Category: Defence

Australia’s decision to acquire nuclear-propelled submarines will be staggeringly expensive and is unfit for the purpose of defending the country. It is prone to reinforce Chinese suspicions that we are determined on joining the United States in ‘containing’ it. (more…)

Citizens in Australia speak of peace and show how to reach that goal. They do not trust politicians stifled into thinking that security means militarism, or think tanks funded to promote the idea that national defence and arms industry interests are the same. (more…)

I find the prospect of civil wars less disheartening than the related drift toward fascism or the torments of anarchy. (more…)

This is a comprehensive, sobering review by Jonathan Cook who concludes that Washington’s greatest fear is that, as its economic muscle atrophies, Europe’s vital trading links with China and Russia will see its economic interests – and eventually its ideological loyalties – shift eastwards, rather than stay firmly in the western camp. (more…)

Australia’s major ally, the United States, may soon cease to be a democracy. The Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade – a decision opposed by a majority of Americans – is just the latest example of a country hurtling towards minority rule. Today, it is abortion rights on the judicial chopping block. Tomorrow, it is voting rights. (more…)

This is the text of the address delivered by Ramesh Thakur at the launch of The Nuclear Ban Treaty: A Transformational Reframing of the Global Nuclear Order (Routledge, 2022) at the Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation on Friday, 24 June 2022. (more…)

How can Australia navigate the tough and dangerous strategic environment in Asia today with America and China competing to be the leading regional power? The consensus in Canberra – on both sides of politics – is that we should stick as close as we can to America, in the hope it will win the contest. (more…)

War – its preparation, rehearsal, prosecution, and remediation – is increasingly the concern of 21^st century states and peoples. Attention in 2022 focussed on the savage fighting in the Black Sea and Ukraine, but preparations, plans and rehearsals on a hitherto unprecedented scale for conflict were underway around the world, notably in the form of US-led and organised exercises in the Baltic, the East and South China Seas, the Mediterranean and the Pacific. For the most part, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) is in command, though in the case of the Pacific the primary role is played by the US Navy (i.e. the Pentagon). (more…)

Certain statements offered by the defence ministers from Australia and the US about China at the recent Shangri La Dialogue displayed a startling absence of comparative fact-based credibility. Neither of these senior political figures appears to have had the veracity of what they said seriously challenged by the supervising media contingent present in Singapore. (more…)

How did it come to this? Australia’s defence policy has been baldly sacrificed to US interests via AUKUS with little public discourse. (more…)

In the national security domain, changing governments is like changing spark plugs in that nothing else changes. From their darkened cloisters the militarists befuddle new ministers with gloomy prognostications while proffering prophylactics like deterrence, alliances, and interoperability. And so the Prime Minister is off to the Madrid NATO conference. (more…)