Debate: "General"
Trump’s perfidious America

US President Donald Trump’s abrupt decision to withdraw American troops from almost all of Syria, clearing the way for a Turkish offensive against the Kurds, is an unconscionable betrayal of a strategic ally. One would …

Morrison’s chessboard

Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s successful US visit should not be regarded as a ‘set and forget’ box-ticking exercise. Rather, it should be viewed as a sound basis for the government to pursue Australia’s national interests …

How China loses friends and alienates people

The Chinese folk saying ‘lift a rock only to drop it on one’s own feet’, or its English equivalent, ‘to shoot oneself in the foot’, perfectly describes the self-defeating inclinations of dictatorship. And nothing exemplifies …

The end of bipartisanship in Oz foreign policy?

The bipartisan tenor of Australia’s foreign policy is being stretched and tested. Scott Morrison’s Coalition government talks tough on international policy. A touch of Donald Trump is trumpeted, as foes are found and lines drawn. …

ASPI suggests

The world UK and EU negotiators yesterday reached an agreement on a Brexit deal that Prime Minister Boris Johnson says he’s confident will pass the House of Commons over the weekend. Politico has a great …

The high price of Trump’s great betrayal

There are several reasons why US President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw American forces from northern Syria, and leave the region’s Kurds vulnerable to neighbouring Turkey’s military incursion, was a terrible one. The Kurdish forces …

Where to with China?

The ramshackle character of public policy is most clearly on show when senior ministers go freelancing. Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton’s leap into the China fray might have felt good to a frustrated former policeman, …