A few days after the Hamas breakout from Gaza last October 7, I raised the question of how far Israel might be permitted to advance along the road to moral turpitude. After almost a year now, there is no doubt that the answer is: a very long way indeed. With few exceptions Western countries, led Continue reading »
Australian foreign policy
Lowy’s fudge doesn’t work – Australia has to choose between peace with China or following the US towards war. Don’t tell Joe Biden (“You know, not only am I campaigning, but I’m running the world”) but according to a recent article in Foreign Affairs not merely is the US not running the world but it Continue reading »
The global wheat trade is undergoing a transformation, shaped by geopolitical shifts, strategic investments, and historical legacies. Central to this evolution is China’s Belt and Road Initiative and its expected impact on traditional trade relationships, including those with Australia. The Australia-China wheat trade has deep roots, tracing back to the 1960s when Australia supplied grain Continue reading »
Asia posturing. At least the Americans discern no contradiction in Australian strategic policy, but the government continues to contort its messaging. At least the Americans call it as it is. Over the past few weeks, Washington’s language has again revealed the raw power equation in US-Australia relations. And it has overwritten the government’s consistently careful Continue reading »
Our World gets worse and worse, reflected in inhumane, racist, behaviour. And what for us – Australians – is really bad is that we, as represented by our political leaders, and our media, are totally complicit in genocide. We can start with the International Court of Justice (ICJ), and its advisory opinion of 19 July. 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 »
At primary schools in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Australian children were prescribed textbooks with titles such as New Worlds to Conquer, and taught to admire the British Empire as a gift to the world. The theft and occupation of indigenous peoples’ land together with their enslavement and annihilation, was synonymous with progress and Continue reading »
A Trump administration, and even a Harris one, will pose new challenges for Australia: sycophancy or independence? Non-alignment or more complicity in US wars? Continue reading »
Australia’s foreign policy elite has held a romantic view of Israel which extends back to its birth in 1948. By internalising Zionist mythology, Canberra has afforded the Jewish state a latitude it rarely extends to others: the freedom to attack its enemies without mercy and in violation of international law. It does this by casting Continue reading »
Resolution of the tension between President Biden’s policy of strengthening America’s position through allies and partners, and the US Navy’s (USN) mission requirements, will come to a head in the next president’s term. The AUKUS nuclear-powered submarines will be at the centre. Biden has stressed American leadership in mobilising allies and partners to address global Continue reading »