America’s space policy reveals its hegemonic obsession and the future quandaries for Australian policy. Even America’s approach to exploration and colonisation of the Moon is only comprehensible in terms of terrestrial geopolitics. It now expects the world to bow to its power in outer space. (more…)
Tag: International relations
-
King Charles III of Australia: not my king
After the nauseating display of royal excess and dynastic exceptionalism last week, an Australian republic cannot come soon enough. (more…)
-
An open letter to Benjamin Netanyahu
At what point did you lose your empathy and compassion towards those outside your circle? Why are you able to feel for those around you yet not for other human beings who live close by and who have exactly the same wants and desires from life as you and your family? (more…)
-
The Ukraine war and the Hitler analogy
As the Russia-Ukraine war enters what could be its most decisive phase, the award-winning American journalist, Stephen Kinzer, has announced a ‘Society for Abolishing World War II Analogies’. (more…)
-
Money makes the world go round – and development succeed
The key to economic development and ending poverty is investment. Nations achieve prosperity by investing in four priorities. Most important is investing in people, through quality education and health care. The next is infrastructure, such as electricity, safe water, digital networks, and public transport. The third is natural capital, protecting nature. The fourth is business investment. The key is finance: mobilising the funds to invest at the scale and speed required. (more…)
-
Ex-politicians who go over to the enemy
It has been only in recent times that we have had former prime ministers taking up positions in foreign countries, even working for foreign governments. It ought to be regarded as deeply shameful, and more than somewhat disloyal. If our public stewards cannot be trusted to do the right thing, it becomes necessary to control them by law. (more…)
-
‘Red scare’ in US causes multi-year flood of refugees with PhDs to China
OECD data shows China sustains net gain of scientists while US suffers net loss as ethnic Chinese researchers fear US government surveillance and prosecution. (more…)
-
The US silence on Israeli nuclear weapons and the right-wing Israeli government
The Israeli protests against its new right-wing government have now touched on Israel’s nuclear weapons. To underline what is at stake, former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak cast aside Israeli ambiguity over whether it possesses nuclear weapons to warn his compatriots that Western diplomats are worried that a Jewish messianic dictatorship could gain control over Israel’s nuclear weapons. (more…)
-
India straddles competing global concepts
India as the Chair of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) hosted the SCO Defence Ministers’ Meeting on 28 April. Largely unreported in Western media, the meeting underlined important divergences in the narrative promoted by US-centric media that suggests India and China have irreconcilable differences. (more…)
-
China, America and the Saudi-Iranian normalisation
The Saudi-Iranian normalisation deal brokered by China has sent shockwaves throughout the region. Regional actors had not expected China to suddenly desire a political role in the Persian Gulf. Others were skeptical of Beijing’s diplomatic capacity and skills. Few, however, were as surprised as foreign policy hands in Washington – even though it is the United States’ actions and missteps that inadvertently created both the opportunity for Beijing to mediate and the environment that compelled regional actors to sue for peace. (more…)
-
King Charles’ coronation brings Australia closer to a republic
It is about being subjects rather than citizens. It is about ancient oaths of loyalty and fealty. It is about pomp and ceremony paid for by the state. (more…)
-
The ‘Ugly Aussies’ rubbishing our reputation in Indonesia
Here’s a rough guide to Westerners visiting Indonesia. (more…)
-
A women-led long fight against Malaysia’s discriminatory citizenship laws
Water broke in the wee hours on the day of Headry’s flight back to her homeland Malaysia. (more…)
-
North Korea: same old, or another ticking bomb?
