Hold on to your mobile phones, civilians, this is gonna get rough. If you thought the Sopranos and Corleones were intimidating, check this out. ASML, a Dutch firm that currently is the world’s only manufacturer of the extreme ultraviolet lithography machines that produce the most advanced chips, is repeatedly getting stiff-armed by the US – Continue reading »
USA
"Since it was impossible to change the politics of the system, it became necessary to change the type – or stereotype – of the person in charge of carrying out the policy." Fidel Castro, in Obama and the Empire, 2012. Continue reading »
Nicholas Ross Smith, from the University of Canterbury, argues that the temptation to essentialise China as simply being a Xi-led CCP monolith that will stop at nothing to re-integrate Taiwan and seek global domination overlooks the complexity of domestic politics in China. Basing policy on a simple caricature of China is a recipe for disaster. Continue reading »
Recent P&I contributors have drawn out sharply the consequences of American influence in Australia. Many of these influences have been beneficial, of course. The importation of American exploitation of internal combustion engines and the long-distance transmission of electricity, while not costless, has had many advantages. As for what roughly might be called the “cultural”, Australia Continue reading »
Soldier Meir Ben-Shitrit has revealed himself as the main suspect in the infamous gang rape of Palestinians at the Sde Teiman detention facility. Rather than making him an outcast, his story has turned him into Israel’s latest media darling. Three weeks ago, the Israeli right-leaning Channel 14 aired a 10-minute interview with one of the Continue reading »
Richard Marles’ double-speak knows no bounds. His national strategy is entirely contrived to deliver “projection” for America’s ends, without mentioning that Australia is now merely one cog in the unfolding US war machinery across the periphery of Asia. Which is what Paul Keating is saying. Former prime minister Paul Keating has been chipping away at Continue reading »
The United States Government doctrine of neither confirming nor denying the presence or absence of nuclear weapons on board US aircraft has been virtually unchanged in almost 70 years, with a very small number of exceptions. One key element of transparency required for democratic accountability is denied by acceptance of the US doctrine of neither Continue reading »
Our understanding of the darker foundations of US thinking about the US China relationship is obscured by the public utterances of Presidents, politicians and public policy commentators. This is the froth and bubble of policy but it does little to reveal the foundations of this visceral fear of Ch Continue reading »