Australia’s four foreign policy white papers are windows on their moments, offering a 20-year narrative of shifting times. The arc is across four stepping stones aligned in purpose but beset by swift tides. The white …
‘Politics stops at the seaboard and anybody who denies that postulate is a son of a bitch and a crook and not a true patriot.’—Dean Acheson, US Secretary of State Acheson, a wry moustachioed warrior …
The US is the essential status quo power, led by a revisionist president. China loves the current status quo, while liking how the tide of change flows its way. The labels ‘status quo’ and ‘revisionist’ …
Australia’s aspiration for the South Pacific must be for the creation of an economic, political and security community. Australia and New Zealand will be central to such a community—and will carry the cost—but much of …
Up in the Arcadia of the political afterlife, some great Oz leaders are sharing an ambrosia sherbet and reflecting on the recurring rhythms of Australia and the South Pacific over nearly 150 years. ‘The old …
For the past 50 years in Asia, the economists have consistently beaten the strategists in the crystal ball stakes. Over those decades, you’d have done better going to an economist rather than a strategist to …
The heat of the Oz new year is here, heralding our annual Madeleine Award for the use of symbol, stunt, prop, gesture or jest. The envelopes, please, for the 9th awards ceremony, named to honour …
The annual release of hitherto secret cabinet papers now takes us back to the last great Oz outbreak of Francophobia—rage and fear about the French in the South Pacific. The 1994 and 1995 cabinet records …
Come back with me to a wonderful time when the Cold War had been won and Australia was cashing in the peace dividend. Spend money on the military? Naaah! Squeeze ’em. The release by the …
In Jakarta’s presidential palace in December 1995, Australia’s Prime Minister Paul Keating stood with Indonesia’s President Suharto as their two foreign ministers signed a security treaty. Keating was ebullient. Here was Australia as a regional …
As 2017 limps out and 2018 edges in, here’s Old Dobell’s almanac of the times, trends and twists of history. Trump-eting: The US system is working, but it’s been a stress test from hell. America’s …
In offering security and economic integration to the South Pacific, Australia is starting gently with small steps. The soft-and-slow approach to integration has the best chance of success, because South Pacific states will embrace the …