April 12, 2025

Republic of Korea – Tricky transition times ahead

The unanimous decision of the ROK’s Constitutional Court ( 8-0 including those judges nominated by his party) to uphold the National Assembly’s decision to immediately impeach former president Yoon Suk Yeol marks a very significant milestone in the country’s short democratic history.

July 3, 2025

The devil's dance with Iran

Iran has been on a hit list of seven countries in a geostrategic plan for the reconfiguration of the Middle East first drawn up by the US in 2001 following the 9/11 attacks.

June 3, 2025

Time again for stewards to do a moral health check-up

Was there ever anything more predictable, and more shameful than the detached and independent — and, of course, apolitical — decision by federal Environment Minister Murray Watt that damage caused to Aboriginal Australian heritage values could not weigh as heavily as the economic interest of Woodside’s Northwest Shelf project, worth billions of dollars, potentially trillions?

April 24, 2025

Memory shapes China's response to Trump’s tariffs

To asses China’s reaction to Donald Trump’s tariffs we have to go back around 165 years.

April 7, 2025

Hosting the UN climate summit is far from ‘madness’ – here’s how Australia stands to benefit

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton would withdraw Australia’s bid to co-host next year’s global climate summit if the Coalition wins the federal election.

July 5, 2025

Fifteen years of UN Women: A call to action, not complacency

Fifteen years ago, UN Women was established with a bold mission: to drive real and lasting change for all women and girls.

May 29, 2025

Australia is about to see a step change in its renewable transition strategy

“I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.” Or so said the actor Jimmy Dean.

May 12, 2025

Critical minerals offer a path to check US unilateralism

Trumpian trade policy promises a period of spasmodic aggression and persisting uncertainty.

July 10, 2025

'Indefensible': Trump budget law subsidises private jet owners while taking healthcare from millions

A provision of the budget law that President Donald Trump signed last week will leave taxpayers to “pick up the tab for the private jet industry and billionaire high flyers”.

April 13, 2025

Sherlock Holmes investigates the wages explosion that never was

I like to imagine that, if Arthur Conan Doyle were still alive, and had turned his creation, Sherlock Holmes, to solving the economic mysteries of the 21st century, he would have written this conversation:

July 4, 2025

China’s rapid adoption of AI demands greater scrutiny of the social impact

In contrast to the perception that Beijing has placed a lot of “guardrails” on AI, China’s AI regulation so far has been limited.

June 25, 2025

Banning social media for kids is not the answer. Jonathan Haidt is wrong

Jonathan Haidt is described as a modern-day prophet who claims to have the cure for the epidemic of anxiety afflicting young kids today.

June 27, 2025

Don't talk or write about Palestine. It's a career killer

The new McCarthyism sweeps through the university sector at a terrifying pace. At the core is conflation of antisemitism with criticism of Israel, spurred on by the pro-Israel lobby that has convinced or recruited governments and large sections of the media.

April 8, 2025

Trump’s trade war is bad, but how bad is up to the rest of us

At last, we know enough about US President Donald Trump’s opening move on tariffs to start thinking about what it all means. By imposing tariffs on America’s imports, he’s shot his economy in the foot, but the rest of the world decides how bad it’s likely to be by what we do in response.

May 6, 2025

South Korea at a crossroads

On 4 April, South Korea’s Constitutional Court unanimously ruled to remove the impeached President Yoon Suk-yeol from office for what it described as having “violated the constitutional order and posed a serious threat to the democratic republic”.

May 24, 2025

Closer ASEAN ties can help China counter US militarisation of region

However, Beijing’s foreign policy and economic agenda are at cross purposes, with nations in the bloc suffering from chronic trade deficits.

June 29, 2025

Local power: How councils turn conversations into energy upgrades

When it comes to cutting emissions and lowering power bills, many Australian households won’t be swayed by glossy ads, government policies, or even rebates. What often gets people to take action is a conversation – with a friend, a neighbour, or someone they trust.

May 15, 2025

The first-ever historic agreement between the US and Hamas – with Netanyahu in a secondary role

The direct talks between the United States and Hamas took Israel by surprise and led to an agreement that resulted in the release of the Israeli-American captive Edan Alexander.

April 22, 2025

One side, two or many? How to develop ties with our region

Everyone recognises that we need closer ties with our region. Peter Varghese has written about the importance of “deepening our regional relationships”.

June 21, 2025

News Corp’s China obsession: why beating the drum is easier than thinking

Introducing our new columnist Fred Zhang, who brings you his take on the way the Australian media reports and/or mis- and under- reports on China.

June 18, 2025

Albo's steady-as-she goes strategy – will it work?

Anthony Albanese has made it clear that we cannot expect a more ambitious government strategy in future, despite the size of his election win.

May 30, 2025

Time to go beyond words on Gaza

With Israel compounding the misery of the people of the Gaza Strip through its latest operation, Australia has finally come to a point of condemnation.

April 14, 2025

Why cap the number of university students from abroad?

Having been unable to pass legislation, the Albanese Labor Government (as it likes to be called) decided in 2024 to use the “slow student visa process” to reduce international student numbers because of the problems they cause in taking houses and jobs from Australians.

June 5, 2025

Marco Rubio: The secretary of statelessness

Question: What member of Trump’s cabinet has four major posts, but only one job? Answer: Marco Rubio

June 14, 2025

The cultural and linguistic roots of protest in China

In 1760, the newly established Qing Dynasty was looking to expand Chinese territory by claiming the region of Xinjiang. Many Chinese intellectuals and scholars opposed this.

