World Affairs
-
Duncan MacLaren. Does Brexit mean a second independence referendum for Scotland?
The algebra goes something like this: EU ref: Brexit – Scotland = indyref2? In other words, if England overwhelmingly votes to leave the European Union while Scotland votes to remain in and the overall result from England, Northern Ireland and Wales, (known since the debate on independence in Scotland as rUK – rest of the Continue reading »
-
Cavan Hogue. Saudi Arabia involvement in 9/11 attack!
The United States has long supported one of the most repressive regimes in the world. It invaded Iraq where women were able to do anything men could (which wasn’t much admittedly) but not Saudi Arabia where women are kept in subjection. It also ignored the fact that Saudi Arabia is home of the Wahabi brand Continue reading »
-
Douglas Newton. The hard questions we should face on Anzac Day 2016.
On Anzac Day 2016, the centenaries of 1916 should loom large. In April 1916, the Australian divisions that had been mauled at Gallipoli were being despatched to the Western Front. The industrialised kill-chain at the Somme awaited them. Other centenary moments from 1916 are coming: of diplomatic deals that escalated the war, and of lost Continue reading »
-
Mark Beeson. Australia still hasn’t had the debate on why we even need new submarines.
Australia is about to make its biggest-ever investment in military hardware. Although we don’t know yet whether Germany, France or Japan will be awarded the contract to build our 12 new submarines, it is possible to make a few confident predictions. What to expect First, the actual cost of the submarines when completed will be Continue reading »
-
Editors, East Asia Forum. Australia’s fraught decision on submarines
The submarine deal would fundamentally change the Australia-Japan security relationship. Australia is about to embark on its single biggest ever military acquisition. The Future Submarine Program (SEA1000) will see Australia purchase 12 submarines to replace its ageing Collins-class fleet. The SEA1000 has been a source of ongoing controversy with criticism over the lack of transparency Continue reading »
-
Bill Carmichael. Overblown rhetoric about Free Trade Agreements.
The goal of trade policy is not limited to increasing export opportunities. Nor is it just about improving trade balances. Rather trade policy is about taking opportunities to improve the economy’s productive base. When assessing a nation’s experience with bilateral trade agreements, this is the test that should be applied. In each bilateral agreement Australia Continue reading »
-
Richard Woolcott. A modern Australia for the 21st century.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has said it is a great and exciting time for Australia. Indeed, it is a time of great opportunity for the Australian Government elected later this year to take bold action which will transform Australia into an updated, modern member of the Asian and South West Pacific Region. After World War II the Continue reading »
-
Jon Stanford and Michael Keating. A more efficient submarine solution.
This week the Melbourne Age, SMH and the Canberra Times carried the following article written by Jon Stanford and Michael Keating on the $50 b. submarine project. This article is based on a three part article written by Jon Stanford and posted in Pearls and irritations. See link to three articles below. John Menadue Continue reading »
-
‘We are the forgotten people’; the anguish of Australia’s invisible asylum seekers.
Nearly 29,000 asylum seekers are in Australia on temporary ‘bridging visas’. These people may be free from detention but – with many denied education, healthcare and the right to work – they remain locked in desperate poverty and with no idea what their future holds. See link below to an article in The Guardian Australia. Continue reading »
-
China and North Korea: the long goodbye.
Jonathan D. Pollack from The Brookings Institution quotes Ambassador Wu Dawei, Japan’s long-time leading negotiator on the Korean nuclear issue, who expressed mounting frustration that North Korea lets China’s advice ‘go through one ear and out the other ear’. Ambassador Wu suggests that North Korea ‘ had signed its own death warrant’. For link to Continue reading »
-
Kieran Tapsell. Bishop Ronald Mulkearns: Blaming the Foot Soldier
The “Nuremberg defence” takes its name from the claim by Nazi officials at the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal that they should be acquitted because they were following “superior orders”. In one of the most significant judgments in international law, the Nuremberg Tribunal held that following superior orders in the case of crimes against humanity is Continue reading »
-
Graeme Hugo, Janet Wall and Margaret Young. Migration between Australia and South East Asia is a two-way process.
Migration flows between countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and Australia are generally viewed as going in one direction: toward Australia. In practice, however, data on this migration system reveal a much more complex picture that includes Australian emigration, significant temporary movements in both directions, and close connections between the two regions Continue reading »
-
Richard Butler. Nuclear Security Summit: Washington Finale?
Seven years ago, President Obama spoke in Prague Square and undertook to “seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons”. He cautioned that this outcome would be immensely difficult to achieve and may not be reached in his own lifetime, but his speech was heard and widely taken as signaling an enhanced Continue reading »
-
John Tulloh. Erdogan leads Turkey back to the Ottoman era.
It is the time of the year when we have our annual bout of sentimental reflection on the heroics of the Anzac forces at Gallipoli a century ago. One of the Turkish military commanders whose resistance wore down the Anzacs and other allies was Kemal Ataturk, who went on to be the founder of Continue reading »
-
Jon Stanford and Michael Keating – Submarines; cost, capability and timelines.
This article is a response to the article posted yesterday by Paul Barratt and Chris Barrie. ‘The case for building the future submarines in Australia.’ Both Paul Barratt and Chris Barrie have served at the highest levels in Defence and their views are clearly worthy of very serious consideration. Indeed, their contention that a military-off-the-shelf Continue reading »
-
Paul Barratt and Chris Barrie. The case for building the future submarine in Australia
When charting a trajectory to a desired end point it is as important to have an accurate fix on the starting point as it is to know where one wants to end up. So it is with SEA 1000, the Future Submarine (FSM) project. Much of the commentary is based on a politically inspired perception Continue reading »
-
Cameron Douglas. Thailand and the military junta – an update.
