Media
US distracted while Moscow and Beijing cosy up
The tense situation in US relations with Russia over the massing of Russian troops on the Ukrainian border and with China over an increasingly militarily threatened Taiwan confronts a domestically...
China now likely to call America’s bluff over Taiwan
The question no longer seems hypothetical. Last year the Prime Minister compared the dangers today to those of the late 1930s. This year Defence Minister Peter Dutton has repeatedly warned of the...
From the submarine to the ridiculous
BY HUGH WHITE The old plan was to build a conventionally powered version of a nuclearpowered French submarine. It was crazy. The new plan – to buy a nuclearpowered submarine instead – is worse. It...
Does Australia have a ‘one China’, ‘two Chinas’ or ‘one China, one Taiwan’ policy – or all three?
BY CLIVE WILLIAMS Most Australians would be wondering how we can have a ‘one-China policy’ when Defence Minister Peter Dutton has warned that war with China over Taiwan can’t be ruled out. ‘Why is...
Putin, Xi friendship ‘driven by their hatred for West’
BY EMERITUS PROF PAUL DIBB AM The final communique on Sunday of the Group of Seven summit expressed serious concerns about China’s and Russia’s destabilising behaviour and said the world’s most...
Why India isn’t going to save Australia from China’s power
BY HUGH WHITE AO Will India save us from China? The Indo-Pacific concept that now lies at the heart of Australia’s foreign policy assumes that it will. It is founded on the belief that as America’s...
Australia’s one step forward, two steps back in the Pacific
BY JOANNE WALLIS In 2016, former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull expressed Australia’s commitment to a ‘step-change’ in its engagement with the Pacific Islands. The 2017 Foreign Policy White Paper...
Security in 'Society 5.0'
BY CHRISTOPHER HOBSON and TOBIAS BURGERS As Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s time in power has continued, the policy initiatives for addressing Japan’s major structural challenges have proliferated. Most...
ASEAN Regional Forum: less might be more
BY ANTHONY MILNER & RON HUISKEN The ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) – with its unwieldy number of member states (27) and preoccupation with dialogue (a “talk shop”) – has been declared a failure time...
After the tragedy, attention turns to how it happened
BY CLIVE WILLIAMS Four phases follow events like the tragedy in Christchurch – shock and disbelief, grieving, a search for answers, and new countermeasures. The shocked New Zealand reaction to the...
