World
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Biden’s China policy, US business and Australia
Washington’s concern about China is real and not just threat inflation, which seeks an enemy to promote military Keynesianism: the traditional method of transferring public money to private corporations in the military industrial sector. Continue reading »
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John F. Copper: Where are the Chinese students going?
According to recent data published in China and admission reports from U.S. universities, the number of Chinese students applying for study in American institutions of higher learning in recent months has fallen markedly. Continue reading »
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Caitlin Johnstone: US invades Syria, kills people, claims self-defence
The US is an occupying force who is there without the permission of the Syrian government, without having been attacked by Syria, and without any valid claim to be defending itself from anyone in Syria. Continue reading »
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Sixty years and twenty-seven days ago Australia sent 30 advisors to Vietnam
That war has lessons for us today. Continue reading »
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Canberra is a fashioned spear for the US against China.
There is an overwhelming boisterous ignorance that characterises Australia’s foreign policy approach to China. Continue reading »
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David Armstrong’s Asian Media this week – small step for rights
Singapore, Hong Kong rule out same-sex marriage Continue reading »
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The many lives of Ayman al-Zawahiri
Ayman al-Zawahiri is dead – or so we are told. Al-Qaida’s chief and successor to the slain Osama bin Laden, he was deemed the chief ideologue and mastermind behind the audacious September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. On July 31, he was supposedly killed in a drone strike in Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, while Continue reading »
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China–US rivalry no new Cold War
Seventy-five years ago this July, the US diplomat George Kennan published his seminal essay in Foreign Affairs introducing the idea of ‘containment’. In The Sources of Soviet Conduct, Kennan advocated for a policy of containment against Soviet expansionism. As some in Washington prepare for a new Cold War with China, the Kennan-era template is being Continue reading »
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Ann Marie Murphy: Ukraine war highlights differences between Indonesian and US foreign policy frameworks
To many Americans who view Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as an unprovoked war that must be opposed, Indonesia’s high levels of public support for Russia may be perplexing. But divergent US and Indonesian views should not come as a surprise. The United States and Indonesia tend to perceive international events — and one another — Continue reading »
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Questioning AUKUS. Opposition is growing
Criticism of AUKUS and serious questions about the wisdom of the agreement are coming from multiple sources. There have been many examples in P&I, some quite strident in their opposition. Continue reading »
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The west’s false narrative about Russia and China
The world is on the edge of nuclear catastrophe in no small part because of the failure of Western political leaders to be forthright about the causes of the escalating global conflicts. The relentless Western narrative that the West is noble while Russia and China are evil is simple-minded and extraordinarily dangerous. It is an Continue reading »
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The war you don’t see
In The War You Don’t See, John Pilger returns to the subject of war reporting and its critical role in the making of wars. This ‘drum beat’ was the theme of Pilger’s 1983 documentary Frontline: The Search for Truth in Wartime, a history of war journalism from the Crimea in the 19th century (‘the last Continue reading »
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Everett Bledsoe: The US military empire. How many US military bases are there in the world?
The Pentagon does not know how many bases it has around the world so it relies on academics to tell it. The US bases are gated communities which replicate US suburbs, shops and amenities to the exclusion of local people. Continue reading »
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Jon Richardson: No, NATO expansion didn’t cause the war in Ukraine
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February has met with opprobrium in most quarters. At the same time, commentators of diverse stripes still argue that Western policies, particularly NATO expansion, should bear part or much of the blame for these events. Continue reading »
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Jessica Corbett: Pentagon contractors in Afghanistan pocketed $108 billion over 20 years
Military contracting “obscures where and how taxpayer money flows,” and “makes it difficult to know how many people are employed, injured, and killed,” said the Costs of War Project report’s author. Continue reading »
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It’s time for India to join the U.N. Security Council permanently
China in particular should support India’s ascension to permanent membership on the Security Council, a change that would reflect India’s global influence and a world order shifting away from the West’s dominance. Continue reading »
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U.S.-China fight to lead planet earth will be decided “within 15 years”
The clock is ticking on which of the two superpowers will gain primacy over the planet – a lead which will last indefinitely, becoming unassailable, a stunning new study shows U.S. leadership over the planet would lead to a colonial model as seen in recent centuries, with the west assertively pushing its values, says a Continue reading »
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The Ukraine war prequel
Americans will not support those who seek independence in order to replace a far-off tyranny with a local despotism. They will not aid those who promote a suicidal nationalism based upon ethnic hatred. President George H W Bush to the Ukraine parliament, August 1991. Quoted in Lawrence Freedman, Ukraine and the Art of Strategy, Oxford Continue reading »
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Sex, lies – but no videotape
Governments love distractions and there’s a doozy gripping the people next door: A lurid tabloid tale running for five weeks and counting is keeping electors focussed on spice rather than the erosion of democracy and corruption controls. Continue reading »
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Wayne Hudson: The importance of creating much greater cultural dialogue between China and Australia as soon as possible
The Chinese Ambassador is trying for a reset and it is tragic that his efforts have been misunderstood and perhaps wilfully so. Continue reading »
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Following the war in Ukraine
To write in real terms about war is not to condone war. War is an inappropriate activity for a species calling itself sapiens. Continue reading »
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Ice age conditions after even “limited” nuclear war would starve billions
An important new study published in Nature Food on 15 August by Lili Xia and Alan Robock of Rutgers University together with colleagues around the globe shows just how dangerous even a “limited” nuclear war in one part of the world would be. Continue reading »
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Marape returned as Prime Minister in Papua New Guinea
On 9 August, with the date for the extension of writs having been extended by a week but still only 99 of the 118 seats declared in country’s recent national election, Papua New Guinea’s National Parliament met to elect a prime minister. Continue reading »
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Marwan Bishara: Why Israel hates the Palestinians so much
Israel’s hatred of the Palestinians is shaped and driven by three basic sentiments. Continue reading »
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The goading of China continues day after day. Pelosi was just the most recent deliberate provocation
The path to war in Asia – crossing the Rubicon. Continue reading »
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Eva Bartlett: The West is silent as Ukraine targets civilians in Donetsk using banned ‘butterfly’ mines
The use of PFM-1 explosives against civilians is prohibited by the Geneva Conventions—but this evidently isn’t stopping Ukraine. Continue reading »
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The demonisation of China in the US goes on and on
In a recent exchange in the comments section of a United States media publication that is dedicated to a civil exchange of views and to abjuring the demonisation of differing views that is so common in the US, I found nonetheless a deeply entrenched demonisation of China. Continue reading »
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Truth, lies, and pandemics
Are we being lied to about the origins of the pandemic? Continue reading »
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Ending the Ukraine and other wars: putting victims at the centre
A common response from Western nations to the Ukraine war is one of “support for Ukraine” or “standing with Ukraine” as it suffers ongoing attack from Russia. Continue reading »
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Moon Chung-in: ‘Cynicism rears its head in the war in Ukraine’
In the end, all of the players involved will need to return to realism and prioritise a peaceful resolution. History teaches us that wars only truly end through diplomatic compromise. Continue reading »
