(One of Australia’s great strategic thinkers, writers and scholars, Robert O’Neill, who was highly respected at home and internationally, has died. This tribute to him, published by The Strategist in 2016 as part of a …
Articles by: "Graeme Dobell"
With Richard Woolcott, you always had to take the smooth with the smooth. No rough edges for this wattle-proud Australian who was one of our greatest diplomats. His smarts and his steel always presented in …
Indonesia shapes Australia’s regional dreams and darkens its strategic nightmares. The only constant of the Indonesia effect is the constant shape-shifting of a roller-coaster relationship. A vivid version of the wild ride is the period …
The autocrat sits at his hu-u-u-u-u-u-uge table. Vladimir imagines power and pomp. But the picture the world sees is Putin isolated and unable to hear. If the man wasn’t a war criminal brandishing nukes, the …
A pundit’s privilege at year’s end is to pronounce on the progress of presidents and princes and point the paths of power. Wield a broad-brush broadsword to dub the winners and smite the losers. The …
Here’s the ‘darkening’ security outlook for the Indo-Pacific for 2023. The US worries, ‘Will China let us have peace?’ Japan finds itself at the security crossroads due to ‘the resurgence of great power competition’. Canada …
A riot in a South Pacific city is a political act as well as a spree of violence and looting. The urban riot is an extreme expression of political and economic failure in the islands. …
A new Labor government takes office, threatened by a global recession, seeking a new start with China, and worried by war in a ‘time of entrenched geopolitical competition and stark divisions’. A tough menu confronted …
The Labor government has given a ‘firm’ view to the parliamentary inquiry on war powers: don’t disturb the executive’s prerogative for sending Australia to war. But the reference letter to the committee says there’s room …
To examine how Australia goes to war, parliament must examine itself. How much can parliament touch the war prerogative of the prime minister and cabinet? What say should parliament have, if any, in the most …
The Covid-19 pandemic marks the end of the great era of globalisation. Now the troubled times of decoupling arrive. We are at a Matthew Arnold moment: Wandering between two worlds, one dead, The other powerless …
Australia’s quasi-alliance with Japan becomes less quasi and more alliance. The Australia–Japan partnership now uses language sourced from the 70-year-old ANZUS treaty, as the shared alliance with the US is emphasised. In Perth on 22 …