A not-so-happy anniversary: Usually, a first anniversary is an occasion for all-round rejoicing and back-slapping. So, it was to be expected that there’d be universal self-congratulation on the first anniversary of Anthony Albanese’s, Rishi Sunak’s and Joe Biden’s announcement on 13 March 2023 that Australia would purchase nuclear-powered attack-class submarines from the US as part Continue reading »
AUKUS
The general theme of delusion and the particular theme of ‘dead in the water’ as they apply to the entire AUKUS arrangements are provocations worthy of taking further. These are, of course, extracted from the essays in the most recent issue of Australian Foreign Affairs (paywalled). The most prominent of these, authored by Professor Hugh Continue reading »
Not unexpectedly, the AUKUS nuclear-powered submarine project has run into reality as Virginia class production slows down, leaving Australia with no Defence policy. A huge strategic failure, if endorsed government assessments are believed, which has left Australia vulnerable and dependent on America. The 2000 White Paper’s highest priority was to “be able to defend Australia Continue reading »
The sweetest words in the English language: I told you so. French submarines, the first of which were scheduled for delivery in 2034 under a $90bn program with France’s Naval Group – before the contract was ripped up by the Morrison government – were lethal and affordable. Now we know that the US is very Continue reading »
Instead of actually engaging in measures to promote peace, the AUKUS governments are feeding us a racist notion that three Anglo nations targeting China from thousands of kilometres away are needed to ensure it. Text of talk given to IPAN (Independent and Peaceful Australia Network) forum “AUKUS and military escalation: Who pays and who benefits”. Continue reading »
AUKUS has become a stillborn project. Vassal states, satellites – in other words the butlers of international relations, the minders of the royal stool – are a rarely respected lot. In Australia’s case, being Washington’s butler is hardly like being Jeeves to Bertie Wooster. Jeeves is, after all, a near omniscient being, a confidant who Continue reading »
Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practise to deceive! Whatever else he might have been, Sir Walter Scott was no clairvoyant. Deeply cemented into Scottish history and folklore, his long narrative poems are now largely forgotten. But this single line captures the essence of AUKUS, where a cocktail of strategic conceits Continue reading »
As opposition to AUKUS grows, the nuclear submarine project does not stand up to expert scrutiny. There is no doubt that opposition to the AUKUS agreement is growing within the Australian public. The more people see through the secrecy and obfuscation; the more they learn about the project’s far-reaching implications for them and the nation, Continue reading »
The Australian government has decided to ignore critics of Aukus in parliament and the community. Rather it has moved to embed the idea of Aukus directly into the Australian psyche. We Australians consider ourselves a straightforward lot. We prefer to speak our minds simply and honestly. We do not readily embrace ideas such as weapons Continue reading »
Thucydides has Pericles, the great Athenian statesman and strategist, observe that “Mastery of the sea is no small matter”. The Defence Minister should have been mindful of Pericles’ words as he launched the Enhanced Lethality Surface Combatant Fleet (ELSCF). Or he might have recalled Pericles’ caution that “I am far more afraid of our own Continue reading »