Thailand’s military government got almost all it wanted in the country’s draft constitution, which will now be put to the people in a referendum on August 7. The next four months, however, will be a rough time for Thailand: the release of the draft was accompanied by a warning from Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha that Continue reading »
-
If we strike a deal with Japan, we’re buying more than submarines.
In this article in the Melbourne Age, Hugh White comments ‘So before we decide whether to select the Japanese (submarine) bid, we have to ask if an alliance with Japan is good for Australia.’ See link to full article below: http://www.theage.com.au/comment/if-we-strike-a-deal-with-japan-were-buying-more-than-submarines-20160314-gni3hl.html Continue reading »
-
Michael Mullins. Threatened Al Jazeera more trustworthy than ‘white man’s media’
John Menadue’s blog post ‘White man’s media’ points to our media’s disproportionate coverage of terrorism in the west, where only 2.6 per cent of terrorism related deaths occur. Our easily accessible media outlets could be on the way to becoming even whiter, with this week’s announcement that Al Jazeera is to lay off 500 staff because falling Continue reading »
-
Geoff Miller. Japan, ’embedding’ and a world not of pure reason.
“The Australian” of 29 March reported Murray McLean, former Ambassador to Japan, as defending the Japanese submarine bid against criticism that it would amount to a “virtual alliance” that would ultimately thrust us into conflict with China. He reportedly said that “Australia should choose a submarine based on the best technology and the best price”, Continue reading »
-
Geoff Miller. Managing or containing China.
Australia, China, the South China Sea – and the uses of language. Recent reports published in both Australia and the US—including most notably in our case the Defence White Paper—and a series of visitors to Australia from China, the US and Japan, have increased the already high degree of interest and concern over future strategic Continue reading »
-
Evan Williams. Eye in the Sky. Film review.
I’d just come home from a screening of Eye in the Sky, Gavin Hood’s fine thriller about a terrorist cell in Kenya, when the news came through that Taliban suicide-bombers had killed more than a hundred people in Pakistan. Timely reminders of the reality of modern warfare and its distinctive horrors aren’t hard to find Continue reading »
-
John Menadue. White man’s media.
On 26 March I provided a link to an article by Simon Jenkins in The Guardian, who commented ‘The atrocities in Brussels happen almost daily in the streets of Baghdad, Aleppo and Damascus. .. A dead Muslim is an unlucky mutt in the wrong place at the wrong time. A dead European is front page Continue reading »
-
Richard Broinowski. Australia and the South China Sea
A tangled web of territorial claims threatens stability in the South China Sea. The figures appear rubbery, but a consensus is that Philippines occupies seven islands and reefs, Malaysia five, China eight and Taiwan one. Vietnam occupies twenty seven. There is also conflict over fishing grounds. Meanwhile, there seems little or no room for compromise, Continue reading »
-
Garry Woodard. Should Australia do more on the South China Sea?
No. The Prime Minister’s statement in regards to the Middle East that this is not the time for gestures or machismo applies in spades to what we do in the South China Sea. Australia should act prudently and, though some will see this as a contradiction, transparently and after full parliamentary and public debate. Australia’s Continue reading »
-
What a godsend politicians and journalists are to ISIS.
In The Guardian, Simon Jenkins writes about the way that the ISIS recruiting officers will be thrilled at how things have gone since their atrocity in Belgium. He points particularly to the ‘paranoid politicians and sensational journalists’ who have perhaps unwittingly provided great support for ISIS. Jenkins comments ‘The atrocities in Brussels happen almost daily Continue reading »
-
John Menadue and CPD. Building a regional framework on refugees and forced-migration.
For several years a group of us at the Centre for Policy Development (CPD) have been endeavouring to develop a regional framework for the management of refugee issues in our region. We strongly feel that no country in the region, including Australia, can handle refugee flows on their own. A regional framework based on cooperation Continue reading »
-
Yang Razali Kassim. Will Mahathir and Anwar’s uneasy alliance unseat Najib?
The unthinkable is happening in Malaysian politics. Former prime minister Mahathir Mohammad and his jailed former deputy Anwar Ibrahim have joined hands in a seemingly impossible alliance to unseat Prime Minister Najib Razak. Never before in Malaysian history have such sworn enemies buried their hatchets for a common cause. By launching his rainbow ‘core group’ Continue reading »
-
Travers McLeod, Peter Hughes, Sriprapha Petcharamesree, Steven Wong, Tri Nuke Pudjiastuti. The Bali Process can do a lot more to respond to forced migration in our region.
The Bali Process on People Smuggling, Trafficking in Persons and Related Transnational Crime will hold a full ministerial meeting in Bali this Wednesday. The meeting will bring together ministers from 45 member countries for the first time in three years. The global context for the meeting is the current levels of displacement. Sixty million people Continue reading »
-
Frank Brennan. Deja vu for Timor as Turnbull neglects boundary talks
When Malcolm Turnbull became prime minister six months ago, our Timorese neighbours thought there might be an opportunity to draw a line on the past and to kick start the negotiation of a permanent maritime boundary between Australia and Timor-Leste. For the moment, they find themselves sadly mistaken. Rui Maria de Araujo, the fairly new Continue reading »