Australian Studies scholars in China are optimistic that relations can “get back to normal”. This is the impression I gained from a recent symposium at one of the major Australian Studies Centres in that country. University colleagues I met while in Beijing were all encouraged by news of the forthcoming visit by Prime Minister Albanese Continue reading »
politics
ABC reporters and program presenters always refer to Hamas’s non-recognition of the right of Israel to exist, but they never mention the fact that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party does not recognise in its charter the right of Palestine to exist, why? An open letter from Ali Kazak, Former Palestinian ambassador. Dear Mr Continue reading »
You will receive briefings from many of your advisors, including from the Office of National Intelligence. My experience is that intelligence agencies have a lot of information but they often have poor judgement. The framing of issues by our intelligence agencies very often reflects the views and habits of the US and the Anglosphere. I Continue reading »
Calls for a ceasefire in Gaza are intensifying as the traumatic toll on civilians sees thousands of children being killed, many health and aid workers and journalists dying on the job, the destruction of health services, surgery taking place without anaesthetic, and civilians unable to access necessities, including life-saving healthcare, food and water. The most Continue reading »
A look at deficits in democracy and our common wealth; Why we’re working too hard; What women find in Australia; Gramsci and the right; The politics of Ben Ean Moselle, and the case for higher taxes. Read on for the weekly roundup of links to articles, podcasts, reports and other media on current economic and Continue reading »
Peter Dutton prays for guidance on the Voice referendum and Gaza. Continue reading »
In Asian media this week: Support for war erodes trust in Global North. Plus: Australians proxy-Americans in Asia; Xi-Biden summit might reassure region; ‘Don’t you feel shame’ at voting No? Chinese military ‘relentless’ on Taiwan; Memories of time US, China fought together. Sonia Gandhi has written a powerful condemnation of the Israel-Gaza war, deploring the Continue reading »
An intimate and complex understanding of China is now one of the most important prerequisites for understanding and furthering our national interests. For the two nations of China and Australia, to allow tensions and misunderstandings to provoke a decoupling in the knowledge production sphere –whether it be in the sciences, the social sciences or the Continue reading »
If war is supposed to be the continuation of politics by other means, Israel’s assault on Gaza seems to be the continuation by other means of the absence of politics. It does not seem that Israel understands what its endgame is. Without a clear sense of an ending, there can be no answer to the […]
The post No Endgame in Gaza appeared first on The New York Review of Books.
It’s Wednesday and I use this space to write about any number of issues or items that have attracted my interest and which I consider do not require a detailed analysis. The issues discussed may be totally unrelated. Today, I provide my response to yesterday’s decision by the Bank of Japan to vary its Yield…