June 12, 2025

A Joycean defence of Harvard (and Australia’s universities?) from Trump’s derangement Part 2 of 2

In the context of President Donald Trump’s all-embracing appetites and hatreds, Harvard being under attack by his administration should, almost reflexively, be easy to defend.

April 25, 2025

Close the US military bases in Asia

The best strategy for the superpowers is to stay out of each other’s lanes.

June 22, 2025

US brain drain set to gather pace as academics seek posts outside Trump’s America

Increasing numbers of scientists are eyeing opportunities in Australia, Canada, China and Europe amid threatened cuts to funding.

May 4, 2025

A monstrous media and murder in Gaza

Imagine how this would have been reported if Russian soldiers had executed Ukrainians in this way. Not like this, you can be sure.

April 17, 2025

Easter: More rising than falling

“I call upon heaven and earth this day to witness that I have put before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life! Choose life, so that you and your descendants may live.” (Deuteronomy, 30:19)

April 9, 2025

The stock market: an instantaneous referendum

Large movements in the stock market can cause unexpected events beyond it to happen very quickly.

July 1, 2025

AUKUS project has worsened Australia’s ties with China

I have argued elsewhere (Asia Sentinel, 24/5/2025) that five factors could throw the US$245 billion AUKUS deal off balance following the recent decision by Washington to review the deal.

May 28, 2025

The drought is back – we need a new way to help farmers survive tough times

Australia in 2025 is living up to Dorothy McKellar’s poetic vision of a country stricken by “ drought and flooding rains”.

August 17, 2025

Our bravest journalists today are all working and dying in Gaza

Palestinian reporters are being murdered before their own cameras to expose true horrors to an indifferent or even pro-genocidal world.

July 2, 2025

Will the 'Mr Magoo Nation' stand up against 'Trumpist' geopolitics?

In the June 7-8 issue of The Australian Greg Sheridan railed against the ‘’crushing waves of [Chinese] military threat” and satirised the Albanese Government’s “pathological passivity” as reminiscent of Peter Seller’s quietly subversive Chauncey Gardner.

June 26, 2025

Australian CEOs are still getting their bonuses. Performance doesn’t seem to matter so much

Almost all of Australia’s top chief executives are, according to their boards at least, knocking it out of the park in terms of performance.

August 12, 2025

Germany's arms embargo on Israel isn't betrayal, it's a moral reckoning

The arming of Israel now, so that it can carry out its plan to take control of Gaza and carry out ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity in the territory, is one of the most antisemitic and anti-Israeli measures imaginable.

June 15, 2025

US progressives say stop supporting 'rogue genocidal regime' as Israel wages illegal war on Iran

“Trump must act immediately to suspend all military support to Israel and stop allowing US arms to fuel war crimes, mass civilian death, and regional collapse,” said one critic.

August 5, 2025

'Stop genocide!' March across Sydney bridge for Gaza

“One has to be blind not to see that Israel has completely lost the majority of the world—including in the West.”

June 1, 2025

Jerry Falwell and the Christian culture wars

In May 1979, Jerry Falwell invited a select group of Christian conservative leaders to a strategic planning retreat at his Lynchburg, VA, estate.

August 13, 2025

What will Australia's recognition of Palestine mean in practical terms?

In an interview with the ABC, Chris Sidoti, Commissioner on the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, said the decision on recognition of Palestine was necessary, but not sufficient in and of itself.

June 25, 2025

Let one version win – ours

The Church burned translators of the Latin Bible into English in the late 14th century and forbade its teachings, to ensure only one narrative ruled. Australian sinophobes want their version of what the People’s Republic of China is doing, thinking and planning to prevail.

August 2, 2025

Gaza: Options for urgent action put to parliamentarians

Organising to meet a considerable number of federal parliamentarians in Canberra during a sitting week is never easy but that was the goal of Australians for Humanity desperate for new ways for Australia to contribute to urgent humanitarian action in Gaza.

July 21, 2025

Message from the editor

Welcome to the week, the first sitting week of the 48th Australian Parliament, where we will see, for the first time, 94 ALP MPs, 43 Coalition members, 10 Independent MPs and three from minor parties on the floor of the House of Representatives.

July 14, 2025

Message from the editor

Anthony Albanese left for China two days ago. If you relied solely on some parts of the Australian media, you’d think he was handing over the silverware and snuggling up with the People’s Liberation Army.

June 17, 2025

Universities and the 'definition' of antisemitism

Antisemitism is a despicable phenomenon with a long and dismal history, sadly promoted by significant elements in Christianity for many centuries as well as by other secular ideologies, and we do well to guard against it.

June 16, 2025

Trump's tariffs look exceptionally bad for Taiwan

The direct impact of the extraordinary, “Liberation Day” US tariff regime is bad for Taiwan. The indirect effects may prove to be graphically worse.

June 14, 2025

Reflections on Ukraine’s 'Spider Web' and other attacks on Russia: why the euphoria?

Reports by invested parties of battlefield success in most wars — and the war between Russian and Ukraine is an exemplary case — are best read when accompanied by the aphorism of the ancient Greek tragic dramatist, Aeschylus — in war, truth is the first casualty — and then following the unfolding of Newton’s 3rd Law as applied to war reportage: every claim is met with a counter-claim until something resembling an account corresponding to observable facts emerges. This, almost without exception, reduces the original version to an ambitious fable.

April 15, 2025

How Trump’s tariffs will affect Pacific islands

Most Pacific island countries got off relatively lightly when Donald Trump announced his “reciprocal” tariffs. Ten were levied tariffs of 10%, the minimum handed out. (Timor-Leste also got a 10% tariff.) Three Pacific nations were given higher rates: Vanuatu (23%), Nauru (30%) and Fiji (32%).

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal