What we are witnessing is not just the end of a regime but quite possibly the destruction of the Syrian state. We are being told by the Western media that we should join Benjamin Netanyahu, Joe Biden and the Europeans in celebrating what risks being the creation of yet another failed state in the Middle Continue reading »
International Relations
In 2019, I was Australia’s Consul-General in Makassar, and I remember meeting a group of Muslim Australians from western Sydney: they were planning to make a film about the Makassar-Northern Australia relationship. Their leader was Sheikh Wesam Charkawi, a tall, bearded man of middle-age, in haji cap and long white robes. Sheikh Wesam was born Continue reading »
In my condemnation of the attack on the synagogue in Melbourne, I said, “This is not acceptable by any means. Unlike the Zionists who kept silent and never condemned Israel’s destruction of 819 mosques and 3 churches in just over a year in Gaza, many of which are historic, Palestinians do not condone attacks against Continue reading »
Earlier this month, the Sydney Morning Herald published a cartoon by the irrepressible Cathy Wilcox. I gazed at the image for a long time. My first thought was that she’ll pay a price for this, and so might the Herald. And, true to form, there was indeed a strong reaction in some quarters. The cartoon Continue reading »
I have yet to fully understand how the collapse of the Syrian government could happened at the speed it did happen: Syrian government falls in stunning end to 50-year rule of Assad family -AP, Dec 8 2024 BEIRUT (AP) — The Syrian government fell early Sunday in a stunning end to the 50-year rule of the Continue reading »
A non- prejudicial clause can end internal bickering. President Prabowo Subianto’s proposal for a joint development project in the South China Sea (SCS) with China has hit a snag. His foreign Minister, Pak Sugiono, was lynched before a parliamentary Committee on 3 December by lawmakers demanding answers to why Indonesia agreed to the term “overlapping Continue reading »
The Adass Israel synagogue in Ripponlea, Melbourne was firebombed this week in a horrific attack. When this synagogue was set ablaze, the incident also took a match and gasoline to our news cycle. The debate around antisemitism was already primed to blow. Only a week before the Executive Council of Australian Jewry had published a Continue reading »
Australia and the United States believe China is hegemonic. China uses a different approach to international engagement, and that means Australia fails to understand China’s appeal to the region and the global south. Increased tariffs on China and 100% tariffs on any country that backs any other currency to replace the US dollar. The Trump Continue reading »
There should be a Christmas truce/ceasefire (Orthodox Christmas or western doesn’t matter) in the war between Russia and Ukraine. Last Western AND Orthodox Christmas, there was discussion of the possibility of a truce or ceasefire over one of the Christmases. The precedent quoted was of course, the spontaneous ceasefire that took place over December 1914, Continue reading »
Almost certainly not, but someone really ought to try while it’s still possible. Geography isn’t everything in international relations, but it does explain a lot. You can’t choose the neighbours. Having a border with Russia understandably leads to well-founded paranoia or shameless, self-serving attempts at ingratiation these days. The leaders of Canada and Mexico are Continue reading »