December 8, 2022

Depicting the Frontier Wars at the Australian War Memorial: perception is the critical factor

While history per se is (or should be) a statement of facts, the impact of history on its audience is the creation or modification of perception. That the ‘ANZAC Cloak’ has come to be as pervasive as it has and equally the fact that it is only in very recent times that the Frontier Wars have come to be appreciated in any depth, are both expressions of perception.

December 2, 2022

Women on Death Row in Singapore: how gender discriminations create a ‘double punishment’

Women on death row in Singapore face a stark reality of isolation, harassment and intimidation. Singapore’s enthusiastic application of the death penalty, particularly, for minor drug offences, has recently garnered the spotlight after Singapore have executed at least 11 men since March 2022.

October 27, 2022

Australia’s problem with torture

Casting a keen eye over the human rights obligations of a state is tantamount to rummaging through untended, mouldering laundry. Often, the promise to wash such neglected items has been delayed or postponed. The reasons are often many, and not always insensible. And whose right is it to go through such things anyway?

January 11, 2022

Global warming: the nine essential questions for candidates at election 2022

Providing thoughtful answers should be the minimum requirement for candidates. Even more exhaustive answers should be demanded of cabinet hopefuls..

December 21, 2021

Tactical voting: Labor supporters can tip balance towards independents

The push to elect independent — mainly female — candidates in Coalition seats in 2022 will partly rely on co-operation from “the other side”.

March 18, 2021

Without leadership, Australia is vulnerable to foreign powers including the US

Having sold and ceded our sovereignty to the US on the international market, all but rendering Australia incapable of making independent decisions, Morrison is now hellbent on squandering domestic sovereignty. He is dividing the nation on the most basic of iss__ues, the rights of women.

January 14, 2025

How Murdoch got a foothold in Foxtel (An updated post from 1 February 2014)

Rupert Murdoch relies on political threats for commercial benefit

January 2, 2025

Seasons: Telling stories of God and life through landscape painting

Dedicated to the memory of Susie Menadue

“Beale’s art has always combined lyricism with a marked technical competence. There is a close observation of the moods of nature, the patterns of light and a celebration of the miracle of life that pervades against the forces of darkness. In these late works, a quiet spiritualism creeps into his art like a flickering candle that continues to shine despite the gusts of wind. Posterity eventually sorts out the standing of artists, and I suspect that, in retrospect, Roger Beale will be remembered as an artist who possessed his own unique voice in his art, which differentiated him from many others of his generation.” – Professor Sasha Grishin

November 29, 2024

The Australian dream

Former Australian prime minister Paul Keating — who is staunchly against AUKUS — said, of Australians, that we are not content with our geography.

December 18, 2023

Equality is risky - best stay with blokes

Indonesians have just witnessed a messy, badly produced TV ‘debate’ between the politicians jostling to run the world’s fourth largest democracy facing a national election in less than two months.

November 26, 2023

Understanding China – According to its own history and culture

In order to understand what is happening in China now and predict what may happen over the following years we must draw on Chinese history and philosophy to guide us. Relying on the western experience to guide our thinking about China may be more comforting and accessible but it leaves us in a very poor position when considering the world’s newest and oldest superpower.

October 13, 2023

Defenestration in Washington

Looking on as the Republican Majority Leader is pushed out the window. We thought that only the USSR got rid of its leaders in a purge like this!

December 4, 2022

The great political crossover: the concept of elections as sporting contests has finally broken down

Education levels and cultural affinities rather than income and economic security are becoming the major determinants of how people vote, and whether they define themselves as progressive or conservative.

November 5, 2022

A promise of violence: The AFP supplies the Solomon Islands

The Solomon Islands has become a regular feature in the defence and security news of Australia’s media sphere.

October 7, 2022

Liberal candidate supports US-style abortion ban ahead of state poll

The parties of the right in Australia are changing faster than their voters might recognise. It is increasingly the case that a vote for the “conservatives” is a vote for the radical or religious right.

January 9, 2022

How Ukraine's dominant right wing undermines the peace

Kiev’s determination to extinguish pro-Russian sentiment in its two far eastern provinces has derailed the Minsk agreement, which offered the best hope for stability in the region.

