Ukraine has not been invited to a key meeting between American and Russian officials in Saudi Arabia this week to decide what peace in the country might look like. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine would “never accept” any decisions in talks without its participation to end Russia’s three-year war in the country. A decision to negotiate Continue reading »
International Relations
New Zealand’s leading newspaper, the New Zealand Herald, screamed out this headline on 10 February: “Should New Zealand invade the Cook Islands?” The government and the mainstream media have gone ballistic (thankfully not literally just yet) over the move by the small Pacific nation to sign a strategic partnership with China in Beijing. It is Continue reading »
Recently, US President Donald Trump spoke about the displacement of Gaza’s residents to Egypt, Jordan, and a group of neighbouring countries, as well as turning Gaza into an area under US control. This proposal sparked a wave of criticism and condemnation at various levels. International reactions to the proposal At the international level, the proposal Continue reading »
Ill winds are blowing in from the United States of America. In the times ahead we will be tested in Australia, across the spectrum, as to whether we adopt a similar approach to our politics. The early signs aren’t good. Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has tailored Trump’s slogan “Make America Great Again” to the more Continue reading »
The “China Initiative” was the name of a controversial program run by the US Department of Justice, which was introduced in late 2018 during the first Trump administration. It operated under a typically broad mandate to counter alleged China-related national security threats to the United States. Might messages in Chinese fortune cookies represent, as the Continue reading »
"The public deserves to know if there are any debt obligations, resource access clauses, or strategic commitments involved."
An Opening Salvo Five hundred days into a war to achieve death and destruction which at a glance looked like organised slaughter where most casualties were women and children, a carnage is justified by claims that even newborn babies must be terrorists, hence a beyond belief horror movie beamed nightly on television screens. Murder Unlimited Continue reading »
“If Barack Obama decides to attack the Syrian regime, he has ensured — for the very first time in history — that the United States will be on the same side as al-Qa’ida.” Robert Fisk, The Independent, 28 August 2013 “I hate that we have leaders who cozy up to Islamist extremists, minimising them to Continue reading »
The low regard in which the Global West is held is intensifying. The second Trump administration is not the cause of this. It is simply accelerating this ominous process by openly embracing a lawless, imperial contempt for primary international and metropolitan governance rules, norms and conventions in response to the persistent retreat of American global Continue reading »
“Take wisdom from the mouths of mad men” is an old Arabic proverb. It sprang to mind a couple of days ago, when I heard the narcissist leader of the “civilised” world, President Donald Trump, openly calling for the ethnic cleansing of Palestine. Trump clearly said that Gaza is a “hell”; Gaza is totally destroyed, Continue reading »