In mid-September, Jakarta governor Anies Baswedan reinstated a partial lockdown in a bid to prevent the Indonesian capital’s hospitals from being overwhelmed. With nearly 12,000 active cases of Covid-19 in the city, ICU beds were …
When is a war crime not a war crime? When it is committed by a British soldier more than five years ago—or at least that will be the case if the UK parliament passes the …
For the first time in almost two decades, the Australian Defence Force has deployed an officer to a United Nations peacekeeping mission in West Africa. The Defence Department hasn’t publicly announced the new operation or …
Washington’s approach to the Indo-Pacific will change over the next four years, regardless of the outcome of the November election. The only questions are how and how much. The first term of President Donald Trump, …
When the Jewish new year began late last month, Israel was enduring its second nationwide lockdown, after daily per capita Covid-19 infection and death rates reached some of the world’s highest levels. How did a …
Jacinda Ardern and the Labour Party secured a landslide victory in Saturday’s New Zealand election. Labour got 49% of the vote and 64 seats in the 120-seat parliament, meaning it can form a government without …
Indonesian Defence Minister Prabowo Subianto’s visit to the United States (15–19 October) for talks with US Defense Secretary Mark Esper on regional security and defence cooperation suggests a great deal about the Trump administration’s agenda …
The Quad, a loose strategic coalition of the Indo-Pacific region’s four leading democracies, is rapidly solidifying this year in response to China’s aggressive foreign policy. Following a recent meeting of their foreign ministers in Tokyo, …
The recent article by fellow Australian Gordon Weiss on the UN and Australia’s place in it brought to mind the extreme dangers often faced by both national and international humanitarian relief workers with the UN, …
Where Australia’s foreign minister visits tells much about what she and her government value. Covid-19 means overseas travel for Marise Payne costs 14 days’ quarantine on the return to Oz. The travel test now comes …
US President Donald Trump has generally pursued a foreign policy full of inconsistencies and contradictions, but that doesn’t apply to his approach to the Middle East. He has consistently targeted Iran as a menace and …
After declaring a resounding victory against the Covid-19 pandemic, a newly confident China so far this year has tested new ballistic missiles, threatened Taiwan by ignoring the median line in the Taiwan Strait, expanded its …
For decades, France and Germany have been known as Europe’s ruling ‘tandem’ or ‘couple’, even its ‘engine’. Together, they aimed to work to unify the continent. But, to pile up the metaphors, the French want …
As New Zealanders head to the polls, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and the Labour Party are in a good position to be able to form government in their own right after three years in a …
While the Covid-19 pandemic has damaged economies and profoundly affected people’s health and wellbeing, it has also highlighted our dependence on technology and the extent to which we’ll rely on the next wave of technologies …
Australia’s commercial space sector is moving quickly towards a bright future. On 19 September, South Australia–based company Southern Launch took an important step towards establishing a sovereign space-launch capability for Australia, with the launch of …
With just days to go until New Zealand’s general election on 17 October, the polls strongly suggest Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s Labour party is on course for a second term. The bigger question is whether …
While China is tightening its coercive campaign against Australia, now targeting the coal industry, its ambassador to the United Nations, Zhang Jun, last week led a protest of 26 nations against economic coercion by the …
Australian first responders dealing with fires, crimes, crashes and pandemics are in danger of being overwhelmed emotionally and they are three times more likely than other Australians to consider suicide. That statistic has long worried …
Planet A Nearly a third of countries worldwide are at risk of ecosystem collapse due to rapid declines in biodiversity and ‘ecosystem services’ that affect humans, says a recent report by reinsurance giant Swiss Re …