As a budget, a White Paper and an election crowd the calendar, Defence counts down the days to the withdrawal from Afghanistan. It’s easier for the Defence Minister to talk about Afghanistan than to say …
Articles by: "Graeme Dobell"
Margaret Thatcher sent me to cover a war, she showed me how leaders do diplomatic knife fights at the summit and she gave me a front row seat as she bruised and bent Britain in …
Ross Terrill’s life course and professional experience mirror much of what has happened in Australian geopolitics and economic life since WWII. The country lad growing up in Gippsland started with the ‘umbilical cord’ view of …
The Australian public service has two modes for offering its famed frank and fearless advice to ministers. One method is ‘stand ready’. The much rarer, high risk approach is ‘cop this’. In stand ready mode, …
The tenth anniversary of the Iraq war is an opportune moment for the Canberra system to contemplate the need to strengthen its traditions and foster some more robust conventions. Ten years on, emotion remains high …
If we learn more from losses than wins, then the Canberra system has much to gain from examining its lousy performance in the processes that took Australia to war in Vietnam and Iraq. For Australia, …
The way Australia goes to war hasn’t changed in a century. The Prime Minister declares the deployment or announces the conflict and the troops march and the ships sail. This is the leader’s most profound …
Australia’s politicians stood up and took both bows and bruises for their stance on the Iraq war. John Howard promised he wouldn’t recant on the Iraq war, just as he wouldn’t recant on Vietnam. He’s …
In basketball, a pivot is a tactic, not a strategy. Yet the US pivot to Asia looms as a strategic shift of fundamental import. This is high-level strategy that responds to the gravitational effect of …
This is part IV of a series on Australia–New Zealand relations (part I here, part II here, part III here). The Australian Army can find positive things to say about its Kiwi counterpart, usually in a sardonic tone. My …
This is part III of a series on Australia–New Zealand relations (part I here, part II here). To be in Canberra in 1985–86 as the ANZUS alliance was shaken until it collapsed and died was to witness the …
This is part II of a series on Australia–New Zealand relations (part I here). To stray into areas that are simultaneously sacred yet deeply unsafe, look at New Zealand’s strength in important areas such as …