There’s been a lot of debate lately over the US strategy of surrounding nations like Russia and China with war machinery in order to deter them from aggressive actions. Some argue that since powerful nations tend to respond aggressively to the amassing of military threats on their borders, this policy actually provokes the very aggressions Continue reading »
politics
We need an Indigenous Voice to parliament. We need any other voice that will offset the disastrous self-serving notions of the present fools that govern this country. We are all living under the shadows of the illusions of the colonised mind. There are many discussions bubbling along under the surface of Australian society today: the Continue reading »
I have never had much regard for Mike Pezzullo, and my regard is lower for the disclosures this week of Nine and Fairfax journalists of his secret email correspondence with politicians he thought he might be able to influence. As any number of people have said, his position is untenable, and he must look forward Continue reading »
Every day that the Australian government delays recognition provides legitimacy for Israel’s plans to press ahead with the expulsion of Palestinians. Recognise Palestine now! The writer was out of Australia from mid-May to mid-September. In the event he missed the detailed reporting of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) National Conference, held in mid-August, and how Continue reading »
“We often advocate the promotion of a rules-based order. From time to time, respect for the UN Charter is also invoked. But for all the talk, there are still a few nations who shape the agenda and seek to define the norms. This cannot go on indefinitely. Nor will it go unchallenged.” – Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, India Continue reading »
Victoria’s integrity body, the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC), is a deeply flawed institution. It has been hobbled by the Liberal government that created it and in the too-limited reforms implemented by the Labor government that followed. It is clear that both major parties have been reluctant to give the body the teeth it requires Continue reading »
In this series, I explore how US narratives on the ‘China threat’ have become entrenched in Western security communities and how a ‘China threat’ narrative has been constructed by Republicans and Democrats in the United States in an attempt to create a “rally round the flag” effect designed to internally unite a deeply divided America. Continue reading »
The world is now experiencing a new era of multilateralism. The Quad (India, US, Japan, Australia) now sits alongside the G20, the G7, and has been joined by AUKUS (Australia, UK, US), and the great new vision of the Indo Pacific. BRICS, around for almost two decades, looks like it might expand to become a Continue reading »
International law of the sea is set to be subverted as America seeks to exercise extraterritorial defence claims over foreign exclusive economic zones beyond those of three Pacific island states. The United States is about to upend the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the basis of international law with regard Continue reading »
I don’t mention it often but I actually have a degree in journalism. I graduated with distinction from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in 2003, and while it would be another 13 years before I’d ever put my degree to any use, the experience played a massive role in forming my opinions about the Continue reading »