A few days after coming to power in 1972 Gough Whitlam declared that ‘Australia’s real test as far as the rest of the world is concerned is the role we create for our own Aborigines’. More than foreign aid programmes, more than any role the country plays in agreements or alliances, treatment of the Aborigines will be the thing upon which the rest of the world will judge Australia and Australians ‘not just now but in the greater perspective of history.’ (more…)
Tag: International relations
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Israeli Defence Force shoots and kills a 3-year-old
Most people can focus to see if they’re looking at a bird, a car or a person. Throw in a military scope and the sharp eyes of youth and ask yourself if you would spot the difference before you pulled the trigger. (more…)
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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…)
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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…)
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Aukus leaders prefer posturing and provocation over dialogue
Shangri-La Dialogue was a missed opportunity for talks as defence chiefs Austin and Marles insisted on belligerence and doublespeak. (more…)
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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…)
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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…)
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Australia catching up with the Asian century at last?
Every word of Anthony Albanese’s address to the Shangri-La dialogue on 2 June was chosen with care. It was a balancing act, with the Prime Minister poised between peace and war, defence and diplomacy, the US and China, in a high-wire performance his Coalition predecessors wouldn’t have attempted. (more…)
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Shangri-la Dialogue: some Americans just don’t get China
Prime Minister Albanese spoke moderately and positively at the Shangri-la Dialogue in Singapore last weekend, although his address didn’t really live up to its prior publicity. However the main impression from the exchanges at the Dialogue was of the differences between the US and China. Amazingly, the American Secretary of Defence didn’t seem to realise that the US continuing to keep the Chinese Defence Minister on some kind of sanctions black-list would affect the latter’s willingness to engage in bilateral talks. (more…)
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The Shangri-La dialogue and aUStralian strategic thinking
Interpretations are being offered about prime minister Albanese’s speech to the so-called Shangri La Dialogue in Singapore. This sounds like an Asian event but is hosted each year by the International Institute for Strategic Studies of London, an august and AUKUSian institution of such eminence that I was once invited to join. I declined. Life is too short. (more…)
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Australian Government is MIA for World Environment Day 2023
Monday 5 June 2023 was World Environment Day. The campaign this year is for action to eradicate plastics in all its forms which pollute and destroy. The campaign is led by the United Nations Environment Protection agency (UNEP) with the title and hashtag of #BeatPlasticPollution. (more…)
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Australia, little country lost
You could hear, when Biden squibbed the Quad, the Austral-Americans deflate. (more…)
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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…)
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China – The Middle Kingdom
The Chinese character for China, denotes China as the middle kingdom and understandably so: (more…)
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How to translate Western diplomatic jargon
Such terms and phrases as a rules-based system, de-risking, democracy vs autocracy, and coercive behaviour are not exhaustive but still expose obfuscation and double standards. (more…)
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Albanese, Biden woo Modi with flattery – Asian Media Report
In Asian Media this week: India Special: West’s one-two soft-soaping of country’s leader; anti-colonial Modi pushes ‘new’ future; forecasts of Indian century ‘magical thinking’. Plus: tighter US, Japan, South Korea ties; Timor-Leste’s ASEAN ambitions; Bangkok backing key to poll winner’s survival. (more…)
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LGBTIQ+ persecution in Africa: Australia’s responsibility to protect
Atrocities don’t happen overnight. They ramp up over time. The Nazi death camps, were preceded by at least a decade of smaller, selective and escalating removals of human rights for Jewish and LGBTIQ+ peoples. Similar patterns allowed for the genocides in Rwanda and Cambodia – incremental and selective removals of minority rights built momentum and social licence for graver crimes against humanity. This is an important reason why the world must act now to stop criminalisation and abuse of LGBTIQ+ peoples in Africa. (more…)
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After Erdogan’s greatest triumph, the ‘West’ watches, and calculates
In Turkiye, deep polarisation and the long struggle between the Atlanticists and the Eurasianists over Turkiye’s soul seems to be ending in victory for the latter. The EU has little appeal for Turks now. It lives in vassalage to the US, which itself seems to be thrashing around in the last days of empire. The ‘west’ watches and calculates. It would have greatly preferred Kilicdaroglu. He would have been more malleable whereas Erdogan is hardly malleable at all. He gravitates between the ‘west’ and Russia or China, benefitting always from Turkiye’s geostrategic position. Internally, no loosening of his grip on the Turkish state and society can be expected. (more…)
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Layers of deceit: exposing the hidden histories of our wars
There are distinct parallels between I F Stones’ exposé of the ongoing Korean War and both the Ukraine War and preparations for a second war with China. Izzy Stone did not travel to war zones like the intrepid Wilfred Burchett, nor had he the whistleblowing ‘sources’ that Sy Hersh uses. His approach is different and one that that we can all use to some degree. He read the official accounts and the mainstream press closely and carefully, revealing discrepancies and peeling back the layers of deceit.
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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.
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Australia and apartheid Israel: “not to act is to condone”
The recent Robert Gregory blog in Australian Jewish News demands a response. (more…)
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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…)
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I’m sorry, but the toxic G-7 ‘rich club’ is past its sell-by date
YET ANOTHER G-7 meeting has passed with yet another embarrassing show of insecurity by a group that is well past its sell-by date. (more…)
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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…)
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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…)
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The swarm: International consultancies
Predatory capitalism has become visible across the world as neo-liberalism becomes fully transnational. Consultancies working to authoritarian rules have consumed big business by making executives richer. They may be set to engulf governments and even entire societies. (more…)
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Rearmament and Europe’s welfare
Let’s see how Europeans respond when they are told their peace dividend is henceforth to be spent on the machinery of war — when it’s “howitzers instead of hospitals” now, as a New York Times article puts it. (more…)
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China panic: a wake-up call for Canadians
As Canada grapples with allegations of foreign interference by China, John Price writes that politicians would be wise to read Australian academic David Brophy’s new book: ‘China Panic: Australia’s Alternative to Paranoia and Pandering’. (more…)
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Why a different world order is already here
US primacy is being replaced by two orders led by Washington and Beijing. Canberra’s job is to make the US understand what has happened. (more…)
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The South China Sea: countries in glass houses should not throw stones
The Philippines publicly announced that it is deploying navigational buoys near some of the rocks it claims and occupies in the South China Sea. It says the buoys signify “the country’s sovereign rights and jurisdiction over our EEZ” and has warned of “serious repercussions” if China removes them. This was just its latest provocative and hypocritical action in the South China Sea. (more…)