The bad news for South Africa just keeps getting worse. The latest macroeconomic figures show that GDP shrank for the second quarter in a row, meaning the country has technically entered a recession for the …
Sea state A plan for a Chinese company to take over the management of the Israeli port of Haifa is generating great concern in Israel. Haifa is near the naval base that reportedly houses Israel’s …
When governments send their militaries into conflicts, the forces usually suffer combat losses—deaths of people and destruction of machines. Between East Timor in 1999 and now, though, there have been (only) 60 deaths as a …
On 20 September, Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is expected to win an overwhelming victory over long-time rival Shigeru Ishiba in his bid for a third three-year term as leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic …
Labour advocates have long complained that international trade agreements are driven by corporate agendas and pay little attention to the interests of working people. The preamble of the World Trade Organization agreement mentions the objective …
The Australian government’s approach to the US under President Donald Trump is deeply pragmatic: hold tight to what we’ve got, get what we can, and don’t anger Trump. Loudly love the alliance. And if you …
The new cold war is being fought in cyberspace on a continuing basis and with ever more sophisticated technologies. The Western powers, principally the United States and its allies, confront growing intrusions from adversaries ranging …
The world Ten years ago, the Lehman Brothers collapse was the final catalyst for the global financial crisis that sent economies across the world spiralling into the recession. The crisis had been brewing for at …
Between 1950 and 1972, the Malay Peninsula was a lynchpin of Australia’s defence policy. Then, as today, the international order was in a state of flux, a function of the complex interaction between post-colonial nationalism …
Taiwan is a country under siege as it faces the prospect of eventual reunification with China, on China’s terms, and potentially as soon as 2021—the centenary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party. From …
In this podcast our strategists discuss the expansion of the PLA’s capabilities, concerns about the Chinese surveillance state, the continuing rise of right-wing extremism in Europe and some good news from India. You can view links …
Focused on big events and inconsequential forms of entertainment, the West’s news media have never been good at reading international trends—still less in this age of presidential tweets and micro attention spans. And Africa fares …