Donald Trump’s decision to eviscerate the Voice of America has alarmed allies and delighted notional foes. America’s supporters in Australia needn’t worry, though, there are still enthusiastic institutionalised defenders of the alliance. (more…)
Mark Beeson
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The Manichean moment is over
If Donald Trump has done nothing else, he should have convinced Australian strategic thinkers that the long-standing mantra of China-bad/America-good is no longer appropriate. (more…)
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Donald Trump’s axis of authoritarianism
Even for those of us who feared the worst about a possible second coming of Donald Trump, the pace and nature of the changes his administration is undertaking are astounding and alarming in equal measure. We can’t say we weren’t warned, though. (more…)
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Just how bad can Trump 2.0 get?
Even those of us who feared the worst have been astounded by the Trump administration’s attack on the rule of law, democratic principles and even morality – not to mention America’s long-suffering allies, of course. (more…)
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How stupid is America’s ruling class?
Yes, there is an American ruling class, and we’ve now got the photos to prove it. (more…)
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With friends like these…
Despite the decades both major parties have spent ingratiating themselves with the leaders of the United States, Australia is unlikely to receive any favours from the Trump administration.
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Peace on earth, goodwill toward men (and women) – unless they’re Palestinians, of course
Why do American Christian evangelists support Israel’s genocide in Gaza?
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Can Australia and Indonesia provide leadership on climate change?
Almost certainly not, but someone really ought to try while it’s still possible. (more…)
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Environmental breakdown: We have been warned
Sometimes a single event can throw global problems into sharp relief. The recent flood in Spain is one such phenomenon. If past experience is anything to go by, however, the implications of this catastrophic ‘weather event’ are likely to be studiously ignored by those in a position to do something about them. (more…)
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History cannot excuse the crimes of the present
One of Mark Twain’s more celebrated aphorisms is that ‘history never repeats itself, but it does often rhyme’. Witty, no doubt, but it doesn’t seem quite adequate to Israel’s genocidal destruction of Gaza, its longstanding, settler-led expansion into the West Bank, or the implausible use of history to justify current policy. (more…)
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Taking one for the team
I’m thinking of calling it a day. Don’t be alarmed. I’m not planning to do so for two or three years, and this definitely isn’t the proverbial “cry for help”. Even at this seemingly late stage of planetary evolution, I don’t have too much to complain about. On the contrary, my biggest recent problem was deciding which Scandinavian country to visit as part of a (non-Australian) taxpayer-funded jaunt to Florence. (more…)
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Capitalism with American characteristics
It’s not mindlessly anti-American to suggest that any nation experiencing the number of gun and drug deaths that the US does every year is evidence of a nation not entirely at ease with itself, to put it delicately. Likewise, any political system that may reinstall a narcissistic, breathtakingly ignorant, self-serving, convicted felon as its leader clearly has a few problems, too. (more…)
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Is peaceful cooperation a hopeless pipe dream?
According to Matt Pottinger, ‘a China expert and deputy national security adviser in the Trump White House…anyone who has entertained the idea of stable ties with Beijing is really smoking dope.’ If that’s what it takes, it might be time to light up. (more…)
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Spaceship Earth is experiencing turbulence
Spaceship Earth remains a compelling metaphor for our collective reality. Unfortunately, our ship looks as if it may have been made by an inter-galactic branch of Boeing. (more…)
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Donald Trump and God: not a match made in Heaven
One of the more noteworthy features of the recent Republican convention was the reverential reception of Donald Trump. Even before Trump’s brush with death, eighty per cent of evangelical Christians supported him. What does this say about their beliefs and motives? (more…)
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Security: when even the good give up
I’m a great admirer of George Monbiot. As one of the The Guardian’s most prominent and influential columnists he has long been a trenchant critic of neoliberalism, and an informed and persuasive commentator on key issues surrounding the environment and economic inequality in particular. This is what makes his most recent column on geopolitics and security such a surprising and rather depressing read.
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AUKUS enthusiasts are still preparing for the wrong war
Even some of the more thoughtful justifications of AUKUS are ultimately implausible as they ignore real and immediate threats while inflating the significance of improbable dangers Australia can do little to address. (more…)
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Can China save the world?
As the climate crisis accelerates and intensifies, it’s easy to despair about the possibility of any country taking the lead in ‘saving the planet’. And yet Xi Jinping at least says encouraging things. Should we take China seriously? (more…)
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It’s a pity Bernie Sanders isn’t the president
A few years ago, I gave a talk at the annual conference of the Australian Institute for International Affairs. Afterwards, one of the local luminaries observed that it sounded like I was channelling Bernie Sanders. It was not meant as a compliment. On the contrary, both of us were clearly regarded as unrealistic and naïve, if not downright flaky. (more…)
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Asia, America or independence: Australians have decided, will politicians listen?
A recent poll conducted by The Guardian found that nearly twice as many people agreed with Paul Keating’s suggestion that Australia should be an independent ‘middle power’ in Asia, rather than an ally of the United States. Perhaps the electorate are smarter than some of our political class seem to think. (more…)
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Is ASIO’s paranoia hypocritical?
Some of my best friends are Chinese. This is entirely unsurprising given my frequent visits to the PRC, the Chinese students I have supervised and the colleagues I have collaborated with over the years. I used to think such relationships were unambiguously a good thing and the possible basis for a better understanding between our two countries. (more…)
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West Australia and the art of state capture
The idea of state capture is usually associated with the global south, but Australia, and Western Australia in particular, demonstrates that established democracies are far from immune. As the Australian Democracy Network explains, ‘a key element of state capture is the management of political parties both in government and opposition…a range of techniques are brought to bear to reward compliance and punish dissent, ensuring that even in a change of government, the whole infrastructure of state capture remains intact.’ (more…)
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The new Dark Age
Sometimes one event encapsulates the zeitgeist. Alexei Navalny’s death from what are almost certainly unnatural causes is one such moment. One of the most heroic figures of our time appears to have been eliminated by one of the most despicable and loathsome. The only thing that is really surprising given Vladimir Putin’s track record is the brazenness of his apparent murder. (more…)
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Plutocrats and political elites: The way we do things in the West
Western Australia is famously a long way from everywhere. Given our isolation, it’s not surprising that politics can be a bit parochial. While this may have been forgivable in another era, at this current historical juncture it’s becoming rather embarrassing. (more…)
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Saving the world, one suburb at a time
Privileged people trying to save the world shouldn’t be dismissed as bourgeois virtue signalling. There are worse things to signal and it could make a difference. (more…)
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Losing my religion
Theology has long been used to justify war. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, it’s happening again in the Middle East. (more…)
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The razing of the Warsaw Ghetto: Are our leaders incapable of learning from history?
If we are looking for historical parallels to the current destruction in Palestine, then the razing of the Warsaw Ghetto by the Nazis is unfortunately one that comes readily to mind. While we would all agree that this was appalling, inhuman and unfathomable, is blowing women and children to pieces in Gaza any less so? (more…)
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Australia and the US: Breaking up is hard to do
I don’t think it’s too controversial or anti-American to suggest that our long-term strategic partner has been having a few issues lately. We may have grown used to people in the US shooting each other in large numbers, taking too many drugs, and generally over-indulging in self-destructive and planet destroying ways, but we still expected them to be democratic. (more…)
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As good as it ever got? Hurtling towards the environmental abyss
As we collectively hurtle toward the environmental abyss, it’s worth asking whether we have definitively passed the highwater mark of human development. If so, should baby boomers be wracked with guilt about their entirely underserved good fortune and failure to avert the imminent crisis? The answer to both questions is probably yes. (more…)
