World
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Rethinking China
Just about everything that is uttered about China in the West is done so in the deeply underlying presumption that everyone out there, in the wonder lands of democratic Christendom, most assuredly believes that, as a godless communist state, China is inherently evil and that its singular ambition is to take over the world. Continue reading »
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How the West was lost
Europe’s panicked response to the shift in Washington’s priorities raises a number of intriguing questions, not least why its leadership was so ill-prepared for the second coming of Donald Trump. Continue reading »
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Sad day for the US as it fails an ally
I don’t intend to move these round-ups into international relations. There are excellent Australian sources with a foreign policy orientation – Pearls and Irritations, the Lowy Institute and Australian Foreign Affairs. But events around Trump’s betrayal of Ukraine should have repercussions not only for our foreign policy, but also for our domestic policy, particularly in the way we 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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Australia’s defence: Navigating US-China tensions
A significant intelligence failure to detect live-firing by Chinese warships near Australia, has exposed Defence weaknesses, and the fact that when it counts, we are all alone. Continue reading »
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A five-minute scroll
Volodymyr Zelenskyy reports on the peace talks in Saudi Arabia, saying if President Trump can get Russia to agree, a ceasefire will take effect immediately. After weeks of reported antisemitic attacks, police reveal the events were an organised crime hoax. Malcolm Turnbull defends his free speech on 7:30 report while Israel, cutting off electricity is Continue reading »
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How CIA propaganda infiltrated the pages of The Canberra Times in the Cold War
It was the mid-60s and The Canberra Times had a problem. Continue reading »
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Keir Starmer’s psychiatrist report leaked
Dr Edmund Freud of the European Centre for Political Pathologies recently completed a secret in-depth review of world leaders for the United Nations Security Council. His reports on President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Keir Starmer are now public, thanks to hackers, believed to be Russian, who have posted the findings on Tik-tok. 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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If you bomb us, do we not bleed?
In 1997, the World Health Organisation invited me to be a short-term consultant to visit Iran and advise on HIV control among people who inject drugs and the spread from them to the large low-risk general population. At the time, HIV was spreading rapidly in Iran. I felt honoured to be invited to a country 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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Legitimising the erasure of Palestinians
“Physical violence can’t exist without violence of language.” Omar El Akkad Continue reading »
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Global capitals eye future with investments in China’s tech industry
A dozen days ahead of this Chinese New Year, a large-scale exhibition opened at the Hong Kong Museum of Art. Continue reading »
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Falun Gong leaders disprove immortality by inconveniently dying
According to US Congressman Scott Perry, I’m part of an online strategy designated by Xi Jinping in December of last year to fight Falun Gong’s growth. If only I were that important! Continue reading »
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If you wanted to tell a story about a hopeful new world, I wouldn’t start from here
We need to tell a new/old story. Humans are social creatures of a shared story. We tell ourselves into being who we are by the stories we share. From First Peoples’ Songlines, rhythmically repeated and updated to incorporate the latest world developments, to Harry Potter novels and The Matrix movies, we remember and become the Continue reading »
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Nuclear power’s global stagnation and decline
The current push in Australia to deploy nuclear power reactors once again contrasts an excessive optimism by nuclear proponents against the continuing stagnant situation of nuclear power worldwide. That contrast is the subject of our new report for the EnergyScience Coalition. Continue reading »
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The fate of US allies hangs in the balance under Trump 2.0
Kudos to President Donald Trump! He thinks he has solved the security problems in Europe and the Middle East. His ideas for peace by in Gaza via force and land grabbing, however, have not augured well with key powers in the region. The Arabs felt they have been betrayed by Trump who gave Israel carte Continue reading »
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The real estate deals of the century
The world is shocked by President Trump’s solution for the ‘Palestinian Problem’. It’s similar to the one his father used to up-market his NY tenement properties – call in the police to throw the tenants out into the street. Continue reading »
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Has the world gone mad?
Rational people should share a sense of amazement that virtually all European political “leaders” and Western professional commentators appear to view with shock and horror: the possibility that the United States and Russia, the two major nuclear powers with the capacity to destroy human life, might have correct and co-operative, rather than hostile, relations. Continue reading »
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Donald Trump’s axis of authoritarianism
Even for those of us who feared the worst about a possible second coming of Donald Trump, the pace and nature of the changes his administration is undertaking are astounding and alarming in equal measure. We can’t say we weren’t warned, though. Continue reading »
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Barking up the wrong tree
In the past 250 years two institutions were conceived and have come to rule our lives: modern democratic government and the modern corporation. Donald Trump and Elon Musk have decided the key to solving America’s problems is reforming government. They’re barking up the wrong tree. It’s the corporation that needs reforming. Continue reading »
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China: Still ahead of the curve in the global economic game
US President Donald Trump’s decision to first place, and then delay, a 25% tariff on goods from neighbouring Canada and Mexico, along with his hitting China with an additional 10% tariff increase has made quite a splash in the news. Continue reading »
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The human cost of Trump’s cuts
Too many commentators are looking at the administrative changes Donald Trump is making at USAID rather than focusing on the tragic human consequences of the underlying policy changes. Continue reading »
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Trump’s tariffs will not restore American manufacturing
The decline in manufacturing jobs is common to most developed economies and is not unique to the US. Further, Donald Trump is nothing if not delusional, and his tariffs will only damage both the US economy and others as well. Continue reading »
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We may be short of leaders, but we’re not short on false prophets
With this year’s federal budget supposedly brought forward to 25 March, the seasonal peak in business bulldust has come early. Last week, Canberra kicked off an annual ritual little noticed in real-world Australia, the call for “pre-budget” submissions on what the government should do in its budget. Continue reading »
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Europeans (and others) vs Trump
I am not suffering from what some of President Donald Trump’s more fervent supporters — both in the US and in Australia — like to call “Trump derangement syndrome”. That is, I’m not disputing that he won the presidential election held last November “fair and square”, as did the Republican Party in both the House Continue reading »
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Causes of peace… and war
Before attending a recent talk by Geoffrey Blainey entitled “The Causes of War”, I looked again at his monumental volume – “Causes of War”. The first sentence of Chapter One reads: “For every thousand pages published on the causes of wars there is less than one page directly on the causes of peace.” I agree. Continue reading »
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The fruits of American bishops’ failure
Five years ago, J.D. Vance, who is now the vice-president of the United States, received the Sacraments of Initiation at St Gertrude Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. Continue reading »
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The costs of impatience: A psychic disorder of modern capitalism?
In Australia at the federal level of government, we have some of the shortest election cycles in the world: often barely three years. This mitigates against even medium-term planning. A new government takes a year to learn the ropes of office, another year to govern before preparing for re-election in the third. And even if Continue reading »
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Caligula’s horse and Washington
“Look back over the past, with its changing empires that rose and fell, and you can foresee the future, too.” Marcus Aurelius Continue reading »
