August 24, 2022

NATO and the origins of the Ukraine war

A key question for international diplomacy is how to end the current conflict in Ukraine. History shows that for a lasting peace to be achieved, those issues at the heart of the conflict need to be addressed. Where they are ignored, resentment festers and instability is the likely result. Accordingly in thinking about a settlement of the Russo-Ukrainian conflict, we need to be clear about the causes of that conflict. Jon Richardson has argued that NATO expansion did not cause the war and that NATO has not been an organisation hostile to Russia. How accurate is this view?

June 2, 2022

The Administrative Arrangements Order of the Albanese Government-a curates egg

The Albanese ministry and Administrative Arrangements Order represent a considerable improvement on the structures the Morrison Government used, but they could have been much better.

August 10, 2024

What the UN Chief can do for Gaza

Secretary-General António Guterres has limited his role in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to that of a town crier, expressing “ grave concern” from time to time regarding the terrible Hamas attacks against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 and Israel’s collective punishment of the Palestinian people in Gaza every day since then and long before. To change his legacy, Guterres should establish a truth commission, propose a UN transitional administration and present a peace plan to get us to the “day after” in Gaza and beyond.

June 24, 2023

Fixing an American mess: China, Iran, Pakistan link up to secure Afghanistan

Beijing, Tehran, and Islamabad know that their mutual goal of ‘peaceful development’ and expanded Asian trade routes will be unattainable without solving the terrorism dilemma in neighbouring Afghanistan.

May 7, 2023

China, America and the Saudi-Iranian normalisation

The Saudi-Iranian normalisation deal brokered by China has sent shockwaves throughout the region. Regional actors had not expected China to suddenly desire a political role in the Persian Gulf. Others were skeptical of Beijings diplomatic capacity and skills. Few, however, were as surprised as foreign policy hands in Washington - even though it is the United States actions and missteps that inadvertently created both the opportunity for Beijing to mediate and the environment that compelled regional actors to sue for peace.

September 27, 2022

Almost 90% of the world is not following America on Ukraine

A remarkable recent article in Newsweek, has documented concisely and convincingly how: Nearly 90 Percent of the World Isnt Following Us on Ukraine and what consequences follow from this.

June 19, 2022

Frank Carrigan: Putin and the geopolitics of war in Ukraine

Every day, the Western media has been setting out its interpretation of the war in Ukraine. It is a narrative formulated in Washington. Countless times in organs based in countries that are part of the Washington consensus the line spelt out is the culprit responsible for the war is Putin. This approach is achieving blanket coverage.

May 5, 2022

Questionable Deves in leafy Warringah

We have in Scott Morrison a Liberal Party leader who sold himself to the nation on the basis of stopping the boats and dehumanising, then indefinitely imprisoning, asylum seekers. Now this same leader is stirring transphobic bigotry, using the lowest means to try to again secure the nations highest office.

February 26, 2020

TESS HOGUE. Living in Hong Kong through SARS and Covid 19.

I have a rotten cold. My eyes are watering, my head is pounding and I cant stop sneezing. Normally I would get plenty of rest and fluids and just wait it out.

September 19, 2024

On green growth land, we meet each other

As the curtain of the Paris Olympics fell, I was thinking of the first Olympics I had experienced and reported back in 2000 when I was a Chinese correspondent based in Canberra.

August 14, 2024

"Another Massacre"

They bombed the Tabeen school in Gaza City with so much explosive force that not a single full body was recovered.

July 14, 2024

Nonstop news stories proving Palestine supporters right about everything

Haaretz has a new report out showing that the IDF has seized more than a quarter of Gaza’s territory, and is supporting moves by Israeli settlers to build on the areas that have been carved off from the Palestinian enclave. These areas are not just controlled by Israeli forces but have been completely demolished, with IDF military encampments constructed where Palestinian living spaces used to exist.

August 23, 2023

The Insurgency

It is hard to gauge the importance of the Trumpist Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) event that took place in Sydney this weekend. There were more high-profile figures speaking than previously, and several currently serving politicians alongside white supremacists and antisemites.

April 27, 2023

Weaponised unreality

Having spent decades inculcating their base in poisonous nonsense, there is now no external authority to which right wing media can send their audience when the lies become troublesome.

April 2, 2023

The Kashmir insurgency

One of the world’s oldest unresolved international issues, _Kashmir__, has experienced many stark vicissitudes over time. In 2019, it made headlines due to India’s controversial revocation of Article 35A and 370, which essentially eliminated Kashmir’s special status and autonomy._

June 15, 2022

The American sophist: Blinken weaves a Bidenesque fantasy

In a time of multiple crises the sophistry of our leaders is more than dangerous. The narratives their words weave might advance their personal agendas but will leave the world ill-equipped to handle pandemics, wars, social upheaval, and climate disruption.

