World Affairs
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MERVYN KING. Which Europe Now?
In this article ‘Which Europe now?’ in the New York Review of Books, Mervyn King says Our political class would do well to recall the words of Confucius: Three things are necessary for government: weapons, food and trust. If a ruler cannot hold on to all three, he should give up weapons first and Continue reading »
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WALTER HAMILTON. Japan’s Diminishing Returns.
Japan, in my nearly forty years of observing and reporting on that country, has never been so delicately and dangerously poised. Australians, who have long relied on it as an economic powerhouse and ‘common interest’ partner, need to be paying close attention. Continue reading »
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FRANK BRENNAN SJ. Refugees – John Howard could do it. Why not Malcolm Turnbull?
My quandary remains: if John Howard was able to keep the boats stopped while closing Nauru and Manus Island, why can’t Malcolm Turnbull? If John Howard was able to accept New Zealand’s offer to resettle some of the caseload why can’t Malcolm Turnbull? I just don’t buy the line that the people smugglers have Continue reading »
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CAMERON DOUGLAS. The military coup and the Constitution in Thailand.
Thais will vote in a referendum on Sunday (August 7) to approve, or reject, a new constitution. This will be the post-coup government’s second attempt to implement a new national charter. The constitution would usher in a form of parliamentary government but the military would retain the power of veto: the system could not Continue reading »
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WALTER HAMILTON. Tokyo’s First Female Governor, and the disturbing state of Japanese politics.
The victory of 64-year-old Yuriko Koike in last weekend’s Tokyo gubernatorial election tells us a lot about the disturbing state of Japanese politics. Hailing from the right wing of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party, Koike holds views on constitutional change, school textbook revision and other contentious issues that line up with those of Prime Continue reading »
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JON STANFORD and JOHN MENADUE. The submarine confusion continues. Is the way being prepared for Australia to acquire nuclear submarines?
REPOST In an interesting development relating to Australia’s new submarine acquisition, Peter Jennings, Executive Director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), has written a piece in The Australian (7 June 2016) that is clearly at odds with the Institute’s previous public stance. Jennings says that while conventional power for Australia’s submarines has previously been Continue reading »
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RICHARD WOOLCOTT. The South China Sea, China, Philippines, Australia and the US.
I was surprised the Opposition did not differentiate itself from the Australian Coalition Government’s strong support for the US and the Philippine position on the South China Sea issue. It can be argued that it was misleading to state in public that the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) judgment in favour of the Philippines was Continue reading »
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MUNGO MacCALLUM. So much for Team Australia!
The term was always a bit suss – indeed, when Tony Abbott coined it to claim solidarity against the war against terror, it quickly became obvious that membership of his side was to be strictly limited. Team Australia meant, in effect, Team Abbott: its participants were to be Captain’s picks, loyal not to the country Continue reading »
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Culture and Religion, Human Rights, Immigration, refugees, Politics, Religion and Faith, World Affairs
DALLY MESSENGER. A letter to Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten concerning refugees.
There is some talk of cooperation so, living in hope, I am emboldened to write to both of you. Only by you both working together can this criminal behaviour cease. There are far better ways to stop people smuggling than imprisoning people in third world jails without charge or trial. Continue reading »
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ALISON BROINOWSKI. What Chilcot doesn’t say.
Comprehensive though the Chilcot report is, and 12 volumes long, its promised revelations about how Britain went to war in Iraq and the lessons to be learnt are incomplete. What’s missing is particularly important for Australia, which has yet to hold such an inquiry, and where public pressure for one is mounting. Continue reading »
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PETER YOUNG. Speaking of Freedom: Human rights and mental health in detention.
Peter Young is a member of Doctors for Refugees who have launched a High Court challenge against the Secrecy Provisions in the Border Force Act which states that an ‘entrusted person’ who discloses protected information can face up to two years in prison. I am reposting below an earlier article that Peter Young contributed to Continue reading »
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JIM COOMBS. “Circle” Incarceration
After the revelations this week, it is trite to say that the criminal justice system is failing the Aboriginal people of Australia. One significant reason for this is the exclusion of the Aboriginal community from the process. One “reform” in the process over the last decade or so is “circle sentencing” which allows a Continue reading »
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ANN TULLOH. Terrorism in France and a sense of hopelessness by many young people.
I was brought up on the ABC news coming from the sitting room loud enough to cover the house as Dad got himself going every morning. This was in the 50s and any terrible overseas news was so far away that I didn’t feel concerned. (I much preferred a programme around 8am when songs were Continue reading »
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GREG WOOD. “Only a fool…” Australia, Iraq, and other such wars.
