International relations
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Xinjiang: A personal perspective
The fact is that between 2010 and 2016, Xinjiang was on the brink of chaos. Unlike America’s war on terror, characterised by US troops invading the wrong countries, destroying infrastructure, pillaging resources, terrorizing locals and conducting drone strikes that killed civilians and journalists, as Julian Assange valiantly exposed on WikiLeaks, China’s approach to counter terrorist Continue reading »
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Australia’s secretive defence establishment: the real enemies of truth and freedom
Australia, with fewer secrets to hide, is more compulsively secretive than the US, China or NATO. Continue reading »
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Navigating policy and power – Indonesia and Australia’s energy transition
Indonesia and Australia have more to gain from energy transition – and more to lose from inaction – than any two countries in the world. But the Indonesian government must navigate significant policy challenges to attract the capital it needs for a swift, just and orderly transition. Continue reading »
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Understanding the rules of the China debate
China wants to expand its sphere of influence; the West, thankfully, is devoid of such base instincts. Continue reading »
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Illiberalism rising: Will a post-liberal America threaten the international order?
The intellectual space for revolutionary new thoughts accompanies social change and inevitably the revolution is a surprise and incomprehensible to elites when it comes. Social, economic, and political disruption is accelerating because of climate change, new advanced technologies, economic stress, and geopolitics. The space for revolutionary thought is growing. Continue reading »
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Earth Systems Treaty: The emerging cross-cultural commitment
“The evidence is compelling that human exceptionalism is a deeply-flawed construct – a grand cultural illusion – that has led modern techno-industrial societies into a potentially fatal ecological trap.” William Rees, Author, The Human Ecology of Overshoot. Continue reading »
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The mirage of China’s offensive nuclear strategy
In previous articles, I’ve articulated why I adopted a skeptical and analytical mindset from a young age, particularly in the realm of geopolitical claims made by nation-states in the nuclear age. Now, let’s shift our focus to China’s nuclear strategy. Continue reading »
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Playing a losing hand
This week sees the 30th anniversary of the shameful, ill-advised Oslo Accord between Israel and Palestine. Continue reading »
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A funny thing happened on the way to Beijing: Reflections on spy recruitment practices
An innocent invitation to a conference could turn into a nightmare. Next month I shall be on my way to an Australian Studies conference in Beijing, but already I am nervous about my travel plans because of recent stories about the attitude of Australian spy agencies to information exchanges with China. Friends, if I fail Continue reading »
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Albanese: The overseas Prime Minister
Prior to his most recent overseas trip to Jakarta, Manila, and New Delhi, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been abroad a dozen times. Not bad for a government that’s been in office for just on eighteen months. The next few months will see him flying off again for half a dozen more summits, head to head meetings Continue reading »
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Biden in Hanoi: The ‘Domino theory’ rises again
By chance, US president Biden’s goodwill visit to Vietnam’s communist government in Hanoi came just 50 years after the notorious 1972 Christmas bombings. Continue reading »
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The G20 returns to earth
The American diplomatic starship, USS Exceptionalism, fell to earth at the G20 Leaders’ Summit in New Delhi. Continue reading »
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Going to the mountain for Assange
Later this month I’ll travel to Washington, as part of a Parliamentary delegation, to advocate on behalf of Julian Assange. The Parliamentary delegation includes representatives from across the political colour spectrum – Forest Green (senior Nationals member Barnaby Joyce), Green (Senators Peter Whish-Wilson and David Shoebridge), Red (Labor backbencher Tony Zappia), Navy Blue (Liberal member Continue reading »
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Here’s what the U.S. is doing to prepare for war in Asia
Preparations for the United States to launch a war against China are far more advanced than many people realise. And when you look at just how much work has been done, it no longer looks like a matter of “if”, but more of a question of “when”. Continue reading »
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US decides to supply depleted uranium shells to Ukraine
At the G20 summit in Bali last year, most of the world’s most influential leaders had strongly deplored ‘the aggression by the Russian Federation against Ukraine’. By contrast, the joint declaration from the just concluded summit in New Delhi does not mention Russia by name. Instead, it talks about ‘the human suffering and negative added impacts of Continue reading »
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Earth System Treaty: Towards a positive human future
It is easy to be pessimistic about prospects for our children, in the face of the climatic events that are now confronting humans everywhere. But there is also some very good news around the idea of developing a Global “Earth System Treaty” (EST) that could radically alter the trajectory we humans are currently on. Continue reading »
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G-7 and BRICS visions of the future: Coercive unipolarity or cooperative multipolarity
When the Cold War ended in 1991, the West, and particularly the United States, found itself at a fork in the road. One road led to peace, justice, cooperation, nuclear disarmament, a revitalised UN, inclusiveness, pluralism, human rights, multilateralism, fair trade, regulated markets, food security, energy transition, sustainability, and humane governance. The other road led Continue reading »
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Okinawa is becoming a garrison state for war with China
I have come now to the bitter realisation that from no matter what angle you consider it, the Henoko New Base plan has become a ‘solid block of injustice.’” – Urashima Etsuko Continue reading »
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Will number of temporary entrants in Australia continue to rise?