October 4, 2024

Beijing’s big policy shift signals new approach to state-market ties

Much more than a cyclical adjustment, Beijing’s latest policy shift marks a milestone in the history of its economic management.

July 11, 2024

After the inhuman destruction of Gaza's health system, looks like bombing hospitals is bad again

A missile struck a children’s hospital in Kyiv on Monday during the heaviest Russian bombardment on Ukraine in months, which stretched across five regions and reportedly killed some forty people.

June 3, 2024

Biden lets Ukraine strike Russia with US weapons while Ukraine attacks Russian nuclear defences

Well it finally happened: Biden is now letting Ukraine strike Russian territory with US-supplied weapons. Escalations in nuclear brinkmanship which would have been unthinkable a few short years ago are becoming increasingly common as Ukraine loses more and more territory and runs out of soldiers to fight.

August 14, 2023

Containment of China will only lead to US being isolated in the world: Kishore Mahbubani

The main contest between the US and China will play out in the economic arena. At the end of the day, the winner will be seen to be the country with a bigger economy.

April 10, 2023

AUKUS designed to remove public resistance to Australia stationing US nuclear submarines

The real reason for the AUKUS submarine deal might well have been the U.S. wish for a port and base in Australia from where it can send its own nuclear submarines to harass China. The offer to Australia to buy nuclear submarines was likely only made to remove Australian public resistance to the stationing of nuclear submarines (with nuclear weapons) on the continent.

June 13, 2022

The AUKUS minefield laid by the Coalition

The previous governments legacies in defence policy to the incoming Labor government from the nine years they were in power reveal a profound disregard for probity and democratic politics. They are also riven with dishonesty, a manifesto detailing the surrender of national sovereignty, and ultimately a threat to Australias peace and security.

May 7, 2024

Washington's new man in Manila eases the burden on Canberra

In an essay entitled “ Australia’s Choice” published in Australian Foreign Affairs in 2022, the leading Singaporean commentator on international relations, Kishore Mahbubani, highlighted how Australia needed to choose whether to be “a bridge between East and West in the Asian Century – or the tip of a spear projecting Western power into Asia” It transpires that certain events may have eased this pressure to choose.

April 22, 2024

If the mainstream worldview was accurate, Gaza wouldn't be burning

The destruction of Gaza proves the entire mainstream western worldview is bullshit, because if the mainstream western worldview was accurate, the destruction of Gaza would not be happening.

June 7, 2023

China places country dangerously close to US warship

The US military has released video footage of a Chinese navy ship cutting across the path of an American Destroyer in the Taiwan Strait over the weekend, reportedly forcing the US vessel to slow down to avoid a collision.

May 27, 2023

US trade restrictions may eclipse UAE's moon plans

Recent reports indicate that the United Arab Emirates Rashid 2 rover planned for Chinas Change 7 mission to the moon in 2026 has hit an American speed bump. This ambitious mission is merely the next in the impressive Change lunar series. It includes a moon orbiter, a lunar lander, a so-called hopper that can move from one part of the moon to another in leaps and bounds, the UAE rover, and an in-orbit relay satellite for effective communication with Earth.

April 7, 2023

The simple reason why the US wants full spectrum dominance of the Earth

The United States demands that the world bow down to its leadership. A failure to do so is met with the full force of the international military-industrial complex controlled by the US.

September 24, 2022

Right wing media outraged by Australias Covid 19 response

While there are demands from right wing commentators for a Royal Commission into Australias mishandling of the essentially innocuous SARS-Cov-2 virus, in reality Australians continue to die from infection while the distressing and prevalent morbidity associated with infection is becoming clearer and clearer.

March 11, 2020

LESLEY RUSSELL Coronavirus Highlights American Inequalities and Trumps Inadequacies

_In the United States there are serious problems with the adequacy and appropriateness of the health measures to control coronavirus and its impact.

May 21, 2024

Why Israel is in deep trouble

After more than six months, it appears to many that Israel is losing its war in Gaza. At the same time, Israel is fighting Hezbollah on its northern border, relations between Jerusalem and Washington are strained, and the International Court of Justice has ruled that a plausible case can be made that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

September 11, 2023

It's time Canberra took back strategic autonomy

That Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese chose to confirm his visit to China almost two months in advance after his “frank and constructive” meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit in Jakarta last week shows his earnestness to further improve Sino-Australian relations.

June 14, 2023

The compulsion to intervene why Washington underwrites violence in Ukraine

Allow me to come clean: I worry every time Max Boot vents enthusiastically about a prospective military action. Whenever that_Washington Post_columnist professes optimism about some upcoming bloodletting, misfortune tends to follow. And as it happens, hes positively bullish about the prospect of Ukraine handing Russia a decisive defeat in its upcoming, widely anticipated, sure-to-happen-any-day-now spring counteroffensive.

