We do not want there to be war over Taiwan. If such were threatened, we could never be involved. (more…)
Category: Defence
-
The generational divide in Australian politics is widening
Opposition to the AUKUS deal among rank and file Labor supporters and similarly aligned voters is increasing by the day. (more…)
-
The case for recognising Palestine
Since a United Nations General Assembly Resolution vote in November 2012, Palestine has had the status of a state within the UN system. It is not a full member state but, like the Holy See, a non-member observer state. Australia – after a heady debate within the Gillard cabinet – abstained on that vote. (more…)
-
Labor’s internal dissent over AUKUS is building
-
AUKUS Coming to dinner
With billions of dollars on the banquet table, Australia should choose its dinner guests wisely. (more…)
-
Australia preparing for war- can it stop the rot?
As the new Australian Labor government took power following the 2022 election, its China policy barely changed and the “China threat” narrative continued unabated. I did not vote for the Labor party to see Australia’s government channelling the ousted Morrison Government! (more…)
-
The compulsion to intervene why Washington underwrites violence in Ukraine
Allow me to come clean: I worry every time Max Boot vents enthusiastically about a prospective military action. Whenever that Washington Post columnist professes optimism about some upcoming bloodletting, misfortune tends to follow. And as it happens, he’s positively bullish about the prospect of Ukraine handing Russia a decisive defeat in its upcoming, widely anticipated, sure-to-happen-any-day-now spring counteroffensive. (more…)
-
Paul Keating, Confucius and the CCP – understanding China
Misunderstanding China has a long and distinguished history. Much of that misunderstanding has been generated by western media going right back to the Qing dynasty. (more…)
-
Terrorists, Saudi Arabia, and the CIA
Documents publicly available make it clear that Saudi Arabian government officials assisted the two 9/11 hijackers, Nawaf Al-Hazmi and Khalid Al-Midhar, who crashed an airliner into the Pentagon. Newly released testimonies further reveal that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was aware of the activities of the two hijackers before the 9/11 attacks and suggest that the agency was seeking to use them to penetrate Al-Qaeda. (more…)
-
Hong Kong: living on the fault line
A multipolar world is being forged by the Global South. Tectonic shifts are taking place between the “collective West” led by the United States and the “Global South” with China in this camp. Hong Kong’s predicament is that it lies on a fault line of the geopolitical plates. (more…)
-
All’s not quiet on the home front
Labor’s ability to seamlessly follow in the Coalition’s strategic footsteps is showing welcome signs of weakening as opponents of AUKUS and the submarine deal find their voice. (more…)
-
Did the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki end the war?
In 2016, President Obama visited Hiroshima. He was the first US President to do so since the bombing in 1945. He said that he would not be apologising for the dropping of the bomb and would not try and second-guess President Harry Truman’s decision. (more…)
-
The ‘Status Quo’ and Taiwan
Mainstream media frequently describes Taiwan as “an island that the PRC claims, but has never ruled”. This has given rise to an increasing perception of Taiwan as a separate sovereign entity. (more…)
-
AUKUS, Australia and China
Australia’s capacity to protect its sovereignty lies not in accession to US interests but in a broad diplomatic and security effort with our Asian neighbours, writes Paul Keating in a letter delivered to Prime Minister Albanese on 24 January, seven weeks before the San Diego AUKUS announcement and obtained by the Guardian Australia under FOI laws. (more…)
-
Ugly situation in Kosovo has parallels with Ukraine
The ugly situation developing in Kosovo, formerly a province of Serbia, has parallels with Ukraine. The result could be just as bloody. But is anyone listening? (more…)
-
U.S. allies look for their place in the emerging global order
America and the West are more isolated from the rest of the world than at any time since WWII. (more…)
-
Four nuclear myths
The hubris and arrogance of the nuclear-armed states leaves the world exposed to the risk of sleepwalking into a nuclear disaster. The case for nuclear weapons rests on a superstitious magical Realism that puts faith in the utility of the bomb and the theory of deterrence. Here are four myths about the utility of nuclear weapons. (more…)
-
