USA
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When war is around be careful what you wish for!
If anyone is yet to be disgusted with war and the reckless use of armed force, recent news from Gaza and Ukraine will change your mind. Continue reading »
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Chief justice rebukes Trump over calls to impeach judges who rule against him
“For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision,” said John Roberts, the chief justice of the US Supreme Court. Continue reading »
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The limits of diplomacy
We live in a global community, and many of us enjoy the benefits. A far greater number have no such enjoyment, existing in disadvantage; in poverty, hunger, homelessness, oppression, violence of one kind or another- preventable travesties. Continue reading »
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Trump is surveying Australian academics about gender diversity and China – what does this mean for unis and their research?
Shortly after taking office, US President Donald Trump issued executive orders banning federal funding on so-called “woke” research. Continue reading »
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Geopolitics, Australia-China-US relationship and its impacts on Australian-Chinese voting priorities
The recording to the UTS-Australia China Relations Institute panel discussion can be accessed via this link: Continue reading »
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The MAGA answer to DEI is a return to the golden days of exclusion
When the New York Times reported on a tense Cabinet meeting in the White House, it became clear that one of the few members to take on the DOGE boss, Elon Musk, was Sean Duffy, Trump’s new transportation secretary. Although a number of cabinet secretaries were neither accustomed to nor happy with the scorched-earth approach Continue reading »
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A five-minute scroll
As media campaigning ramps up for the forthcoming election, Peter Dutton avoids the question of his polling while Media Watch reveals the Liberal Party connections of Freya Leach and Juice Media produces a satirical clip on majority government. On global tensions, Professor Keyu Jin from the London School of Economics speaks about China and the Continue reading »
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ANZUS and NATO are kaput and Trump doesn’t care
Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton have proven too gutless, so far, to speak frankly to Australians about the implications of the imposition of new tariffs by the US, the first of many, to be imposed on Australia. They have expressed some ritual regrets and said it was a poor reward for their sycophantic grovelling over Continue reading »
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The Manichean moment is over
If Donald Trump has done nothing else, he should have convinced Australian strategic thinkers that the long-standing mantra of China-bad/America-good is no longer appropriate. Continue reading »
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Sultanistic or neo-fascist? President Trump and 21st century ideology
In trying to understand US President Donald Trump, the proposition has been put that he is sultanistic. In many respects, Trump’s second presidency does appear to be “sultanistic”. Continue reading »
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US-Europe relations flipped by Trump
For most of the post-World War II period, relations between Europe and the United States have followed a consistent pattern regardless of changes in government on both sides of the Atlantic. Continue reading »
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AUKUS, Trump and independence
How should Australia respond when the US, our closest ally, is engaged in a very public and petulant global meltdown? Continue reading »
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Imagine a secure Australia post-ANZUS and AUKUS
Let’s test Hugh White’s contention, expressed in The Saturday Paper on 8 March (‘Trump’s conduct on Ukraine prompts strategic reckoning”), that Australia will perhaps sooner rather than later have to confront the end of the US Alliance. Continue reading »
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Escaping Thucydides’s trap: A discussion between Graham Allison and Henry Huiyao Wang
During the recently concluded Munich Security Conference, Professor Graham Allison from Harvard University met Dr Huiyao Wang, founder and president of the Centre for China and Globalisation based in Beijing, to discuss Dr Wang’s new book (“Escaping Thucydides’s Trap: Dialogue with Graham Allison on China-US Relations”) which is grounded on and develops arguments made in Continue reading »
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Is Peter Dutton the tip of a Trumpist foreign policy for Australia?
In 1951 Australia turned to its newfound “great and powerful friend” America, consummating the move by signing the ANZUS treaty. ANZUS remains seriously misunderstood by most Australians, especially among the ageing ranks of conservative aficionados in Australia where it has the status of a holy cow. This is despite the fact that the treaty is Continue reading »
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Who’s who in the war business
“All murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.” Voltaire Continue reading »
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Power and alienation
The hollow man thought he had power over everything, a snap of the fingers was the sound of a king. Continue reading »
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Australia’s China diplomacy: Is it ready for a world without US certainty?