January 17, 2025

With friends like these...

Despite the decades both major parties have spent ingratiating themselves with the leaders of the United States, Australia is unlikely to receive any favours from the Trump administration.

November 2, 2024

Cartoon commentary

October 7, 2024

Julian Assange’s interview with Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah

While the Australian government encourages us to view the late leader of Hezbollah, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, as a terrorist, very many Australians who abhor terrorism would have the highest regard for him. Why? This interview may provide some answers.

April 5, 2024

The disintegration of party politics in contemporary Australia

The world today is disastrously misgoverned by a paranoid generation of ageing political leaders. There’s not a statesman among them, let alone a stateswoman. Meanwhile, the once dominant mainstream political parties are retreating into their bunkers, fearful of the exposure of corruption that has remained hidden in their ranks, terrified of malevolent media moguls, and scared of losing the support of big-monied backers whose identities they conceal. They are blind to the emerging generations of young people who are fed up with how the old generation is wrecking their futures.

October 7, 2023

Will Chinese Australians take the moral high ground, again?

In 1888 Lowe Kong Meng, Cheong Cheok Hong and Louis Ah Moy took the moral high ground in The Chinese Question booklet. They were ignored, of course. It was the time.

February 4, 2023

Pearls and Irritations is a sorely needed voice

The only place in our media landscape where I can get a well argued and penetrating alternative view to our overwhelmingly conservative mainstream media.

February 1, 2023

Legacy boat arrivals: Is a decade of policy paralysis about to be addressed?

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus says the Government will shortly announce a ‘humane resolution’ to the situation of 31,000 legacy boat arrivals who have been living in Australia for over a decade.

October 14, 2022

Russia-Ukraine: For humanity’s sake, turn down the heat

It’s time we recognise the carnage of this war in Ukraine, and turn to dialogue with Russia.

March 2, 2022

The deep divide between the people and mainstream politics and media

October 25, 2021

It's in Australia's national interest to look beyond military risks in foreign policy Part 2

Australian foreign policy has been preoccupied with the US and military risks, but needs to consider climate disruption and other risks to Australians’ well-being.

September 12, 2021

Children of Coal: my mother’s story

Judith White grew up in the north of England when it still ran on coal. Her new memoir has her mother Joan at its centre.

April 5, 2025

Palestine is the issue to consider when you enter the voting booth

On the day Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced the election date, Jews Against the Occupation ‘48 issued an open statement addressing the current government in the hope that Labor would shift its policies on Israel/Palestine.

February 17, 2025

Pitt may not be best fit as ambassador to the Holy See

Diplomatic appointments usually don’t get much news coverage unless it’s a retiring politician getting appointed. Apparently Australian ambassador to the Holy See is one such plum job.

February 4, 2025

Who’s tough enough not to pull the AUKUS trigger?

A time may come when someone must write the history of Labor’s 2025 historic electoral triumph over the Coalition, and the “rope a dope” strategies and tactics which took Opposition leader Peter Dutton in, then spat him out. If it all comes to pass, students of Labor history will note that it was two key figures of the left, Penny Wong and Anthony Albanese himself, who rode AUKUS to victory in the successive AUKUS Cups.

December 13, 2023

AUKUS: Conroy's justification of the "greatest industrial undertaking" falls short

At a minimum Australians expect ministers in the Defence portfolio to display a basic knowledge of defence matters. The Minister for Defence Industry Pat Conroy’s address to the National Press Club is particularly worrying as justification for “the greatest industrial undertaking Australia has ever attempted”.

March 22, 2022

Australia is ignoring important lessons from war from Ukraine

Defence policy and the reality of war should be at the centre of election following the Russian aggression in Ukraine . But Australian political leaders continue to ignore that reality.

January 8, 2022

Critical thinking shoved aside: wilful blindness rules media

It’s not just the Murdoch press. Lack of critical engagement and willingness to act for the powerful has hampered the effectiveness of journalists.

November 13, 2021

Dangerous liaisons: Pine Gap is key to America's nuclear war apparatus. Part 3

The most egregious example of our assistance to US missions could be terminated without threatening genuine US strategic interests, or the alliance.