The Chilcot report in the UK has renewed calls for an examination of Australia’s intelligence system in the lead up to the Iraq war. Far less subject to scrutiny, but arguably more important still than the accuracy of the intelligence, was the nature of the advice provided to the Howard government by policy departments Continue reading »
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MICHAEL WESLEY. The dangerous politics of national security. (Repost from Policy Series)
In January 2013, as she launched her government’s National Security Strategy, then Prime Minister Julia Gillard proclaimed that Australia’s decade of terrorism was over. Her argument was that al Qaeda had failed to regenerate after being degraded in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, and that there were other more conventional security issues, such Continue reading »
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The American alliance and Vice President Biden’s recent visit
Vice President Biden’s speech at the Paddington Town Hall on 20 July was by invitation only. I had met Vice President Biden three years ago in Washington when I was on the Board of the Australian-American Leadership Dialogue. He was friendly and somewhat more impressive than I had expected and certainly had very competent staff around him. Continue reading »
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DAVID STEPHENS. Is this the most sycophantic speech by an Australian prime minister? Julia Gillard’s address to the United States Congress, March 2011
‘All the way with LBJ’ has become the cliche that associates Conservative dependence on the US alliance. But Julia Gillard’s address to the US Congress is hard to beat! John Menadue. Continue reading »
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STEPHEN FITZGERALD. Security in the region. (Repost from Policy Series)
Paul Keating and Gareth Evans used to claim, with justification, that by the mid-1990s Australia had become ‘the odd man in’ in Asia. This was in significant part because of the headway they’d made in Southeast Asia, with ASEAN countries, in gaining acceptance of Australia as ‘one of them’. This was no slogan. Behind it Continue reading »
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WALTER HAMILTON. Abdication in Japan?
On July 13, just three days after Japan’s ruling coalition secured a critical two-thirds majority in parliament, a news report emerged that the country’s long-serving Emperor wishes to abdicate ‘within the next few years’. (According to some news media, the abdication story was held over until after the election at the government’s insistence.) On the Continue reading »
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JOHN McCARTHY. Foreign Policy. Australia, the United States and Asia. (Repost from Policy Series)
In a conversation in October last year with two British foreign correspondents and a former Japanese Prime Ministerial foreign policy adviser, the subject turned to the United States. All three interlocutors argued that in recent years Australia had superseded both Japan and the United Kingdom as the United States’ closest ally. This view should not Continue reading »
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JOHN TULLOH. Shrugging off the effects of the Iraq invasion.
‘His decision to invade Iraq is easily the worst foreign policy decision ever made by an American president’. Professor Jean Edward Smith, eminent US presidential biographer, on George W. Bush. The other day the Sydney Morning Herald had a cartoon showing John Howard in a military uniform and holding a pop gun. Behind him Continue reading »
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JOHN CARMODY. More on Brexit
Dr John Carmody reflects on the historical journey of the European Union. Continue reading »
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TONY KEVIN. South China Sea dispute: a furious China challenges the high priests of international law
One privilege of being retired that one can watch ABC News24 daytime television while others are hard at work. On Wednesday 13 July around midday, I was treated to a dramatic spectacle: a Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister in an hour-long international media conference in Beijing fiercely denouncing, as a ‘scrap of waste-paper fit only Continue reading »
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CAVAN HOGUE. Australian Foreign Policy. (Repost from Policy Series)
Summary. Australian Foreign Policy is dominated by fear, defence issues, the American Alliance and the search for votes in marginal electorates. We talk about the importance of Asia but instinctively cleave to Europe and North America who are said to share our values but don’t always do so. We need to look beyond the next Continue reading »
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RICHARD BUTLER. Foreign Policy. An Independent Australian Foreign Policy (Repost from Policy Series)
Summary: For fifty years, since Australia entered the war in Vietnam in 1965, Australian foreign policy has been made increasingly subservient to a specific concept of Australia’s relationship with the United States. That concept, first enunciated by Prime Minister Menzies in 1955, was that for its survival, Australia needed ”a great and powerful friend”. All Continue reading »
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STUART HARRIS. What Australia’s foreign policy should look like. (Repost from Policy Series)
The focus in Australia’s foreign policy has shifted back and forth between the global and the regional, and between multilateralism and bilateralism in economic and political relationships, due only in part to party political differences. While some policies, such as immigration, refugees and to a degree defence, are widely debated in Australia, many are Continue reading »
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JOHN MENADUE. It is becoming much easier to go to war.
In a post on 18 July 2016 I drew attention to the inter-twining of the Australian and US Defence and Intelligence establishments.The problem however goes much deeper than the current ‘dangerous alliance’ between Australia and the US. As Henry Reynolds has pointed out, we continually go off to fight wars in foreign lands in service Continue reading »
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PHILOMENA MURRAY. Nice attack brings a difficult question into sharp focus: why France?
If you live in France, you enjoy Bastille Day. There is a buzz in the air as you celebrate a day off in the middle of summer with your family and friends. You go to the fireworks. It is good to be in France and to remember the founding principles of the state – liberty, Continue reading »
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RICHARD BUTLER. Interesting Times
The so-called Chinese Curse: “ May you live in interesting times”, is apparently not of Chinese origin, but certainly apocryphal and wonderfully ironic. I think it is hard to recall more “interesting times” than those in which the world finds itself today, nor a time fraught with more danger, since the sleepwalking towards World Continue reading »
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HENRY REYNOLDS. Unnecessary wars in service of other people’s empires.
Australia is engaged in a long cavalcade of military commemoration. It has been advancing since the 1990’s. Government largesse has speeded it on its way. War is now widely seen as the defining collective experience. The national spirit, the argument runs, emerged in battle far from our shores. A generation of school children have been Continue reading »