The United States’ issue with TikTok is uncannily reflective of its ongoing problem with China. It grew too fast for their comfort, is too economically and technologically successful and so deeply enmeshed in their lives that they felt the impulse to disengage. It evokes the same suspicion that engaging with something Chinese in origin must Continue reading »
International Relations
By some strange reasoning NATO, the US and the pundits seem to think the current war between Russia – Ukraine is a precursor to hostilities they expect to see between Taiwan and China. It is an unlikely scenario. Travel between Taiwan and China is frequent. Official Taiwan figures for people permitted to work in China Continue reading »
One of the world’s oldest unresolved international issues, Kashmir, has experienced many stark vicissitudes over time. In 2019, it made headlines due to India’s controversial revocation of Article 35A and 370, which essentially eliminated Kashmir’s special status and autonomy. This led to overarching vehemence amongst Kashmiris who protested in droves. To subdue them, thousands of Continue reading »
Britain’s Oxford Dictionary and America’s Webster’s have moved quickly to shut down further nominations for the 2023 “Word of the Year”. They’ve declared “aukustrate” the unbeatable winner. Unsurprisingly, Australia’s Macquarie Dictionary found no reason to disagree, and fell into line. The announcement followed the Global Public Relations Institute giving its Marx/Goebbels Award for the Propaganda Continue reading »
“Look at the King! Look at the the King! Look at the King, the King, the King! The King is in the altogether, but altogether, the altogether He’s altogether as naked as the day that he was born The King is in the altogether, but altogether, the altogether It’s altogether the very least the King Continue reading »
“NATO exists to manage the risks created by its existence,” Professor Richard Sakwa once wrote in an attempt to articulate the absurdity of the military alliance’s provocative nature on the world stage. At some point Australians must wake up to the fact that this is equally true of AUKUS: we’re told the military alliance exists Continue reading »
Who was behind the terrorist attacks on Nord Stream? Half a year after the pipeline explosions, there is growing public interest in finally learning more about the circumstances of the attacks on what is important energy infrastructure for Germany and Europe. This is due to the versions of events published in the New York Times Continue reading »
AUKUS: signed and sealed by the Liberal government when it joined the pact in September 2021, the spoils of which have been delivered by the Labor Government in March 2023. The Labor Government and Australia will pay a heavy price for what is being done in our name. We are being humiliated by our own Continue reading »
What is a war crime? There are plenty of candidates – Guernica, Dresden, the firebombing of Tokyo, the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the devastation of Korea, the massacre at My Lai – the list goes on and on. And now the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague has added another. Maria Lvova-Belova, Continue reading »
Despite flourishing relations, Australia is governed by a ruling elite whose commitment to a rules based order is suspect, selective and risks dragging India into a catastrophic conflict with China. Speaking on ABC RN Breakfast on 9 March, as PM Anthony Albanese headed for his first meeting with India’s PM Narendra Modi, Shadow Foreign Minister Simon Continue reading »