“NATO exists to manage the risks created by its existence,” Professor Richard Sakwa once wrote in an attempt to articulate the absurdity of the military alliance’s provocative nature on the world stage. At some point Australians must wake up to the fact that this is equally true of AUKUS: we’re told the military alliance exists Continue reading »
Defence and Security
Who was behind the terrorist attacks on Nord Stream? Half a year after the pipeline explosions, there is growing public interest in finally learning more about the circumstances of the attacks on what is important energy infrastructure for Germany and Europe. This is due to the versions of events published in the New York Times Continue reading »
AUKUS: signed and sealed by the Liberal government when it joined the pact in September 2021, the spoils of which have been delivered by the Labor Government in March 2023. The Labor Government and Australia will pay a heavy price for what is being done in our name. We are being humiliated by our own Continue reading »
What is a war crime? There are plenty of candidates – Guernica, Dresden, the firebombing of Tokyo, the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the devastation of Korea, the massacre at My Lai – the list goes on and on. And now the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague has added another. Maria Lvova-Belova, Continue reading »
Despite flourishing relations, Australia is governed by a ruling elite whose commitment to a rules based order is suspect, selective and risks dragging India into a catastrophic conflict with China. Speaking on ABC RN Breakfast on 9 March, as PM Anthony Albanese headed for his first meeting with India’s PM Narendra Modi, Shadow Foreign Minister Simon Continue reading »
Nearly everything the Labor government says about nuclear subs is ludicrous and highly damaging. Despite Defence Minister Marles apparently saying Australia will not participate in a war over Taiwan, Hugh White (ex- Dep Head Defence) says the US would never sell nuclear submarines to Australia without guarantees they will always be used in a US Continue reading »
A controversy threatens to blow the alliance’s nuclear submarine deal out of the water, writes Maddison Connaughton in a new article for Foreign Policy. In the wake of Paul Keating’s dramatic foray into the debate over the Aukus defence pact, much of the breathless media coverage zeroed in on his personal criticisms of Prime Minister Continue reading »
At first sight, the Chinese President’s twelve proposals to achieve peace between Russia and Ukraine appear plausible. Claims about common interests are supported by references to parties working together for peace and security, abiding by international humanitarian law, sustaining an existing world economic system and insisting that nuclear weapons not be used. These sound like Continue reading »
The AUKUS nuclear submarine deal presents New Zealand with a difficult dilemma. On one hand old allies are forming a military alliance to confront an emergent China, ramping up their AUKUS relationship and their rhetoric magnifying China’s threat. On the other hand is New Zealand’s long standing carefully nurtured relationship with its major trading partner. Continue reading »
The uniformly negative reaction of the national press gallery to former PM Paul Keating’s views on Australia’s security raises questions not just of its intellectual adequacy but of whether the media has been captured by and is knowingly serving the United States at Australia’s expense. How might one distinguish commentary which knowingly favours US objectives Continue reading »