The Australia China Joint Communique of December 1972 is the foundational document underpinning bilateral relations ever since. It is not a long document, and at a cursory glance appears quite simple. Recently, however, some commentators have questioned its language and suggested it is ambiguous, particularly concerning our government’s position on the status of Taiwan. A Continue reading »
International Relations
In the West the claim is often made that Palestine is an issue that Arab or Muslim governments manipulate to stay in power by appealing to a populist cause. The deeper truth is that Palestine has become a subversive issue in the Middle East: the liberation of Palestinians through a South Africa-style dismantling of an Continue reading »
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. Why would Asia, a continent without war for 45 years want to have anything to do with a war-mongering organisation like NATO, one Continue reading »
The NATO logo dominated meetings at the anniversary conference in Washington. The logo includes a reversed rendition reading OTAN. The final communique at the anniversary conference had some wondering if OTAN was an acronym for Oriental Territory Attack Node. The final communique was unrestrained in its attack on China across a range of issues and Continue reading »
Can the United States avoid a descent into political violence? Of the 52 cases where countries reached the levels of polarisation which now exist in the US, half had their status as democracies downgraded. The US is the only Western democracy to have sustained such intense polarisation over such an extended period. It really is Continue reading »
Becoming the latest recruit in a well-organised global program, Australia has joined the 24 nations which have appointed envoys to combat anti-Semitism. We still await an envoy for resisting Islamophobia. On 9 July, Australia’s Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus weighed into the perennial debate about what constitutes anti-Semitism, telling the National Press Club that anti-Semitic statements are Continue reading »
For the sake of America’s security and world peace, the U.S. should immediately abandon the neocon quest for hegemony in favour of diplomacy and peaceful co-existence. In 1992, U.S. foreign-policy exceptionalism went into overdrive. The U.S. has always viewed itself as an exceptional nation destined for leadership, and the demise of the Soviet Union in December 1991 Continue reading »
Once upon a time the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken booked a nice hotel room with a Queen bed and invited Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to share it with him. Continue reading »
Cheng Lei, who was imprisoned in China for three years, says Australians should not overreact over every bilateral issue with Beijing. Freed Australian journalist Cheng Lei, who was imprisoned in Beijing for three years, has urged Australians to avoid taking simplistic or extreme views about China. The former anchor at Chinese state-run TV network CGTN Continue reading »
Readers of P&I may recall my earlier papers on the International Criminal Court of Justice (ICJ), and the International Criminal Court (ICC), and their recent forays into the Middle East quagmire. Some may have thought that this is a positive development, perhaps humanity is enlisting international law which will finally bring some common sense to Continue reading »