Australia’s pivot to the South Pacific talks up both personal connections and foreign policy interests. The pivot pitch tries to meld strategy and Pacific family, bringing together policy and the needs of Pacific people. Such …
Articles by: "Graeme Dobell"
Scott Morrison has been touched by Forrest Gump magic. Come the election, the prime minister went into full Forrest mode: ‘Run, ScoMo, run!’ A federal election is like a box of chocolates. You never know …
Australia has a Voldemort problem. Our big new ambition for the South Pacific—economic and security integration—has become the policy that can’t be named. Australia’s policy is integration, and we’re working to make it happen. We …
The comfortable Canberra consensus on how to handle China has boiled over. A set of simmering debates has become extremely hot. Australia was long able to keep its economic relationship with China in the prosperity …
Asia’s rise is changing the world. This is a defining feature of the 21st century—the Asian century. These developments have profound implications for people everywhere. Asia’s extraordinary ascent has already changed the Australian economy, society …
‘Between the idea And the reality Between the motion And the act Falls the Shadow’ — T.S. Eliot, ‘The Hollow Men’ T.S. Eliot offers a raging lament at what the 1919 Treaty of Versailles did …
‘Indo-Pacific’ has shifted from a geographic construct to an arena for mounting contest—and the label for a US strategy. The journey from construct to competition has been short and sharp. At the start of this …
The term ‘Indo-Pacific’ reflects and frames surging strategic rivalry in the place we call ‘the region’. The Indo-Pacific becomes a controversial label attached to a power contest. As with any construct—political, social, diplomatic, strategic—it’s about …
Don’t it always seem to go That you don’t know what you’ve got Till it’s gone — Joni Mitchell, ‘Big Yellow Taxi’ The international system is having a Big Yellow Taxi moment, as so elegantly …
Yes to a rules-based system in the Indo-Pacific. But who rules, who writes the rules, and how fares the system? And yes to the reality of a rapidly evolving security order in the Asia–Pacific. But …
The South Pacific calls global warming its top security threat. And China’s arrival is warming discussion of island security. Both trends explain why, for the first time in its 18-year history, Singapore’s Shangri-La Dialogue had …
The Shangri-La Dialogue is speed dating for defence ministers. Singapore has just hosted the 18th annual version of this defence dance done with summit trappings. The 22 ministers were a sizeable grouping of stars. Then …