One of the great claims for representative democracy and federations is that they provide a uniquely successful way of dynamically negotiating, rather than suppressing, social differences and tensions. So, when it appears to be failing to do that in one of the world’s oldest and most successful democracies it is worth asking “why has this Continue reading »
World Affairs
The atomic bombing of Hiroshima. The ‘end’ of the Korean War. Two anniversaries that almost intersect. At the end of WWII, a new order was imposed on the world. Today, as those anniversaries are marked, there is little to celebrate. Seventy years ago, on the 25th July, the Korean War technically came to an end. Continue reading »
President Biden hosted Israeli President Isaac Herzog at the White House on Tuesday. Herzog is addressing a joint session of Congress, which a handful of progressive Democrats are boycotting. The same members of Congress also boycotted the address of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a far right Hindu nationalist who is implicated in an anti-Muslim pogrom. Continue reading »
President Macron of France is right to warn NATO away from any expansion into Asia, reminding all and sundry of NATO’s Atlantic design and focus. NATO’s continued existence after and at the end of the Cold War has already denied peaceful unity to the broader Europe, the promise of which the end of the Cold Continue reading »
The aftermath of Ukraine’s ailing counter-offensive may be the country’s last chance to avert the utter destruction of a senseless forever war. So far, Ukraine’s month-long ‘counter-offensive’ has been a very costly failure. Attacks on Russian forces in the southern province of Zaporozhe have yet to achieve any significant strategic success, and the same is Continue reading »
Widodo visit: Indonesia’s approach to regional security needs to be more than than fence-sitting. The visit to Australia this week of President Joko Widodo of Indonesia – known as Jokowi – should give us pause to reflect on how we and Indonesia stand with each other and what the future holds. Truth be told, our Continue reading »
Blinken’s trip was followed by Biden’s insults, the promising Bali summit was followed by further China containment measures. Clearly, Washington has yet to show Beijing it is sincere in its efforts. Every Chinese is taught from a young age, through the country’s history and culture, to be a person of integrity, to walk the talk, Continue reading »
US, UK, EU should amend humanitarian exemptions to facilitate aid. (Beirut) – The United States, the United Kingdom, and the European Union should urgently renew the earthquake-related humanitarian exemptions they introduced to their Syria sanctions’ regimes in February 2023 to more effectively facilitate aid to the Syrian people, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Continue reading »
The Russian ‘revolt’ that wasn’t strengthens Putin’s hand. The Biden administration had a glorious few days last weekend. The ongoing disaster in Ukraine slipped from the headlines to be replaced by the “revolt,” as a New York Times headline put it, of Yevgeny Prigozhin, chief of the mercenary Wagner Group. The focus slipped from Ukraine’s Continue reading »
The so-called Global South does not feature much in Australian discourse. It should. It will impact on us. The group has origins in the Non-Aligned Movement of the Cold War and in the Group of 77, a coalition of developing nations in the United Nations whose objective is to remedy global imbalances in wealth. The Continue reading »