At end July 2023, there was an all-time record 2.554 million temporary entrants in Australia. The crucial policy question is whether that will be a peak or whether the number of temporary entrants in Australia will keep rising? If the latter, what will that mean for the number of temporary entrants in ‘immigration limbo’ – Continue reading »
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It’s time Canberra took back strategic autonomy
That Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese chose to confirm his visit to China almost two months in advance after his “frank and constructive” meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit in Jakarta last week shows his earnestness to further improve Sino-Australian relations. Continue reading »
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America’s “unique” relationship with Australia? Few countries are as gullible
Last week the Office of Prime Minister and Cabinet released a brief press release about Mr. Albanese’s forthcoming trip to Washington from the 23rd to the 26th of October which will be his first such visit since becoming Prime Minister. The enthusiasm of the members of Albanese’s staff seems to have run away with them. Continue reading »
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What is Albanese hiding? Maybe it’s the experts’ vision of the climate hell ahead
A good way to scare people is to suggest your chief security body has written something so frightening that you can’t possibly let anyone read anything about it. Continue reading »
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Deploying Australia’s Navy to Ayungin atoll makes no strategic sense
I wonder how many Australians know where the Ayungin Shoal/Second Thomas/Ren’ai Jiao is? Do they know that their Navy has been deployed to this atoll, ostensibly to defend their “national interest”! Continue reading »
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Australia’s multicultural framework can no longer be separate from geopolitics
A new multicultural framework needs to recognise that the well-being of Australia’s multicultural communities is closely related to, and inevitably affected by, geopolitics, and by Australia’s foreign policy towards migrants’ countries of origin. It is no longer viable to conceptualise foreign policy and multicultural affairs as two separate entities. Continue reading »
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The Palestinian catastrophe: Occupation, Illegality and Apartheid
It is time for us to use the words Occupation, Illegality and Apartheid. We are applying these words to an occupying power truculent and implacable in its determination its occupation will never end, committed to a creeping annexation to deliver it a permanent hold over Palestinian land and Palestinian people. … Twenty years ago it Continue reading »
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Opposing US-led wars: can Australia become independent and peaceful?
The narrative about the inevitability of a war with China began to dominate US strategic thinking in the second decade of the twenty-first century. Continue reading »
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Ceding more territory to the US military? Will Cocos Islands be Australia’s Diego Garcia
The Australian government has reneged on its 1984 commitment to the UN “that it had no intention of making the Cocos (Keeling) Islands into a strategic military base or of using the Territory for that purpose.” Will the Labor government ignore the warnings of the late Richard Woolcott and make the Cocos Islands a militarised Continue reading »
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Expanded Brics will continue to chip away at US dollar’s dominance
How the US has used its dollar privilege for its own interests, without regard to the damage it causes others, has not gone down well with developing countries. The BRICS’ formation and expansion must be seen for what it is: a rallying cry for a fairer world order. Continue reading »
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Justice delayed is justice denied: The case for a Palestinian state
Peter Wertheim (July 24, 2023) suggests that the Government should resist the call by Former Foreign Minister Bob Carr to recognise a Palestinian state. However, Wertheim’s remarks reflect widespread misapprehensions about relevant history, facts on the ground and international law. Continue reading »
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War fever and the military-industrial complex
In the wake of communist collapse we have been presented with a new paradigm in international affairs. No, it is not a tinkering with the standard communism versus democracy we have had to tolerate for more than half a century of war. By strange twist of fate it is democracy which is seen as creating the Continue reading »
