Australia is removing the qualifications from its quasi-alliance with Japan. The visit to Japan by Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles is another step in the fading of the qualifiers: ‘quasi-alliance’, ‘small “a” …
Articles by: "Graeme Dobell"
A small proof that Australians live in interesting times (to borrow that apocryphal Chinese curse) is the interest directed at their country during the Shangri-La Dialogue security summit. On his first trip as deputy prime …
The US and China came to Singapore’s Shangri-La security dialogue to argue and score points, to talk and to taunt. The face-off presented as drama and fight. As the reigning champ, the US got to …
China makes ambitious offers to South Pacific states. Australia’s great counter-offer is to South Pacific people. The people dimension must define Australia’s effort for the islands. The rebuttal to the charge that Australia is driven …
Australia and the South Pacific need to talk. The immediate conversation is about the duelling trips to the islands by China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, and Australia’s new foreign minister, Penny Wong. Starting with Fiji, …
Australia has a new government and the climate war draws to a close. The voters have delivered a realignment of politics as well as power. Labor has crept back into office with a historically low …
As a Chinese navy ship nosed around Australia’s northwest coast, China sailed to the centre of the formal foreign policy debate. The ship got more attention from the press than the National Press Club face-off …
Australia’s polity grapples with the need to remake and rebuild our media voice in the South Pacific. One of the missing bits of our Pacific step-up is the lack of much vision—or understanding—of Australia’s role …
In this afternoon’s defence debate at the National Press Club, much of the Labor–Liberal consensus was as firm as ever: more money for the military, build nuclear submarines, worry about China. Both sides concur on …
A senior Asian diplomat quips that China’s leadership fears the numbers two, three, four, five and seven. The superstition is the way the numbers are stacking up. China agonises over the bilateral alliances represented by …
In Canberra’s great China debate, the panda huggers dominated the dragon slayers for the first 15 years of this century. Lots of happy huggers drowned out those who feared that the dragon danger would trump …
When an Australian jumps out of a taxi and prepares to make a dash across New York’s 5th Avenue, the habit of a lifetime is to look the wrong way for the traffic. Australia drives …