During a 27 April ceremony marking the delivery of Russian-made nuclear fuel to the Akkuyu nuclear power plant in southern Turkiye, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced his support for his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the hotly-contested, upcoming 14 May presidential elections. Republished from THE CRADLE May 8, 2023. The two heads of state participated Continue reading »
International Relations
After leading a government that trashed Australia’s relationship with China, Scott Morrison and Arthur Sinodinos have joined Kurt Campbell’s US influence network cashing in on war talk. [WITH AN URGENT NOTICE AT THE END FOR A CHANCE TO MOBILISE AGAINST AUKUS]. At his 15 March 2023 appearance at the National Press Club, the media challenged Continue reading »
The increasing militarisation of the South China Sea disputes sets the stage for the worst case scenario—frequent and widespread conflict that eventually results in a military confrontation between China and the US. To avoid this scenario, the reality is that China, its rival claimants and the U.S. have to compromise. China’s position, policy and practices in Continue reading »
We are permitting ourselves no character of our own under the architecture of the Alliance. It means we’ve accepted the status of a kind of client state, or American territory. I won’t say the 51st state. It means we’ve got even less independence than a US governor would have, former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr Continue reading »
America’s space policy reveals its hegemonic obsession and the future quandaries for Australian policy. Even America’s approach to exploration and colonisation of the Moon is only comprehensible in terms of terrestrial geopolitics. It now expects the world to bow to its power in outer space. Both China and America have ambitious plans for colonisation, resource Continue reading »
The key to economic development and ending poverty is investment. Nations achieve prosperity by investing in four priorities. Most important is investing in people, through quality education and health care. The next is infrastructure, such as electricity, safe water, digital networks, and public transport. The third is natural capital, protecting nature. The fourth is business Continue reading »
As the Russia-Ukraine war enters what could be its most decisive phase, the award-winning American journalist, Stephen Kinzer, has announced a ‘Society for Abolishing World War II Analogies’. Members of this club, he writes in The Boston Globe, must pledge never to call anyone a new Hitler or dismiss peace proposals as appeasement and ‘another Continue reading »
At what point did you lose your empathy and compassion towards those outside your circle? Why are you able to feel for those around you yet not for other human beings who live close by and who have exactly the same wants and desires from life as you and your family? Dear Mr Netanyahu, You Continue reading »
After the nauseating display of royal excess and dynastic exceptionalism last week, an Australian republic cannot come soon enough. On 2 May, four days before his coronation, King Charles III gave the royal assent to a controversial new Public Order Act, signing it into law. The Act gives the UK police unprecedented powers to stop Continue reading »
The Israeli protests against its new right-wing government have now touched on Israel’s nuclear weapons. To underline what is at stake, former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak cast aside Israeli ambiguity over whether it possesses nuclear weapons to warn his compatriots that Western diplomats are worried that a Jewish messianic dictatorship could gain control over Israel’s nuclear Continue reading »