Continued missile testing by North Korea invites the question, why do they do it? It’s tempting to regard it as “just what they do”, but is that all there is to it? Is it “urgent but not important”? What about the response? (more…)
-
Bitter polarisation of American society undermines case for US alliance
It is difficult to imagine a scenario for next year’s Presidential elections which does not increase the already bitter polarisation of American society. The level of irrationality and violence in the United States means that in the coming decades it may well veer between bellicosity and isolationism. In the face of an uncertain American polity, tying ourselves yet closer to the American alliance seems a foolhardy enterprise. (more…)
-
The coming war: Time to speak up
Silences filled with a consensus of propaganda contaminate almost everything we read, see and hear. War by media is now a key task of so-called mainstream journalism. (more…)
-
‘National Defence’ takes Australia closer to war with China
The 2023 Defence Strategic Review has recommended Australia adopt a new strategic conceptual framework dubbed ‘National Defence’ that incorporates a ‘strategy of denial’. This approach is tied to a broader concept of ‘collective security’ in the Indo-Pacific and is aligned with America’s framework for ‘integrated deterrence’ of China. ‘National Defence’ is consistent with American force structure designs to develop the northern Australian expanse as an increasingly important base of operations for force-projection.
(more…) -
Reminder: the media once bashed Trump for transgressing the One-China Policy the US now spits on
The US has been increasingly treating Taiwan like a sovereign nation with whom diplomatic relationships and alliances can be formed, in violation of its longstanding One-China policy that has kept the peace for decades. And I just think it’s worth noting that the western media who’ve lately been condoning these moves became outraged at Donald Trump just a few years ago for doing the same thing to a far lesser degree. (more…)
-
What the Defence Strategic Review does not tell us
There are a number of salient points arising from the Defence Strategic Review which have not been exposed to clear light – which might explain why the government has taken the approach it has. There are two scenarios behind the DSR: war over Taiwan with the US, or war with Indonesia by ourselves. (more…)
-
The American way: exporting US dysfunction to the world
The United States of America is not well, a fact that even as an acolyte the Australian government does not seem to be aware or care about, on account of our unconditional love for the Americans. (more…)
-
Challenging editors of the New York Times, Washington Post on their censorship of Nordstream and Ukraine
Jose Vega confronts Editors of the New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times and Reuters on their censorship of Seymour Hersh, Tucker Carlson, Russiagate and Ukraine. (more…)
-
France bets on future by backing best global alternative
Recently, the former senior Singaporean diplomat and respected geopolitical consultant Kishore Mahbubani offered Australia some acute advice: Stop betting on the past. Mahbubani’s article was figuratively bookended with visits to Beijing by President Emmanuel Macron of France (shortly before publication) and President Lula da Silva of Brazil (soon after publication). (more…)
-
War prevention depends on respecting invisible geopolitical faultlines
If we look back on the major wars of the prior century and forward to the growing menace of a war fought with nuclear weaponry, there is one prominent gap in analysis and understanding: in an imperfectly governed world, spheres of influence in certain regional settings play crucial war prevention roles.
-
The DSR’s desultory treatment of nuclear submarines
The Albanese government’s Defence Strategic Review is marred from the outset by its bald assertion that China’s military build-up is the largest and most ambitious of any country since the end of the Second World War. (more…)
-
Australia pays Washington swamp monsters for war advice
Australia has been paying insiders of the US war machine for consultation on how to run the nation’s military, a massive conflict of interest given that Washington has been grooming Australia for a role in its war agendas against China. (more…)
-
Direct access to Australian citizenship for New Zealanders is a good thing
The Albanese government decision to restore direct access to Australian citizenship for New Zealanders living here is a good thing. It defuses a social time bomb and removes an irritant in Australia-New Zealand relations. (more…)
-
Act of self-harm: US ‘Defund China’s Allies’ bill targets Solomon Islands
Lawmakers in the US Imperium are getting stroppy. China is on the rise. Russia is not folding. Iran and Saudi Arabia have decided, if not to bury the hatchet then certainly cover it. So it comes as little surprise that Congress now has, before it, the Defund China’s Allies Act (HR 2511), an instrument that is bound to pass and enchant the Empire’s followers in Canberra. (more…)
-
Japan’s ‘strike north’ military faction
As a Quad member Japan is supposed to be focussed on Taiwan and the South China Sea. (more…)
-
New Defence Review further enslaves Australia to US war agendas
The Australian government has released the declassified version of its highly anticipated 2023 Defence Strategic Review (DSR), and the war propagandists are delighted. (more…)
