Hong Kong can do nothing right, it seems. But it’s not the community’s fault: it lives on a fault line, trying to balance between two much larger, more powerful entities. Richard Cullen recalls a different occasion when two big powers, the US and the UK, had a difference of opinion. Often, much smaller communities end up paying the price. (more…)
Tag: International relations
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Albanese’s fealty to America: Shouldn’t we be white hot with rage?
Like Paul Keating, Australians should be angry. Australia’s security is at risk. No other nation is so foolish, so self- delusional, so divorced from the basics of statecraft, nor so feckless with its citizens’ security in pursuit of America’s objectives. Shouldn’t we be white hot with rage at this government’s abdication of sovereignty? (more…)
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The NACC and the economics of corruption
When corruption really gets into the bones of a society the damage it does to institutions can take generations to heal. (more…)
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Why we need an Earth System Treaty
“Humanity created its current dire trajectory. It is now time to change course with a binding global treaty designed to empower individuals, institutions, and policymakers, and through this shared effort, reduce the existential threats to civilisation. The Earth Systems Treaty is potentially a major step forward, a step towards a healthy future for all.”–Paul R. Ehrlich, Emeritus Professor, Stanford University (more…)
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Plea deal pitfalls for the world’s foremost political prisoner
Julian Assange could hardly be blamed for considering a possible plea deal that would alleviate the immense suffering he has endured since becoming the object of state persecution. Terms less brutal than those he potentially faces – anywhere up to a 175-year prison sentence in the cell of a US supermax – can only be seen as appealing. (more…)
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US urged to own up to causing Afghan misery by illegitimate war
Two years after the heart-breaking Kabul Moment that saw the withdrawal of US-led Western troops from their illegal invasion and occupation, the United States has been urged to assume liability for humanitarian sufferings of Afghanistan people. (more…)
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AUKUS and Israel-Palestine at the ALP National Conference
There was little to connect AUKUS and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the ALP National Conference except their shared “victory” in style over substance. AUKUS was locked into the party platform without meaningful debate. Revised wording on Israel/Palestine is worthy but will not make the slightest difference on the ground. (more…)
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Muddled on the Middle Kingdom
Anthony Albanese needs to see for himself what the Chinese economic miracle looks like close up. (more…)
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Asean role stuck on Myanmar coup
President Joe Biden’s decision to skip Asean-related summits in the Indonesian capital Jakarta on Sept 5-7 in favour of the G-20 leaders’ meeting in India just two days later has been greeted with howls of disappointment and criticism around Southeast Asian capitals and elsewhere that are concerned about America’s role in the region. (more…)
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Resistance to Western geo-political order: building brick by BRICS
The just completed 15th BRICS Summit, held in Johannesburg, South Africa, has made some momentous decisions which will greatly effect the global geo-political order. (more…)
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A multicultural environment benefits all
In an increasingly globalised world where opportunity invites immigration, multiculturalism plays a significant role in facilitating deeper connections and embracing cultural diversity. (more…)
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Behind the ‘Red Curtain’: Decoding China’s institutional logics
Instead of simply aligning their interests with the US, it is critical for US allies such as Australia to find a new balance in the great power rivalry between Washington and Beijing, and to develop their own strategic approach toward China. Among other things, this will require an understanding of how policy is formulated behind China’s ‘red curtains’. (more…)
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China: The challenge of complexity
All of us here can probably agree that we are currently living in a time of greater strategic uncertainty and challenge than at any time since the end of World War II, and certainly since the end of the Cold War in the late 1980s. China is seen as being at the epicentre of this. (more…)
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The 10 rules of the rules based International order (RBIO)
Breaking news: Pentagon releases the ten rules of the Rules Based International Order (RBIO) as seen by the United States of America. (more…)
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Rise of the Global South: Saudi Arabia, Iran join BRICS
With the increase in the number of BRICS countries, this emerging international order dominated by the countries of the Global South will ultimately become the primary international order in the world, gradually replacing the fading international order dominated by the US and the West. (more…)
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Mass killings of Ethiopian migrants by Saudi Arabia at Yemen border may amount to crimes against humanity
Saudi border guards have killed at least hundreds of Ethiopian migrants and asylum seekers who tried to cross the Yemen-Saudi border between March 2022 and June 2023. Saudi officials are killing hundreds of women and children out of view of the rest of the world while they spend billions on sports-washing to try to improve their image. Saudi Arabia should immediately and urgently revoke any policy to use lethal force on migrants and asylum seekers. Concerned countries should press for accountability and the UN should investigate. (more…)
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US economic policy and a great march backwards
There is a spectre haunting the world. It is the spectre of economic crisis. How the world responds will shape all of our futures. To borrow from Carl Clausewitz; war is the continuation of politics by other means. The famous military theorist might have added that economics is politics which is war by other means. (more…)
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Australia could be leading the way on human survival: Will Albanese act?