August 16, 2024

NATO threatens Asia-Pacific stability

Fear of China is often used to explain NATO’s desire to expand into Asia. The headline reason masks a longing to restore a romanticised empire.

August 7, 2024

"Well What SHOULD Israel Have Done After October 7?"

People often object to criticisms of Israel’s ongoing mass atrocity in Gaza by saying, “Well what SHOULD Israel have done in response to October 7 then?” They say it like the question should confound you, as though it’s some kind of thought-terminating unanswerable Zen koan or something.

August 5, 2024

UN probe finds 'Appalling Acts' of torture against Palestinians detained by Israel

The U.N. report found evidence of sexual violence, waterboarding, and the use of dogs against detainees, many of whom were deprived of food, water, sleep, and toilet access.

July 19, 2024

NATO 'sabre-rattling' at the gates of Asia yet again

It has been said, ‘the barbarians are at the gates,’ but with NATO they have already stormed the citadel, and having done so they now want to spread their madness to Asia.

August 30, 2023

Only idiots believe the US is protecting Australia from China

The Economist has taken a keen interest in Australia lately, which if you know anything about The Economist is something you never want to see happen to your country. Two articles published in the last few days by the notorious propaganda outlet have celebrated the fact that Australia appears to be the most likely nation to follow the United States into a hot war with China as it enmeshes itself further and further with the US war machine.

July 28, 2023

China replaces Qin Gang with Wang Yi, but big political questions linger after foreign minister change-up

Qins replacement has been named, ending weeks of speculation, but its still not clear what prompted the former foreign ministers removal. Wangs appointment makes him the most powerful person to hold the position in decades.

July 6, 2023

Criminal suspects: HK acts to protect itself from hostile forces

Although Penny Wong is eager to condemn Hong Kong, she has done nothing of any substance to help her fellow countryman, Julian Assange; an Australian citizen currently in a UK jail fighting extradition to the US, which is using the extraterritorial reach of the Espionage Act (1917) for the alleged crime of exposing malfeasance at the heart of the American government.

May 17, 2023

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.

April 18, 2023

How squabbling pollies let miners wreck our economy

A speech by former Treasury secretary Dr Ken Henry last month was reported as a great call for comprehensive tax reform. But it was also something much more disturbing: an entirely different perspective on why our economy has been weak for most of this century and once the present pandemic-related surge has passed is likely to stay weak.

August 24, 2023

Big brave Western proxy warriors keep whining that Ukrainian troops are cowards

Amid continuous news that the Ukrainian counteroffensive which began in June is not going as hoped, The New York Times has published an article titled Troop Deaths and Injuries in Ukraine War Near 500,000, U.S. Officials Say.

April 6, 2023

Daniel Ellsberg calling on us to stop nuclear war

The Pentagon Papers whistleblower, who has a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, is urging a ceasefire in Ukraine.This is not a species to be trusted with nuclear weapons, hetellsMarjorie Cohn.

February 27, 2021

Susan Ryan: a fighter for a fair go

Labor politician and lifelong proponent of equality opportunity, Susan Ryans commitment to social justice was fostered by years at Brigidine schools.

July 4, 2018

Australian laws should avoid hurting China.(Global Times China)

Australia has benefitted greatly from its relations with China, but has since begun to censor almost all the factors that have contributed to the benefits, and has interpreted its relations with China in the most negative way.

Such actions by Australia are beyond the Chinese public’s imagination of a country they once respected, and will bitterly disappoint them. Now that the laws have been approved, Australia should reduce their negative impact on the Chinese diaspora and on relations with China.

September 24, 2024

We’re all like Golems condemned to life stuck in an Overton echo container with Hanrahan

Counting down the months til the next Federal Election, it’s hard not to feel totally depressed. Anthony Albanese and the gang have obviously been hard at work, pursuing change on a broad range of issues behind the scenes, trying to clean up the mess left by the LNP. But there’s no joy. No sizzle to the democracy sausage.

July 26, 2024

“What sort of country locks people away for years for planning a peaceful demonstration?”

In recent times, rights of protest have faced crackdowns throughout Europe.

July 23, 2024

10 takeaways from the Central Committee of the CPC's resolution on deepening reform

The Resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) on Further Deepening Reform Comprehensively to Advance Chinese Modernisation and The Explanation of the Resolution were made public on Sunday. Below are my ten quick takeaways from the highly significant resolution.

July 13, 2024

Australian journalist Cheng Lei says China bashing ‘worrying’

Cheng Lei, who was imprisoned in China for three years, says Australians should not overreact over every bilateral issue with Beijing.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal