As US leadership becomes increasingly erratic, claims grow that the rules-based international order is breaking down. But China and India may yet help guide its transition rather than preside over its collapse. (more…)
Category: USA
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Trump, Afghanistan and the songs that tell a different story
Donald Trump should have listened to Australian songwriter Fred Smith before he spoke ignorantly about the sacrifices of soldiers in Afghanistan. (more…)
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Trump’s tariffs and threats are pushing the world to look elsewhere
The EU–India trade deal marks more than a commercial agreement. It signals a growing willingness among major economies to reduce their exposure to US coercion and to build new trade frameworks beyond Washington’s reach. (more…)
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Mexico’s political transformation: the revolution isn’t being televised
Mexico’s government has delivered falling violence, rising wages and broad social reform. Yet its record has attracted remarkably little attention in the English-language media, even as external pressure from the United States intensifies. (more…)
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Australia’s Trump reprieve masks a deeper strategic dilemma
Australia may have escaped the worst of Donald Trump’s return to power so far. But beneath the surface, Washington’s shift towards spheres of influence is exposing serious weaknesses in Australia’s strategic posture.
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Mass layoffs continue to punish working class under Trump
Major US companies including Amazon, UPS and Dow are announcing large job cuts as employment growth slows, raising questions about the strength of the US labour market under Donald Trump. (more…)
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When public opinion breaks: ICE, Trump and a political tipping point
Political opinion usually shifts slowly, but history shows that certain events can force sudden, irreversible change. The killings linked to ICE enforcement may mark such a moment in the United States.
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Greenland and western hypocrisy over the rules-based international order
Western leaders defend the rules-based international order when it suits them, but remain largely silent as those same rules are breached by the United States and Israel. The result is a system that shields the powerful and abandons the vulnerable – most starkly in Palestine.
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NATO is failing – and ANZUS is next
NATO is unravelling as shared interests and trust with the United States collapse. For Australia, this raises urgent questions about the future value of ANZUS and related security arrangements. (more…)
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Iran vows to ‘respond like never before’ as Trump ramps up war threats
Tehran’s admonition came after Trump said that a “massive armada” is heading to Iran – similar language he used before invading Venezuela and kidnapping its president. (more…)
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The end of the lucky country’s security fantasy
As the post-war global order unravels, Australia’s long-standing reliance on great and powerful friends is proving dangerously hollow – and the country is unprepared for what comes next. (more…)
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The Supreme Court should ignore Trump – tariffs haven’t rescued the US economy
Donald Trump’s claim that tariffs have “rescued” the US economy relies on selective data, economic misunderstanding, and a dangerous conflation of trade policy with national security. (more…)
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Trump labor department takes a page from Hitler’s playbook
Official social media from the US Labor Department now echoes the imagery, language and logic of authoritarian propaganda – a warning sign for workers’ rights and democratic institutions.
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Trump, misogyny, and the refusal of repair
Donald Trump’s dismissal of domestic violence as “a little fight with the wife” was not accidental. It exposes how minimising harm functions to protect authority, deflect accountability, and stabilise power under pressure.
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The United States is a lawless and dangerous ally. What is Australia’s Plan B?
Mark Carney’s Davos speech highlights a world in rupture, not transition. Australia needs to rethink its dependence on the United States and begin preparing a credible Plan B. (more…)
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China’s ambitions are narrower than Washington thinks
China’s foreign policy priorities are driven more by domestic stability and long-standing sovereignty claims than by ambitions to dominate the global order.
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Trump fills the great Albo silence
Australia’s leaders are trying to avoid becoming a target in a harsher, more coercive world. But silence and caution can’t substitute for strategy – or for honest leadership that levels with the public. (more…)
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Trump’s Greenland grab is part of a new space race – and the stakes are getting higher
Trump’s shifting rhetoric on Greenland masks a consistent strategic goal – control of a key Arctic location that underpins US space surveillance and military reach.
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Trump, Greenland and Australia’s alliance reality check
Trump’s behaviour towards Greenland is a warning sign for alliances, values and Western credibility. Australia may need to weigh ANZUS more hard-headedly and build greater strategic autonomy.
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Beyond the ruptured alliance: an outline for Plan B
Australia’s alliance with the United States is no longer reliable, and clinging to it now risks Australia’s interests and values. The case for a deliberate, staged Plan B begins with strategic autonomy – and an overdue reckoning with extended nuclear deterrence.
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Mark Carney and the middle power moment
Mark Carney’s Davos speech argues the world has entered a rupture where great powers use coercion and the old rules no longer restrain them. The challenge for countries like Australia is to face reality, apply consistent standards to allies and rivals, and build collective leverage with other middle powers.
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Carney’s moment: a Western leader finally says the quiet part out loud
Mark Carney’s Davos speech is a blunt diagnosis of a world in rupture, where power now trumps rules and coercion is openly deployed. The answer, it argues, is collective action by middle powers – a modern “third path” that resists subordination and rebuilds leverage.
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Chas Freeman: the US has shifted from protector to predator
In a video address delivered on 12 January 2026, former US ambassador Chas Freeman argues the post-war system of international law and institutions is failing under great power coercion and impunity. He warns that US and Israeli conduct is accelerating global lawlessness, undermining democratic freedoms, and pushing the world toward a more dangerous, unstable order.
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The man who puts his name on everything
Trump’s compulsion to mark territory is more than ego. It reflects a worldview where prestige matters more than truth, law, or restraint.
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The US is powerless to push China out of Latin America
Trump’s move on Venezuela signals a wider push to squeeze China out of Latin America. But Beijing’s trade, investment and infrastructure ties may prove hard to unwind.
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Trump and Putin can still save the last nuclear arms limit
The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) expires in weeks. A simple extension could preserve limits on US and Russian nuclear arsenals and buy time for deeper cuts.
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Can Washington still strike a grand bargain with Beijing?
A prominent Chinese academic argues the conditions are right for a US–China “grand bargain”. But recent events in Venezuela and the Middle East raise hard questions about what kind of America China is dealing with.
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Best of 2025 – Trump’s drug war on Venezuela reeks of hypocrisy
Donald Trump’s campaign against Venezuela is less about drugs than power, exposing deep hypocrisy in US policy and raising uncomfortable questions for Australia about its alliance.
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Best of 2025 – Charting Trump’s decline
New polling reveals a clear and sustained decline in public approval of Trump and his policies that is already reshaping US electoral prospects, with significant implications for Congress and beyond.
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Best of 2025 – Five reasons Trump’s economy stinks and 10 things the Dems should do about It
The Trump economy is truly awful for most Americans. Democrats need to show America that they can be better trusted to bring prices down and real wages up. (more…)