October 29, 2021

If the Nationals cared about farmers, they'd be concerned about land clearing

As the National Party focuses on opportunities to rort taxpayers, land clearing and global warming are costing farmers dearly.

February 5, 2025

How to be re-elected

The re-election of the Albanese Government cannot be taken for granted. That is inspite of several credible achievements by Treasurer Chalmers. Recent opinion polls suggest support for the ALP Government is insufficient for even a minority government win. Given the stunning election win by Trump, a similar disaster could happen in Australia.

November 26, 2024

Is Israel above international law? Let’s put the ICC warrants into perspective

On 19 November, the ICC issued warrants for the arrest of Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, in response to the request by the Prosecutor of the ICC, Karim Khan KC, back on 20 May.

February 14, 2024

Untruths, the CIA, and Whitlam’s dismissal

A highly regarded commentator on national security, Paul Dibb, has written an astonishing article in the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s The Strategist on January 15 – astonishing because it is riddled with major errors.

December 24, 2023

Vale Mark Valencia

Mark J. Valencia, an internationally renowned maritime policy analyst focused on Asia, passed away on 6 December 2023 in Hawaii, surrounded by his family.

December 15, 2023

With UNCOP a disaster, Community Energy is the way forward

Anyone watching the current COP, is probably thinking that governments and businesses cannot (or will not) solve the problem of emissions and climate change by themselves. Even when trying, they face the difficulties of corporations taking land from local people, paying some people but not others creating new inequalities, disrupting local social relations, despoiling established environmental aesthetic, or use, values, and so on.

October 17, 2023

Palestine’s unending torment: A stain on the world’s conscience

Mainstream Western coverage of the recent Hamas foray into Israel and its aftermath has been marked by sensationalism, lack of historical context, and superficial moralising.

March 5, 2023

The sin of Robodebt

What appears to be absent from the politicians and public servants appearing in the Robodebt Royal Commission is an understanding that it was a moral failure – a sin. Finding the sinners to punish in atonement might make us feel better for a moment, but it might not fix the sin.

April 1, 2022

Who is militarizing the south China sea?

There is an ongoing debate between the U.S. and China as to who is militarizing the South China Sea. Who is right is not clear and they both have their arguments.

The Commander of all US-Indo-Pacific forces Admiral John Aquilino has accused China of “fully militarizing three features in the South China Sea”... Mischief, Subi and Fiery Cross Reefs. He did so while on board a US surveillance plane flying near some of the Chinese occupied features. He added “I think over the past 20 years we’ve witnessed the largest [China] military buildup since World War II” and asserted that the buildup “is destabilizing to the region.” He elaborated that China had deployed “anti-ship and anti-aircraft missile systems, laser and arming equipment and fighter jets.” With an eye to the future, he warned that “they can fly fighters, bombers plus all these offensive capabilities of missile systems.” They threaten all nations who operate in the vicinity and all the international sea and airspace.” Aquilino also raised the old canard that China had violated President Xi’s pledge to not militarize the features.

China’s Foreign Ministry responded that its deployment of “defense facilities on its own territory is a right entitled to every sovereign country” and that US military activities in the area “seriously threaten the sovereignty and security of coastal countries.”

So who is right? That is not clear and both sides have their arguments in this ongoing debate.

China has installed what it claims are defensive weapons on features it claims and occupies. It views them as critical to the defense of an existential asset – their nuclear armed submarines.

But President Xi did not say in September 2015 that China would “not militarize the islands”. According to the translation, he said _ _ “China does not intend to pursue militarization [of the features]. The key words are “intend” and “militarization”.

China may well have not intended to “militarize” the features. But it did so in response to Vietnam’s deployment of long range mobile rocket launchers on five features within striking distance of China’s occupied features and stepped up its continued US Freedom of Navigation Operations (FONOPs) challenging its maritime and some territorial claims.

Moreover, China apparently does not consider defensive installations “militarization”. In a January 2016 teleconference with then US Chief of Naval Operations John Richardson, Chinese naval commander Wu Shengli said that “we won’t not set up defenses. How many defenses completely depends on the level of threat we face”. Self-defense is every nation’s right.