President Trump’s emerging foreign policy ideology is forcing US allies, including Australia, to reassess their strategic positions. As American leadership becomes increasingly transactional, Canberra must navigate a shifting global order by balancing security concerns with economic resilience, forging new regional partnerships, and maintaining strategic flexibility in an era of geopolitical uncertainty. Continue reading »
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Are America’s values our values anymore?
No issue in the forthcoming election is as important as Australia’s international identity and the crisis in the Western alliance about its senior partner, the United States. The alliance is fragmenting and, it appears, President Trump is daring Europe to defend Ukraine against Russian aggression independently. He wants NATO members to double their defence spending Continue reading »
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Noicide: advent of a new Dark Age
Something far more sinister than mere genocide is unfolding in the United States and other advanced nations around the world: the forces of darkness have declared open war on human knowledge. Continue reading »
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Trade and tariffs: Reality and fantasy
Donald Trump’s recent actions with respect to the use of tariffs as a weapon to re-industrialise America demonstrates not only an utter failure to understand the economics of that move but also the geo-economic realities of the world in which those actions are being taken. Continue reading »
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America’s day of infamy
While all the chaotic fireworks were exploding from Trump’s Oval Office — from Canada as the 51st State to Gaza as his waterfront Club Med — one little cracker caused barely a flicker of interest in a bedazzled media. Continue reading »
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The only enemy the US has in the drug war is itself
No one wakes up one day and says to him or herself that today is the day I’ll become a drug addict – society pushes people, in some cases high disposable wealth creates a sense of boredom from which the stimulus of recreational drugs is a form of escape, in others it’s peer pressure, we Continue reading »
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Jeffrey Sachs: Negotiating a lasting peace in Ukraine
Ukraine will have to cede more territory than it would have in April 2022 — when the US and UK talked it out of a peace deal — but it will gain sovereignty and international security arrangements. Continue reading »
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We can see clearly now: We’re closely allied to a fascist regime and so must realign
Donald Trump’s election to the presidency is a Gift. Notwithstanding that it, and his subsequent behaviour, has induced involuntary bowel movements and Acute Disorientation Syndrome throughout the policy-making establishments of the Western alliance, his advent is not, therefore, without its merits if we are the richer for it. Continue reading »
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Is it the US electoral system that is at fault?
The US as a new nation rejected the rule of the British monarch in a revolution and the newly created presidency was granted, ipso facto, monarchical power for four year terms. After a revolution it was deemed undesirable to have an hereditary monarchy, so a system was devised in which a president with a form Continue reading »
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A five-minute scroll
The Chinese Embassy in the US underlines the country’s differences with the US. Marco Rubio and Boris Johnson refer to the war in Ukraine as a proxy war, while Rubio also reaffirms Trump’s warning to Hamas. Ohad Kozminsky of the Jewish Council of Australia shares his views on Western colonialism and Gaza. Continue reading »
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Downsizing of NOAA: consequences for the planet
News out of the US on the firing of public servants by the Trump administration has consequences worldwide. Downsizing of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) will potentially impact many nations including our capacity to forecast extreme weather events and understand the consequences of climate change. Continue reading »
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Russophobia and Sinophobia: projection, narcissism and denial
There is a certain cadence to decline, a rhythm of arrogance and desperation, of miscalculation and delusion. The late-stage empire, unmoored from reality yet clinging to myths of its own indispensability, lashes out at perceived threats not because they are real, but because it cannot conceive of a world in which it is no longer Continue reading »
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Resolving insolvency: Tariffs are key to Trump’s solution
Donald Trump has resorted to tariffs, imposed against friend and foe alike. There are no compromises or special deals because it’s not about favours for friends, or compliance, or punishment. Tariffs are part of a desperate bid to stave off insolvency. Continue reading »
