The Australian Greens have been plunged into crisis this week with the loss of Senator Lidia Thorpe causing an imbalance in the party’s weekly drum circle causing it to skew right. ”It’s a disaster and really we just don’t know... Read More ›
politics
Richard Woolcott leaves a legacy that all modern diplomats could emulate. Richard Woolcott, generally known as Dick, died on 2 February in Canberra aged 95. He is survived by two sons, Peter and Robert. Woolcott was one of the last great Australian diplomats, in the wake of those like Sir Arthur Tange and Sir James Continue reading »
While alliances and treaties offer some protection against an aggressor, they cannot be counted upon. Australia needs to maintain an independent military capability to deter possible future threats to our independence – not least because we cannot rely on the US in all possible future circumstances. Today Part 2 of this series on Australia’s national Continue reading »
The foundational story of the United States of America is its fight for freedom against tyranny. Every schoolchild learns of how the American revolutionaries fought bravely to be freed from the tyranny of King George III of England. They learn the indomitable freedom fighters’ heroic sayings, such as “Give me liberty or give me death!” Continue reading »
Texas community fights to save its coastline as the developers of Rio Grande LNG reassure investors over climate impact.
In his State of the Union speech, Biden is expected to address the U.S. gun violence crisis — but not the gun crisis it exports to foreign countries.
The post Biden Pledged to Reverse Trump’s Weak Gun Export Rules — but Instead Did Nothing appeared first on The Intercept.
Days after the war in Ukraine began it was reported by The New York Times that “President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine has asked the Israeli prime minister, Naftali Bennett, to mediate negotiations in Jerusalem between Ukraine and Russia.” In a recent interview, Bennett made some very interesting comments about what happened during those negotiations in Continue reading »
In his post on 7 January Lawrence Freedman concluded that “The question of what it takes to get Russia to abandon its war of conquest remains unanswered.” The answer, at least in part, has to be a change of leadership – most likely a generational change. For Putin this is a war, not about territory, but about Continue reading »
The perceptive Singaporian diplomat Kishore Mahbubani remarked recently that: ‘Australia’s strategic dilemma in the twenty-first century is simple: it can choose to be a bridge between East and West in the Asian Century—or the tip of the spear projecting Western power into Asia.’ He clearly believed that it was a matter of deliberate choice, a Continue reading »
To paraphrase former US President, Theodore Roosevelt, Australia’s national security is best achieved by talking softly while carrying a formidable stick as a deterrent. For decades following World War II, American leadership provided both security and economic order for the Indo-Pacific region. This rules-based system underpinned stability and unprecedented economic growth and prosperity in our Continue reading »