It is difficult to reconcile the public documents and statements relating to the AUKUS nuclear-power submarine project. Unlike the usual procurement process the defence policy justification is opaque, the schedule and costs are unclear, and the implications for Australian industry vague. (more…)
Category: Defence
-
Ukraine war: life on Russia’s home front after ten months of conflict
It’s been a year since I last visited Russia. Back then, most people I met thought the prospects of a war with Ukraine were very remote, despite the massive troops build-up on the border. So I was curious to see how attitudes had changed since then. Equally important was to see for myself how the war has changed life in Russia. (more…)
-
Ukrainian defence lines and what happens when they are breached
Soledar has fallen to Russian troops. Bakhmut (Artymovsk) will follow soon. (more…)
-
Follow the money: ASPI is a front for US propaganda
What is the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), what are its sources of funding, and why does it so consistently advocate for positions favourable to the United States and the weapons industry? Follow the money trail. (more…)
-
US-Australia ‘Force Posture Agreement’ undermines sovereignty, must be terminated
The US-Australia Force Posture Agreement has opened the gate for the US to set up Australia as a launching pad for its next war against China. The Albanese government must invoke Article XXI to terminate it and reclaim sovereignty. (more…)
-
Shooting Afghans: Prince Harry’s apache moment
-
The zombification of US national security
A recent New York Times commentary by conservative columnist Bret Stephens asks this question: “Are We Sleepwalking Through a ‘Decisive Decade’?” To which he answers resoundingly, in so many words, yes. (more…)
-
The deadliest year for West Bank Palestinians since the second Intifada in numbers
Middle East Eye analyses figures of record Israeli violence in 2022 in which the majority of victims were civilians, including children and journalists. (more…)
-
Acquiring B-21s to attack Chinese Pacific bases ignores strategic reality
B-21s for Australia? Not on the basis of defending against a Chinese base in Australia’s nearer region.
Defence policy often proceeds under a number of heroic and muddled assumptions. Most likely, the Defence Strategic Review (DSR) will also. These must be tested. (more…)
-
Does the Taiwan issue have to be a ménage à trois?
The rising tension over Taiwan is not the making of either of the two Chinese parties to the dispute. After all, the fundamental problem has been the same since its inception. It was an unfinished civil war between two political factions, the Kuomintang and the Communist Party of China, over control of the country after World War II. Matters became more complicated when the United States decided to involve itself in the conflict. (more…)
-
AUKUS: a collection of views not found in our Washington dominated media
AUKUS: signed and sealed by the Liberal government when it joined the pact in September 2021, the spoils of which have been delivered by the Labor Government in March 2023. The Labor Government and Australia will pay a heavy price for what is being done in our name. We are being humiliated by our own government. (more…)
-
Why Japan is not an acceptable military ally
There is some terrible double-foolishness afoot, that is certain to be widely noticed beyond the Western bubble. Australia is stepping forward with gusto to secure its position as a best-military-buddy not only with America, the most warlike nation in history, according to Jimmy Carter, but also with Japan, one of the 20th century’s most infamous warmongers, presently rearming with alarming relish. You are, as they say, known by the company you keep. (more…)
-
Once defence minister’s spending fiction and the big sell-out
America’s confected strategy to contain China for its own ends has to be separated from Australia’s self-reliant defence, with clarity. The Strategic Defence Review must staunch the bleeding. (more…)
-
US Military thanks and praises retiring CNN “Journalist” for her service
The US military has been showering CNN’s retiring Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr with effusive thanks and praise for her lifetime of service, giving some insight into the cozy working relationship between the media and the war machine inside the US empire. (more…)
-
Best of 2022: China has neither the intent nor the capability to attack us
We are being led in our anti-China hysteria by the United States which is not concerned that China will attack us, or even the United States, but is concerned that its world hegemony is being challenged. (more…)
-
Bulletin of atomic scientists: Arms Can Bring No Security by Albert Einstein March 1950
This article was originally published in the March 1950 issue of the Bulletin in the wake of President Harry Truman’s announcement that the United States would pursue a hydrogen bomb. (more…)
-
Best of 2022: Defence Strategic Review – Read all about it
According to the terms of reference Defence Security Review is now required to ensure that Defence has the right capabilities that are postured to meet the growing strategic challenges that Australia and its partner countries will face in the world in coming years. (more…)
-
Australia flies into The Thucydides Trap
America’s newest nuclear stealth bomber was unveiled by Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin. It is the latest expression of the Thucydides Trap which postulates an inevitable war between America and China. (more…)
-
Best of 2022: 25 Years ago, I warned expanding NATO ranked with the errors that led to WWI and II
Expanding NATO’s military demarcation point to the very borders of the former Soviet Union was an error which may rank with the strategic miscalculations which prevented Germany from taking its full place in the international system at the beginning of this century. (more…)
-
Best of 2022: Russia-Ukraine: For humanity’s sake, turn down the heat
It’s time we recognise the carnage of this war in Ukraine, and turn to dialogue with Russia.
