In August, Dan Duggan makes his final submission to Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus, who will decide whether Duggan is extradited to the United States for training Chinese pilots in 2012. All Australians should be extremely concerned about whether it’s even possible for our fellow citizen Dan Duggan, and his wife Saffrine and six children, to receive Continue reading »
Defence and Security
A Republican administration under Donald Trump would bring a fundamental change to America’s engagement with the world, necessitating a radical reassessment and reformulation of Australia’s foreign, trade, and defence policies. Falling back on the faithful ally tactic would not suffice to buffer the prosperity and security of Australians. Australian policymakers would need to embrace a Continue reading »
John Mearsheimer discusses Ukraine’s dire situation on the battlefield and its bleak political future; and Israel’s use of the “Hannibal Doctrine” on October 7. On 11 July 2024, I talked with Judge Napolitano on his podcast — “Judging Freedom” — about Ukraine’s dire situation on the battlefield and its bleak political future. We also discussed Continue reading »
The security vetting process has gone off the rails in Australia. It’s been outsourced to the private sector, which has a financial incentive to make renewing a security clearance as lengthy as possible. Those with high-level jobs in many government departments, agencies and the defence bureaucracy have to renew their clearance every five years. They Continue reading »
For the sake of America’s security and world peace, the U.S. should immediately abandon the neocon quest for hegemony in favour of diplomacy and peaceful co-existence. In 1992, U.S. foreign-policy exceptionalism went into overdrive. The U.S. has always viewed itself as an exceptional nation destined for leadership, and the demise of the Soviet Union in December 1991 Continue reading »
Every generation, or thereabouts, has its moment of unlearning or forgetting two salutary lessons that should be indelibly imprinted on the memory and the consciousness with the advent of war: first, idiosyncrasies or hubris, or both, can overpower political leaders; second allies are not necessarily friends no matter how much they may seem like us, Continue reading »
“At a public meeting in 1971, C.P. Ellis – head of the Ku Klux Klan in Durham, North Carolina – tore up his KKK membership card in what was basically an act of love. Some may know this story from the 2019 movie ‘The Best of Enemies’. One telling scene in the film is when Continue reading »
Former Australian defence force chief and admiral retired, Chris Barrie frankly discusses with Michael Lester his deep concerns that Australia is complacent in its unwillingness to face up to the threat to our national security posed by global climate change. Barrie speaks of his years of campaigning and advocacy on the issue and characterises government Continue reading »
For goodness’ sake, negotiate! For the fifth time since 2008, Russia has proposed to negotiate with the U.S. over security arrangements, this time in proposals made by President Vladimir Putin on June 14, 2024. Four previous times, the U.S. rejected the offer of negotiations in favour of a neocon strategy to weaken or dismember Russia through Continue reading »
So I guess we should probably talk about the way NATO powers are rapidly escalating toward hot war with Russia at the same time the US is expanding its draft policies to make it easier to force more Americans [to] go and fight in a giant war. In an article titled “NATO: 500,000 Troops on Continue reading »