Vietnam claims that “it is within our legitimate right to self-defense to move our weapons to any area at any time within our sovereign territory.” Even the U.S. itself frequently claims that it is defending its national security interests by its forward military deployments, its Intelligence,Surveillance and Reconnaissance(ISR) probes, its FONOPs and its beefed up naval presence in the South China Sea.

There is clear disagreement as to what constitutes “militarization” and who is doing it. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines ‘militarization’ as “to give a military character to or to adapt for military use.” According to this definition all the claimants to and occupiers of Spratly features-- China, Taiwan, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam-- ”militarized” them years ago. Indeed, all have stationed military personnel there and built airstrips and harbors that can and have accommodated military aircraft and vessels.

But what about the bigger picture of ‘militarization’ ? The U.S.--unlike China- already has military ‘places’ in Southeast Asia--in its military allies the Philippines and Thailand--and more recently in Malaysia and Singapore for its Poseiden subhunters and electronic warfare platforms. With the pivot, the U.S. has clearly increased its military presence in the region. Indeed, the U.S. has now deployed 60 percent of its air and naval forces to the Indo-Pacific. The most formidable weapons in its arsenal –aircraft carrier battle groups and nuclear capable bombers-- frequent the South China Sea, sometimes several at a time undertaking joint exercises. Under its new Indo-Pacific Strategy, US military alliances and strategic partnerships aimed at China are being reinvigorated and it hopes to emplace mid range missiles in the region.

Ironically, at about the same time Aquilino was hyping China’s military installations, a US expeditionary mobile base – a large logistics support and command and control vessel-- entered the South China Sea for the first time. It is one of the U.S.’s largest warships second only to US aircraft carriers and can host heavy helicopters.

In China’s view, the U.S. has militarized the situation by provocatively ‘projecting power’. Indeed, as a senior US naval officer put it, the FONOPs are _ “an in your face, rub your nose in it operation that lets people know who is the boss”--in other words ‘gunboat diplomacy’. China’s Deputy Foreign Minister Liu said “This has gone beyond the scope of freedom of navigation. It is a political provocation_ _”.

The reality is that in each other’s eyes both China and the U.S. are ‘militarizing’ the South China Sea. Worse, both are using their military assets to project psychological dominance of the region.

It is clear that ‘militarization’ means different things to different nations. Countries that live in glass houses should not throw stones—especially regarding what their rival may do with its assets. That cuts both ways.

This piece first appeared in the Asia Times. https://asiatimes.com/2022/03/us-china-debate-over-militarization-of-south-china-sea/

Mark J. Valencia is an internationally known maritime policy analyst focused on Asia and currently Adjunct Senior Scholar at the National Institute for South China Sea Studies, Haikou, China

March 18, 2022

Jake Johnson-Ukraine, Russia reportedly making 'Significant progress" on a 15-Point peace deal

“Our position at the negotiations is quite specific—legally verified security guarantees; ceasefire; withdrawal of Russian troops,” said an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

January 4, 2022

Positive competition: US and China can live in harmony in the Asia-Pacific

The future regional order has to be one of inclusion and integration, rather than one of exclusion and bloc-rivalry.

November 22, 2021

The endless civil war among conservatives over nuclear power

The case for nuclear power in Australia is overwhelmingly weak, but that doesn’t deter the culture warriors in the Morrison government or the Murdoch media.

October 26, 2021

A member of the Parliamentary body that oversees intelligence agencies lends support to anti-China campaign

The compromised parliamentary intelligence committee illustrates the need for a standing royal commission to oversee Australia intelligence agencies.

January 11, 2025

The disruptions to come: Australian foreign policy in the Trump era

As the Trump presidency looms across America and the world, Australia faces major foreign and security policy challenges on three fronts: (i) How would a Dutton government respond? (ii) How would a renewed Albanese government respond? (iii) How would a minority Labor government respond?

March 22, 2024

The next World War has started

World War Three has already begun, though few have noticed. It is being fought out in parliaments and the press, on social media platforms, in pubs and at family dining tables around the globe. It is an almost silent war that will kill millions, potentially billions and wreck the planet for all.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal