International relations
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Is New Zealand slurping the AUKUS Kool-Aid?
Drinking the Kool-Aid is not only believing a foolish and dangerous idea but acting on it leads to unnecessary self-destruction. It refers to the 900 American cult members who drank cyanide-laced Kool-Aid at Jonestown in Guyana in 1978 in an act of “revolutionary suicide”. Critics of AUKUS on both sides of the Tasman think our Continue reading »
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Who will win the US Presidential Election? Professor Lichtman may hold the key
The Guardian newspaper reports that history professor Allan Lichtman is known as the Nostradamus of US presidential elections since he has correctly predicted the results of nine of the past ten ballots. Continue reading »
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The coming theatre of jiu-jitsu international conflict
Jiu-jitsu is a martial art in which one leverages one’s opponent’s strength in order to subdue them. It is increasingly likely to become the predominant mode of international conflict in the future. It will deploy the adversary’s greatest strength, its internal network of digital interconnections, as a wrecking ball. It is difficult to know if Continue reading »
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“Antisemitic hate crime”: US and Israel desperate to avoid ICC justice
Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu has labelled prospective action by the International Criminal Court to hold him accountable for the murder of 14,500 children in Gaza as “an unprecedented antisemitic hate crime”. Continue reading »
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The West believes antisemitism is a more egregious problem than genocide
The loss of Western authority as a result of Israel’s genocidal attack on Gaza has merely sped up changes already underway for a generation. Continue reading »
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Peace starts with Palestine’s UN membership
On May 10, all member states should vote to admit the State of Palestine as the 194th member of the United Nations. Continue reading »
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Australia must vote yes to Palestine at UN
The Jewish Council of Australia is horrified by what we are witnessing Israel do in Rafah. Israel’s ongoing violence in Gaza and the West Bank is the greatest impediment to peace for Palestinians and Israelis. Continue reading »
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Students are the nation’s conscience
The courageous stance of students across the country in defiance of genocide is accompanied by a near total blackout of their voices. Their words are the ones we most need to hear. Continue reading »
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The Nakba never ended, the coloniser lied
The blood is on your hands Biden. We can see it all, and fuck no, I’m not voting for you in the fall. It’s too late, we’ve seen the truth, we bear witness. Seen the rubble, the buildings, the mothers and the children. And all the men that you murdered. Continue reading »
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Israel is morphing into a pariah state. Time to cut the cord
Washington’s attempts to attack and impair the workings of the ICC on Israel’s behalf merely serve to further isolate a declining America. Continue reading »
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NZ Foreign Minister’s anti-China defamation of Carr threatens trans-Tasman friendship
Former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr sues New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters for defamation over AUKUS comments. The defamation action comes as a chagrined Peters took what looked like a step back from AUKUS in recent speeches. Continue reading »
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How Israel relies on up to 1,000 Australians and other foreign fighters to carry out its war crimes
Thousands of people from countries around the world have joined the war against Palestinians. Continue reading »
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Our biggest China lie
Three things: China is winning from Gaza; China growing at 5 per cent now is better than China growing at 7 per cent a decade ago; and Australia’s biggest China lie is that we’re spending half a trillion dollars on boats to protect our sea lanes. Continue reading »
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Will Solomon Islands’ new leader stay close to China?
Former foreign minister Jeremiah Manele has been elected the next prime minister of Solomon Islands, defeating the opposition leader, Matthew Wale, in a vote in parliament. Continue reading »
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Australian aid to Ukraine: False narratives and US hegemony
On Sunday 28 April, Defence Minister Richard Marles announced $100 million in military aid to Ukraine. It was said to raise Australia’s support to $1 billion in support of Ukraine’s attempt to counter “Russia’s illegal and immoral invasion”. Continue reading »
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Myths about Ukraine: no.#1 – Crimea rightfully belongs to Russia
Russian claims to Crimea based on historical ownership, language or the illegitimacy of past decisions are weak. They provide no justification for its invasion and annexation or continued possession of Crimea. Continue reading »
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We’ll reward you for genocide
Israel: Hey Joe, just letting you know Hamas has retaliated to our decades long Occupation and repression and have broken through the prison gates and attacked Israelis. Go figure. Continue reading »
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Washington has lost touch with reality. If it doesn’t adapt, the world will pay
In a failing quest to maintain its ‘primacy’, the US has cast China, Russia and Iran as global villains. Continue reading »
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War parties, the peace candidate, and the US election
The Democrats and the Republicans are outdoing each other to prove who can get us to World War III fastest. Joe Biden and the Congressional Democrats are making a convincing bid to be the leading warmongers. The Congressional Democrats just voted unanimously in a vote of 210 – 0 to extend the Ukraine War with Continue reading »
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Japan and North Korea: Time to talk?
In Northeast Asia a system of confronting military alliances – US/Japan/South Korea/Philippines vs China/Russia/North Korea – gradually takes shape, calling to mind nothing so much as the alliance system constructed in Europe in the decade leading up to 1914. The one today is no more likely to lead to peace and regional cooperation than was Continue reading »
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Gaza and victimhood
The regimes in Israel and Palestine both claim to be victims in the violence that engulfs them. Interpreting the situation through “victimhood” assists in understanding the human forces that arise from age-old conflicts and that continue to cause so much horrific suffering. Continue reading »
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Rhetoric and reality in technology visions
The complex interplay of vision, power, and governance in innovation districts, precincts, and hubs. Continue reading »
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War on Gaza: A cruel month of massacres for Palestinians as the US mask is ripped off
As tensions flare with Iran, the US continues to provide full support for Israel’s genocide in the Gaza Strip. Continue reading »
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Australia’s group think epidemic and the Adelaide AUKUS fairytale
The idea that nuclear submarines can be built in Adelaide under AUKUS has the characteristics of the “group think” that led to invasion of Iraq in 2003, and has been described by former Foreign Minister Alexander Downer as a “bit of a fairytale”. “Some government in the future will make the obvious decision and not Continue reading »
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Our entire view of the world remains insular. How can Australia change?
Unlike virtually every non-Anglophone country on the planet, Australia still has no mandatory teaching of foreign languages in its schools. Why do we assume, as a matter of colonial entitlement, that people from non-Anglophone countries will understand us, but it is not even a matter of decency to make the same effort to understand them? Continue reading »
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Marking 10 years of the Russo-Ukraine War
On February 28, 2022, four days after Russia had attacked into Ukraine, Moscow and Kiev began peace talks. Continue reading »
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A state of Palestine? Outrage as US backs perpetual occupation and oppression
Readers will recall my article of 16 April, The end of occupation: A state of Palestine at the UN. It advised of an anticipated vote in the Security Council on April 18. The Security Council was sitting in New York. Because of the time difference, that was early in the morning of 19 April in Continue reading »
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If the US and UK have any shame, they will welcome Palestine as a UN member State
This week, the U.S. and U.K. have the chance to correct decades of their blatant geopolitical errors in the Israel-Palestine conflict by welcoming Palestine as the 194th United Nations member state. More than any other countries, the U.S. and U.K. have wrecked the Middle East through their non-stop meddling and imperial arrogance. This week they Continue reading »
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Biden, Netanyahu and the golden rule
International politics is frequently conducted in a way that bears little or no resemblance to how it is reported in corporate and state media, nor as it is understood in academic circles. Continue reading »
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Knowledge and understanding deficit: The dire state of China Studies
Disgraceful gaps have emerged in our knowledge and understanding of Asian countries. This capability is essential to successful navigation of the future, as Peter Varghese and Joseph Lo Bianco have noted. Continue reading »
