World
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Can the Global South build a new world information and communication order?
It is remarkable how the media in a select few countries is able to set the record on matters around the world. The European and North American countries enjoy a near-global monopoly over information, their media houses vested with a credibility and authority inherited from their status during colonial times (BBC, for instance) as well Continue reading »
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China should not be blamed for decay of ‘liberal international order’
In recent years, to contain and isolate China, the United States has repeatedly accused China of continuously ignoring, abusing, distorting, undermining, or violating the rules and institutions of the “rules-based” “liberal international order” (LIO). Continue reading »
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Climate breakdown, extinction and ‘The Most Stupid Boast’
In a recent Guardian advert pleading for readers to hand over money to the paper, leading columnist Marina Hyde declared: ‘My absolute favourite thing about the Guardian is not being told what to write.’ Continue reading »
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The crooked timber of an unhappy, dangerous American Empire
Sealed inside its bubble, America today is steadfastly walking the unhappy, steady and confident gait of the Soviet Union. Continue reading »
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As Arab states seek peace, US insists that Syrians suffer
After the Arab League re-admits Syria, Washington threatens new sanctions to prevent reconstruction. Continue reading »
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Nuclear weapons may not be in Seoul’s best interest
Going nuclear would likely hurt rather than enhance South Korea’s global prestige. Continue reading »
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Nuremberg trials for imperiling mass extinction of species
While “leaders” fail to protect the people from global warming and nuclear war, they have succeeded splendidly in hiding the truth through the denial of climate change, accounting tricks and claims of reduction in domestic emissions, while in fact opening new coal mines, oil wells and fracked coal seams, exporting hydrocarbons through the entire global atmosphere. Continue reading »
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‘Nearly a third of the world economy is now subject to sanctions’
The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) just published a study about: Continue reading »
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Souls for sale – The Times interviews Noam Chomsky
In a society built on lies, the search for truth is a game. Continue reading »
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Hong Kong’s recovery: Greatest threat is parochialism
In January, the Finance Secretary Paul Chan went to Davos as part of an effort to encourage the world to join the government in its “embrace of a new start” for Hong Kong and to sell its numerous inherent strengths. Combined with efforts that coincided with the full opening-up of Hong Kong and recent visits Continue reading »
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The militarisation of space – can Australia avoid following America?
America’s space policy reveals its hegemonic obsession and the future quandaries for Australian policy. Even America’s approach to exploration and colonisation of the Moon is only comprehensible in terms of terrestrial geopolitics. It now expects the world to bow to its power in outer space. Continue reading »
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Demonisation and the US encirclement of China
“It’s quite clear from recent policies that the US aims to curb China’s economic development and encircle the country with military bases in unfriendly (from China’s viewpoint) countries. Such demonisation only reinforces repressive trends in China and benefits security-obsessed hardliners in China’s political system. That’s why “de-demonisation” can help those in China who favour a Continue reading »
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A mind held captive
Edward Said’s “Orientalism” encapsulates the essence of why the West resists the rise of China as a major economic and military power. Continue reading »
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In international politics, how the worm has turned for the United States
The historian of American foreign policy Gabriel Kolko would often say that those who seek to determine the destiny of humankind were in for surprises and, ultimately, disappointment. Continue reading »
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Are Pacific nations setting themselves up as US ‘pawn sacrifices’?
Being led by the nose by warmed-over former colonies like the US, Australia and India to fight a country thousands of miles away is neither smart diplomacy nor smart foreign policy. Continue reading »
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Money makes the world go round – and development succeed
The key to economic development and ending poverty is investment. Nations achieve prosperity by investing in four priorities. Most important is investing in people, through quality education and health care. The next is infrastructure, such as electricity, safe water, digital networks, and public transport. The third is natural capital, protecting nature. The fourth is business Continue reading »
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The US silence on Israeli nuclear weapons and the right-wing Israeli government
The Israeli protests against its new right-wing government have now touched on Israel’s nuclear weapons. To underline what is at stake, former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak cast aside Israeli ambiguity over whether it possesses nuclear weapons to warn his compatriots that Western diplomats are worried that a Jewish messianic dictatorship could gain control over Israel’s nuclear Continue reading »
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A Kingly proposal: Letter from Julian Assange to King Charles III
To His Majesty King Charles III, On the coronation of my liege, I thought it only fitting to extend a heartfelt invitation to you to commemorate this momentous occasion by visiting your very own kingdom within a kingdom: His Majesty’s Prison Belmarsh. Continue reading »
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My meeting with Pakistan’s Pervez Musharraf
What the general told me about Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal in the early days of the Obama administration. Continue reading »
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India straddles competing global concepts
India as the Chair of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) hosted the SCO Defence Ministers’ Meeting on 28 April. Largely unreported in Western media, the meeting underlined important divergences in the narrative promoted by US-centric media that suggests India and China have irreconcilable differences. Continue reading »
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In a multipolar world, the ‘third pole’ is not Europe, but Global South
Ukraine war and new cold war against China have accelerated the re-emergence of the old non-aligned movement of developing nations. Continue reading »
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The Ukraine war – lessons for Australia and the Asia/Pacific
We often look to history or contemporary events to help explain issues and to seek guidance. Thus Graham Allison went back millennia to explain America’s current drive to war with China in his Thucydides Trap. Recently Gregory Clark joined others in making the natural comparison between Ukraine and Taiwan. Analogies are admittedly fraught with danger Continue reading »
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Australia’s special responsibilities
Do some states have ‘special responsibilities’ or obligations to help solve collective action problems as a consequence of their position in the international system? Australia should. Continue reading »
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The American version of “one country, two systems”
Over a period of decades, the US has refined and applied its own exceptional version of One Country, Two Systems. What is most curious is that this has materialised within plain sight yet it has largely remained undetected, as such. Continue reading »
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Best not to know: how secrecy and ignorance feed AUKUS policy
Reports that Australia pays retired senior US military officials up to $7,500 a day for advice on AUKUS related defence projects, reveals a cultural cringe and taste for secrecy. Such practice is coupled to a common policy technique, of avoiding criticism by maintaining public ignorance. Continue reading »
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The coming war: Time to speak up
Silences filled with a consensus of propaganda contaminate almost everything we read, see and hear. War by media is now a key task of so-called mainstream journalism. Continue reading »
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Australia is being goaded into war with China
John Menadue’s article in Pearls and Irritation about Australia being goaded into war with China is a must read for those Australians who desire to live in harmony and leave a legacy for our descendants to live in this lucky country of ours, in peace and prosperity with our neighbours in the Asia Pacific region. Continue reading »
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Reminder: the media once bashed Trump for transgressing the One-China Policy the US now spits on
The US has been increasingly treating Taiwan like a sovereign nation with whom diplomatic relationships and alliances can be formed, in violation of its longstanding One-China policy that has kept the peace for decades. And I just think it’s worth noting that the western media who’ve lately been condoning these moves became outraged at Donald Continue reading »
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The USA and Australia fail on climate change
Nearly two years ago relief was expressed that the USA had emerged under President Biden to offer world leadership on climate change. Sadly this leadership has been a disappointment and today both the US and other high emitters such as Australia are not on track to meet the challenge. Continue reading »
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$368 billion on submarines: not a chance in hell!
This week the Federal ALP Government announced a significant cutback in the number of tanks to be stationed in the north to repel whatever is expected to land there to take our beautiful country away from us. Why – because tanks just won’t do the job in future. Continue reading »