Our human species is drifting rapidly towards extinction, and there is not yet in place, a process to prevent it. (more…)
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Growing concern at Gusmão’s direction for Timor-Leste
Australia’s leading financial media platform, the Australian Financial Review, raised the red flag about the future of Timor-Leste this month, with International Editor Professor James Curran’s article, Timor-Leste on brink of failure. (more…)
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The branding
The alleged branding of the Star of David on the face of a Palestinian man by Israeli police has left many around the world aghast at the barbaric cruelty and violence of such an act. It has been reported in numerous media outlets yet is, so far, glaringly left out of others. This kind of humiliation and violence seems to come from another era in a time when racial violence and the attacking of the underdog whilst authorities turned a blind eye was de rigueur. But it’s 2023. (more…)
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Big brave Western proxy warriors keep whining that Ukrainian troops are cowards
Amid continuous news that the Ukrainian counteroffensive which began in June is not going as hoped, The New York Times has published an article titled “Troop Deaths and Injuries in Ukraine War Near 500,000, U.S. Officials Say.” (more…)
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The Insurgency
It is hard to gauge the importance of the Trumpist Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) event that took place in Sydney this weekend. There were more high-profile figures speaking than previously, and several currently serving politicians alongside white supremacists and antisemites. (more…)
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Self-destructive stupidity, New Zealand style
‘Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad’
What a pity it is that we no longer believe in capricious gods because that would offer a good explanation for the otherwise quite perplexing habit of governments, with intelligent and informed people theoretically at their disposal, to embrace policies which are manifestly an example of self-destructive stupidity. Clever people doing stupid things. (more…) -
The AUKUS folly: Albanese and the US presidential election
There never was a chance of overturning the AUKUS folly at the Labor conference. As unpalatable as it might be, the only possibility of extracting Australia from America’s war planning now lies in the bizarre milieu of American politics. And it’s not forlorn. (more…)
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Japan’s dangerous demonisation of North Korea
Japan is a member of the Quad – the grouping that claims it is working for a free, open, prosperous and inclusive Indo-Pacific region. But in its relations with North Korea, Tokyo is not working for anything free, open, prosperous and inclusive. (more…)
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New Zealand risks perilous pivot
Wellington’s shift in defence policy abandons long-held neutrality, follows US’ anti-China stance. (more…)
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Real chance of Trump victory in the US election
There are some worrying signs in recent polling which raise the disturbing possibility that a third-party campaign by the Green Party may once again divert enough votes from the Democratic Party candidate, in this case almost certainly Joe Biden, to get Donald Trump over the line in some key states and thereby deliver another Trump victory. (more…)
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Australia, alliances and deterrence: AUKUS will not make us safer
By entering the AUKUS Partnership in 2021, Australia has undertaken to co-operate with the United States and the United Kingdom, two nuclear-weapon states, with objectives that include acquiring nuclear-powered submarines that would be armed with conventional weapons. This has the potential to weaken both the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), by setting a damaging precedent for other states, and the Treaty of Rarotonga. (more…)
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The United States has troops operating inside China
There’s a lot of controversy over what China is doing in the South China Sea, but there seems to be very little in the way of perspective. The recent “water attack” on Philippines vessels was not a hostile act by a military nation, it was a Chinese Coastguard ship deterring another nation from building on a disputed island. China’s actions are overshadowed by the immense US military presence encircling China, and now extending to US troops operating inside China. (more…)