AUKUS and the security pathology of colonial racism
Today, there are strong arguments that Australian security and defence thinking, which was historically race based, is now culturally embedded; that the current situation is close to what race theory describes as ‘racism without racists.’ How, then, might Australian colonial racism have conditioned our security culture to put the ‘A’ in the AUKUS nuclear powered submarine (SSN) deal? (more…)
-
China places country dangerously close to US warship
The US military has released video footage of a Chinese navy ship cutting across the path of an American Destroyer in the Taiwan Strait over the weekend, reportedly forcing the US vessel to slow down to avoid a collision. (more…)
-
The US drive to war with China and the battle of ideas
Somewhere, somehow, China became the number one enemy of the world, or at least to the world that is run by the USA. For many the ‘reason’ has been the challenge that China poses to US economic hegemony, but might not America’s fear of China be based on ideological causes; a battle of ideas? (more…)
-
3 reasons why China is not a threat
The recent ‘Red Alert’ series, along with statements by some U.S, and Australian military leaders would have us believe that Chinese military forces could soon in waves be running up Bondi Beach invading our erstwhile peaceful land. Strange then, given this immediacy of threat, our military preparations are increasingly linked to AUKUS, its central plank being Australia’s acquisition of nuclear powered submarines some 20 or more years hence. In an atmosphere of hyped up Sino-phobia I hope to allay fears by recourse to history, logic and military realities. (more…)
-
The inconvenient truths in the rise of China
In charting the way ahead for Australia-China relations, Canberra needs to present the risks posed by increasing Chinese military power in realistic rather than hawkish terms, writes Colin Heseltine. (more…)
-
US, Australian military staff tour China’s Beijing garrison despite freeze on top brass talks
Military attaches from the United States and Australia were among the dozens invited to tour the People’s Liberation Army’s garrison in Beijing last week, the first event of its kind since the pandemic. The event signals willingness in China for exchanges with Western forces, observers say. (more…)
-
Is a Gulf of Tonkin-type incident brewing in the South China Sea?
The situation in the South China Sea is on the verge of becoming a game of chicken between the U.S. and China with the Philippines in the middle. This would be very dangerous and could cause China to miscalculate. Either one blinks or they clash.
-
Mainstream media need to focus on peace
The fact that Australia is sleepwalking towards a catastrophic war against China has received very welcome and responsible coverage in Pearls and Irritations and other non-mainstream media. The head-in-the-sand stance adopted by much of the mainstream media stands in stark contrast. The most recent example of the latter was a 15-page supplement in The Canberra Times (CT) on 17 May – ‘Our Next Steps’, on the Defence Strategic Review. It was a most shameful collection of war-mongering articles and images. (more…)
-
Imran Khan and the Pakistan military’s showdown
The arrest of former Prime Minister Imran Khan on May 9th sent shockwaves throughout Pakistan, igniting widespread and violent protests across the nation. (more…)
-
What is the US-Australia Force Posture Agreement (FPA)?
The combined effect of the Force Posture Agreement and other defence agreements with the United States is to nullify Australia’s capacity to make independent decisions about war avoidance and war fighting. Together they lock us into providing the United States first with secured areas under its control from which it may conduct a war, and second, with comprehensive logistical support for any such folly. (more…)
-
How should Australia defend itself in the 21st century? Silencing the drums and dogs of war
The following is a paper by retired Australian Army Major General Michael G Smith AO, first published in The New Daily on .
(more…) -
The Defence Strategic Review Strategy vacuum
We now have a Defence Strategic Review. But where is the National Risk Assessment, the National Security Strategy, and the Plan? A failure to resource the DSR changes adequately could mean that our deployable military operational capability will in reality be less at the end of this decade than it is today. (more…)
-
Don’t forget the Nakba
With the passing of the 75th remembrance of the Nakba this May, Palestine and its Occupation can often be forgotten from one May to another. (more…)