Before asking whether we are on the precipice of a calamitous war between the United States and China, we need to query who wants such a conflict and who will benefit from it. Certainly, arms manufacturers will gain. So will the media and global strategy pundits. All three will improve their businesses and their incomes. Continue reading »
International Relations
In less than two weeks, when Donald Trump takes office, he will confront sharply conflicting advice on Ukraine from pro-war and anti-war camps in his incoming administration. We cannot predict the outcome, but here is relevant analysis of the choices facing him. I will offer first a précis of the known and increasingly agreed military Continue reading »
The Year of the Snake begins on 29 January. Over the next couple of weeks, fortune tellers will flood the press with their views, each with as much weight and reliability as the mottos in fortune cookies. Predicting the future by reference to zodiac signs may be as unscientific as other astrological or phrenological forecasts, Continue reading »
What do Panama, Canada and Greenland have in common? Could Donald Trump be getting the US back to brass tacks, to a core strategy of dominating the Western Hemisphere? Possibly, and he may be blowing away the fraudulent rhetoric about rules-based international order, territorial integrity, international law and the crusade to expand democracies. Trump said Continue reading »
The June 2025 UN Conference on Palestine can be the long-awaited turning point for the region. The UN, on its 80th birthday in 2025, can mark the occasion by securing a lasting solution to the conflict in the Middle East, by welcoming the State of Palestine as the 194th UN member state. The upcoming UN Continue reading »
The Eagles classic “Hotel California” could be considered an allegory for membership in the imperial system of the United States. At least to this point, that appears to be the mindset prevalent in Australia’s political, defence and security class, regardless of the harm that membership causes. It is time to check out. The end of Continue reading »
The war about Israel and its right to exist is not really between Israel and the leading terrorist militias whose aim is to destroy Israel. It is now, more clearly than ever, between the US and Iran. Until this is understood, no amount of thumping of chests and gnashing of teeth and blaming of Netanyahu Continue reading »
The arrest warrants for Prime Minister Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Gallant sparked outrage in Israel and across the Jewish world. But the ICC’s decision is neither antisemitic nor a modern-day blood libel: it is a call for Jews not to sacrifice the universal ideal of justice on the altar of uncritically defending Israel. Two Continue reading »
“That which can be destroyed by the truth, should be.” This is a line by fantasy author PC Hodgell, though it’s often misattributed to Carl Sagan. I think about this quote a lot. I think about it when reflecting on the way Israel is exterminating Palestinian journalists in Gaza while keeping western journalists out of Continue reading »
The Donald Trump-JD Vance victory marks a repudiation of the post-Cold War neoconservative Washington playbook of militarised responses to foreign policy challenges. Tulsi Gabbard, the director of National Intelligence-designate, shares their anxiety over America’s addiction to intervening in foreign conflicts not of vital interest to the US, whose net effect has been to destabilise countries Continue reading »