The Arab world ‘has too much history and not enough geography’. Savour that vivid phrase as the essence of Bob Bowker’s fine memoir of life as an Australian entranced by a Middle East that is …
Articles by: "Graeme Dobell"
Australia’s strategic journey since 2009 has shifted from the optimism of regional community, to a plea for rules, and now to a heartfelt call for dialogue. Running through the evolution of Australian thinking is a …
The Asia–Pacific’s premier defence dialogue uses the name of the mythical place ‘Shangri-La’, a utopia of peace high in the mountains in the 90-year-old novel Lost Horizon. Amid the tough talk at the 20th dialogue …
In the Taiwan Strait on Saturday, a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy ship and a US Navy ship came within 150 yards of a collision. The US says the Chinese warship crossed the bow of …
‘To move from imagining conflict is impossible to assuming war is inevitable is just as harmful to our shared goals. The fate of our region is not preordained. It never was. It never is. What we do here, …
The definitive choice for a nation is sending its troops to war, so the surprise in the parliamentary review of Australia’s war powers is the questioning of the legal process used to go to war …
(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 …
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 …