‘You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.’ — Leon Trotsky To shift Trotsky’s line a few degrees, Australians may not be interested in foreign affairs, but foreign affairs is …
Articles by: "Graeme Dobell"
Among the many reasons I’m an optimist is the decades I’ve spent inside two strange but wonderful Australian institutions. One magnificent institution is the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, where I toiled as a journalist for 33 …
The vast construct of the Indo-Pacific and the limited grouping of the Quad (the US, Japan, India and Australia) share a few significant traits. Both are attempts to define and direct the emerging regional power …
The Quad is more notable for the questions it provokes than the answers it offers. The informal dialogue between the US, Japan, Australia and India is a discussion groping towards a grouping. ASPI’s paper Quad …
For any state, regime change is a fraught and dangerous moment. So when the regime that’s changing is the international system of states, the hazards and complexity multiply enormously. With all the alarums and agonies …
As alcohol is an operational fluid of defence and diplomacy, it’s natural that this Wednesday’s debate on new cold war versus hot peace is a champagne challenge (the winner buys the champagne). At the Canberra …
Part of a leader’s magic is to spin a few words into political gold, capturing the moment and proclaiming the future. Think Franklin D. Roosevelt’s ‘new deal’, Winston Churchill’s ‘iron curtain’, or Ben Chifley’s ‘light …
‘We would be deaf and blind without Pine Gap.’ — Kim Beazley Now in its sixth decade of operation, the Pine Gap facility, outside Alice Springs, is a remarkable element of Australia’s alliance with the United …
For political tragics, there’s not much than can surprise about John Howard. His consistency reaches towards the rigid. But here’s a statement to puzzle tragics: J.W. Howard—when in power—was a good, pragmatic multilateralist. During nearly …
An odd element of Australia–India relations for two decades has been Canberra’s reluctance to push for India to join Asia’s most important economic group, APEC. The strangeness is heightened by the obvious synergy between Australia’s …
When the Australian polity talks about relations with India, there’s always a wistful bit about the great possibilities and how little has been achieved. The sense of regret requires ignoring a lot of history. It’s …
No suspense this year. The winner is obvious: a masterpiece by the German official photographer, Jesco Denzel, wins the 10th Madeleine Award for the use of symbol, stunt, prop, gesture or jest. The annual prize …