"(The plan) shows direct disregard for the sovereignty and self-determination of Pacific peoples and the ocean their livelihoods depend upon."
International Relations
A break away from Australia can do much to restore one’s hope that growing militarism and the militarisation of society does not have to be the way of things. Writing from Costa Rica, I’ve enjoyed the absence of news featuring blatant China-bashing, grandiose but ill-suited plans for nuclear-powered submarines, proud announcements about new military hardware Continue reading »
It is self evident that the US: China relationship – with Taiwan at its core – will be the most pressing strategic issue for Australia in 2023. But the volumes of military planning effort, think tank hours, media commentary and the like have added to the uncertainty rather than clarified the scene – beyond a Continue reading »
War is an ugly part of the human experience. Everything about it is hideous. War is most obviously the act of invasion and the brutality that goes along with its operations. No war is precise; every war hurts civilians. Each act of bombardment sends a neurological shudder through society. World War II demonstrated this ugliness Continue reading »
The classmates of 7-year-old Rayan Suleiman sit near his body during the boy’s funeral in Tuqu, a village south of the West Bank city of Bethlehem. Rayan had a heart attack when Israeli soldiers raided his home while they were chasing Palestinian children returning home from school. Once again I did not go to Habima Continue reading »
British government’s latest six-monthly report on Hong Kong should in the name of ending blatant hypocrisy be its last. In a standard ritual of keeping the Communist Party of China (CPC) on its toes, the British government published on January 12, 2023, the 51st six-monthly report on the situation in Hong Kong, which at some point in history played a role of Continue reading »
Nuclear weapons are deadly, indiscriminate, and have the potential to wipe out life on earth. But they are still held by a handful of states who believe that they bring security and who are so wedded to them that they cannot see what is in front of their noses. Not all states think that their Continue reading »
US mission creep in Ukraine follows in the fatal footsteps of ultimately failed war campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq. Since the failures of the US military missions in places like Afghanistan and Iraq – and many other Muslim nations like Libya – critics of the US mission in the “global war on terrorism” have lamented Continue reading »
Islamic experts praise region’s success in anti-terror, ethnic group harmony. World-renowned Islamic religious figures and scholars have highly praised on the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region’s great achievements in development, saying they will share with the rest of the world what they saw with their own eyes in the region. More than 30 Islamic scholars from Continue reading »
The risks for Australia in joining another “failed” American war, this one contrived to crush China, are worse than even-money, and climbing. The consequences verge on existential. Australia’s wartime Prime Minister John Curtin wrote to Britain’s Prime Minister Churchill in a 1942 letter marked “Most Secret” – “we make no apologies for our effort or Continue reading »