Debate: "General"
Why a bet on Australia is as good as a bet on China 

The Wall Street Journal ran an article last week saying pessimistic investors were ‘short-selling’ the Australian dollar in anticipation of a disappointing outcome of the weekend’s G20 meeting. ‘Some money managers are bracing for a …

How to defend Australia

You don’t have to be as pessimistic as I am about the future of American power in Asia to start seriously thinking about what we should do if it falters. You only have to accept …

Indo-Pacific summit and shadow

‘Between the idea And the reality Between the motion And the act Falls the Shadow’ — T.S. Eliot, ‘The Hollow Men’ T.S. Eliot offers a raging lament at what the 1919 Treaty of Versailles did …

Money can’t buy Palestinians’ love

‘Man shall not live by bread alone’, says Jesus in Matthew 4:4. But biblical wisdom seems to have been lost on the organisers of the economic conference held on 25–26 June in Bahrain, where Jared …

The long and winding way to the Indo-Pacific

Finally, after much prevarication, pressure and hesitation, ASEAN has decided that it’s time to acknowledge the ‘Indo-Pacific’. At the 34th summit in Bangkok last weekend, ASEAN released its much-anticipated contribution to the Indo-Pacific debate. The …

ASPI suggests

The world Australian student Alek Sigley is reported to have been detained in North Korea. The news came just hours before Prime Minister Scott Morrison sat down with US President Donald Trump in Japan. It’s …

China and the geopolitics of the Pacific islands

Australian debates about the geopolitics of the Pacific islands in many ways represent the broad contours of discussions about Australia’s foreign and strategic policy, notably our relations with China. It’s possible to identify two dominant …