if this is some magic marker by which to judge his next 1359 days in the Oval Office. It is meaningless. Continue reading »
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GREGORY CLARK. Pingpong diplomacy and Whitlam’s first visit to China.
April 2017 is the 46 anniversary of the pingpong diplomacy – an event that changed the future of China. It also changed the direction of Australian politics, leading to the ALP Federal election victory in November 1972. But as I explain in the link to this posting, the change in Canberra could well have not Continue reading »
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ALISON BROINOWSKI. What Australian Foreign Policy?
Insider, analyst and adviser Allan Gyngell finds that Australian defence and foreign policy are more bipartisan than ever. But even as Australia’s national security agenda metastesizes, we have more to fear from an unreliable ally and an increasingly lawless world. Continue reading »
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JOHN MENADUE. It is becoming much easier to go to war.
We used to think that the gravest decision any government could make was to take its country to war. Not any more. Going to war for us has now become almost common place. We commit to war after war – Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan – but we are unwilling to contemplate the disaster which each Continue reading »
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The Anzac Myth
Conservatives and militarists want us to cling to a disastrous imperial war. They encourage us to focus on how our soldiers fought in order to avoid the central issue of why we fought. Continue reading »
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RAMESH THAKUR. Between tragedy and farce in the Korean peninsula
The world’s options on North Korea can be summarised as bad (strategic patience), worse (growing strategic impatience), and worst (military strikes). Continue reading »
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JAMES O’NEILL. Just Who Does Pose the Greater Threat in Korea?
The election of Donald Trump as US President has seen the ramping up of US rhetoric about North Korea. Trump recently demanded that China should use its influence with the North Koreans and if China did not intervene, then, according to an interview Trump gave to the UK Financial Times, the “US would act alone.” Continue reading »
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MACK WILLIAMS. Korean Peninsula – just where are we right now?
So much is going on in the different channels between the US and China, China and the DPRK and by now maybe US and DPRK that reading the tea leaves is an almost impossible – if not frantic – task. The situation remains extremely high risk and crystal ball gazing is near to fantasy. Continue reading »
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QUENTIN DEMPSTER. With talk of war, what should Australia do?
As the United States Trump administration now confronts North Korea, there is talk of war. Also confronted, but more indirectly, is China itself with President Donald Trump’s declaration that the US would go it alone to disarm North Korea if China and President Xi Jinping did not help in that objective. Continue reading »
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RICHARD BROINOWSKI. Still demonizing North Korea
Following recent North Korean missile tests and American declarations that they have run out of ‘strategic patience’, the Western media and the governments they serve, are busily repeating time-honoured myths about North Korea. Continue reading »
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DUNCAN MacLAREN. UK General Election: clever cunning or miscalculated folly?
Theresa May’s snap general election decision can be seen as hypocritical in that she ruled this out consistently (and as recently as 20th March) until, the Anglican vicar’s daughter hinted, God told her while hiking in Welsh Snowdonia over Easter to go for it since there was ‘no unity’ in the Westminster Parliament to allow Continue reading »
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TIM LINDSEY. Jakarta elections a very bad look for Indonesia
The decisive defeat of Basuki Tjahaja Purnama (known as ‘Ahok’) in Jakarta’s litmus-test gubernatorial election is a triumph for hardline Islamist mob agitators. It comes after years of pressure from the Muslim right and may flag a shift in Indonesian politics that will not help Indonesia’s fraying reputation for religious pluralism and tolerance. Continue reading »
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RICHARD BUTLER. DPRK: The “New Cuban missile crisis”?
The DPRK nuclear weapons programme does not constitute a new Cuban missile crisis. Any military attack upon DPRK would be disastrous. A new political negotiation must be constructed. This is not a problem to be solved by the US alone. Continue reading »
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Our misguided wars of choice.
In this article in the Boston Globe of April 16, JEFFREY D SACHS speaks of the risks that the US and the world are running. He speaks of the US ‘wanton addiction to war’. John Menadue. “There is one foreign policy goal that matters above all the others and that is to keep the United Continue reading »
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MUNGO McCALLUM. Turnbull’s Passage to India.
He may not have landed any concrete results, but he continues to give the myths and legends a good workout. Continue reading »
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JAMES O’NEILL. Scientific evidence exposes the falsity of US government claims about Syrian gas attack.
The irresistible conclusion is that those same senior politicians know that the White House claims are false and misleading and therefore highly dangerous to Australia’s national security. That they should maintain their silence on this while continuing to perpetuate a barrage of lies and half-truths about the ongoing Syrian tragedy raises serious questions about their Continue reading »
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RAMESH THAKUR. Donald Trump is more believable and moral than Putin – Seriously?
Instead of cheering US resort to increasingly robust use of military firepower as the first response to international crises, Western leaders should be ring-fencing Trump’s instinct to reckless behaviour in order to avoid a catastrophe. Continue reading »
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Trump is Ignorant of History and So is His Chump Sean Spicer
This article by Middle East expert, ROBERT FISK, was first published in The Independent on 12 April 2017. Fisk comments ‘Gas, cruise missiles, barrel bombs, Hitler and the American media. Mix them all up and I suppose you get Trump’s new policy in the Middle East.’ Continue reading »
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RICHARD BUTLER. US Missile Attack on Syria
The US missile strike on Syria was an act of aggression the consequences of which could be immense. The facts of what happened at Khan Sheikhun must be established. Continue reading »
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JOHN TULLOH. Turkey – Erdogan’s day of judgment.
Turkey’s voters face a momentous choice: whether they want their president to have the dictatorial power of a potential tyrant or one whose authority remains curbed by parliamentary government. Continue reading »