Turn to Douglas MacArthur for a tough and true description of what Australia means to the United States. It’s 1942. The US commander is meeting Australia’s Prime Minister John Curtin to plan the war against …
Titles are always difficult, so give a good mark to ‘Australia’s Defence: Towards a New Era?‘ Mixing pickiness with praise, tick the ‘new era’ idea while guffawing at the question mark hanging off the title. …
Through the Suharto years, the economists were optimistic about Indonesia and the political scientists were pessimistic. Now the roles have reversed. With the explosion of Indonesian democracy, the political types can hardly contain their joy …
Some key elements have yet to embrace the idea of Australia and Japan as allies. Two groups not to have noticed or still to be convinced are the peoples of Japan and Australia. Fair enough, …
The avowed purpose of the Canberra officer project is to get an officer corps that can better serve Australia’s political leaders and win the bureaucratic battles. An undeclared purpose is the creation of political nous. …
In the Australian system going to war is extremely simple. The Prime Minister and Cabinet agree, the order is given and the shooting starts. Then there’s the hard stuff—not just the fighting, but handling the …
Previous posts in this series explored the Canberra officer project; Arthur Tange; the promised land of Jointery; taming the service chiefs; the Vice CDF; and CDF atop the diarchy. The military venturing into politics is …
Australia has sent forth many outstanding journalists to spend their careers reporting on Asia. Sean Dorney stands with those correspondents but, uniquely, he devoted his life to covering Papua New Guinea and the South Pacific. …
In the next few months, Australia’s leader will have four opportunities to spend quality time with Indonesia’s new president. Prime Minister Abbott can (will/should/must) attend Jokowi’s inauguration in Jakarta in October, following the precedent John …
When Australia thinks strategy, it quickly comes to Indonesia. So it was when the Howard Government was mulling the 2000 Defence White Paper. The National Security Committee of Cabinet was grilling the defenceniks: ‘If Indonesia …
Indonesia can direct Australia’s regional dreams or dominate its nightmares. Just as Papua New Guinea shapes the way Australia thinks about the South Pacific, Indonesia frames Australia’s view of Southeast Asia. In those key regional …
To watch a new government is to see a party’s shibboleths, suspicions, suppositions and superstitions mugged by reality. Time in opposition is supposed to be when new thinking gets done. Yet often that period of …