-
Best of 2022: The great game in Ukraine is spinning out of control
Former US National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski famously described Ukraine as a “geopolitical pivot” of Eurasia, central to both US and Russian power. Since Russia views its vital security interests to be at stake in the current conflict, the war in Ukraine is rapidly escalating to a nuclear showdown. It’s urgent for both the US and Russia to exercise restraint before disaster hits. (more…)
-
Violence at home and abroad is as American as cherry pie.
We could get into a war with China is if we continue to act as a proxy or deputy sheriff for the US in the region. Despite the media hysteria, China is not a military threat to Australia or the US. (more…)
-
True love never coerces: a meditation for Christmas 2022
Imagine if we did not need to pray for those who die today, violently and unprepared. Imagine if the United Nations members convened in deep silence and resolved to rid the planet of all weapons of mass destruction and to prevent catastrophic climate change. Imagine if the cruelty being inflicted on the people of Ukraine, mid winter, was to cease and young people of both nations partnered in rebuilding all that had been destroyed…
Join with me, for a time, and imagine, imagine, imagine… (more…)
-
“No relationship more important” than China for Australia
Xi Jinping is the only foreign head of state who has visited all Australian states and mainland territories, very warmly welcomed. Let’s not accept the blarney that he’s changed. He’s had to fight a lot and has a bad press in the west, engineered. As Bob Hawke once said: “There is no relationship Australia has that is more important than our relationship with China.” (more…)
-
Nobel recipients’ humanity is in stark contrast to Putin’s bestiality
During days preceding a festive period, the world watches the contrast between the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize recipients’ hopes for humanity and the bestiality of a Russian President’s war in Ukraine. Representing their respective civil society organisations in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine, three brave individuals have been rewarded for their human rights-based opposition to the dictators Putin and Lukashenko. (more…)
-
‘A moral and political disgrace’: Just 11 Senators vote no on $858 billion military budget
“At a time when we spend more than the next 11 nations combined on defence, we should invest in healthcare, jobs, housing, and education—not more weapons of destruction,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders. (more…)
-
Opposing war is the first step toward moral Politics: notes from the edge of The Narrative Matrix
Forcefully opposing the warmongering and imperialism of your rulers is the very first step toward political morality. It’s not the only step, but it is the first step, because if you haven’t taken that step then no other ostensibly moral politics you might espouse are meaningful. (more…)
-
A world divided
Not since the end of the Cold War has the world been so divided politically, ideologically and economically. (more…)
-
The breakdown of US hegemony is the defining feature of our strategic environment
The defining feature of our present strategic environment is not a competition between the US and China. It is the breakdown of the singular hegemonic command of the United States, under its own weight. (more…)
-
Asian Media Report: Japan scrapping military spending limit
In Asian media this week – Missile systems able to attack enemy bases. Plus: media question official defence line; new criminal code worries LGBTQ community; benefits of soft diplomacy; junta leaders economic illiterates; instant change in COVID rhetoric. (more…)