The defence supremos of the US and China had a face-off in Singapore at the weekend. Both sides came for a compare-and-contrast contest conducted as a rhetorical rumble. The two biggest players in the game …
Articles by: "Graeme Dobell"
Elections are debates in quest of power. But Australia is poorly served by the lack of a formal debate structure during federal elections. The campaign, just done and dusted, was sad proof—yet again—that Australia’s major …
In Australia’s presidential-style election, the sitting president has amazed the nation—and himself—by winning. Scott Morrison expressed his own surprise at the start of his victory speech: ‘I have always believed in miracles … and tonight …
Election campaigns involve loud argument and quiet consensus—and then there are the silences. Silences point to hard stuff just offstage: no-go, too dangerous. For political parties, breaking the silence introduces complexity that tends towards tangled …
Australia’s new South Pacific policy is set in place, no matter which side wins the election on 18 May. Labor and the Coalition entered the election with a unity ticket on Papua New Guinea, the …
NATO and ANZUS are cousins. The defining family characteristic of the two alliances is the central, essential role of the United States. NATO is a complex organism of 29 members; in comparison, ANZUS—just the US …
‘Relations with Indonesia have provided the crucible of modern Australian foreign policy.’ —Bruce Grant, 1972 The great Australian scribe, Bruce Grant, penned that thought about Indonesia–Australia tests and trials in the year of a seminal …
The federal election on 18 May will decide political power, and open or close Canberra doors on many other dimensions of power. The broad consensus on foreign policy and defence between the Liberal–National coalition and …
Australia zipped through budget week and now zooms off to the May federal election. The country will get to vote on the budget before the parliament, which means its tax-and-spend promises are written in sand. …
Books on soldiering can be written from the trenches or the general’s chateau. The foxhole/barracks category is about the lives and fights of individual soldiers, while the general’s genre sweeps across battles and strategy and …
A killer walks into mosques in Christchurch and broadcasts a message of hate around the world. The 50 murders reveal again the disrupted landscape of our digital world. In an age of information chaos, a …
‘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 …