Australia
Whether EVs or solar panels, protectionism has the same distorting effect
It is commonly agreed that the Biden administration’s recently announced 100% tariff on Chinese made electric cars is entirely symbolic. Already impeded by a 25% tariff, China…
The macroeconomic limit of American exceptionalism
Donald Trump was long obsessed with trade deficits and railed it was “very bad” whenever the balance ran against the United States. So, it’s not surprising to see one of Trump’s…
Australia is increasingly spending around, not on, development
With a cost-of-living crisis, mounting pressures from other expenditure areas, and a looming federal election, the 2024-25 foreign aid budget is not quite Labor’s promised rebuild…
Was that a future Ambassador Morrison meeting a soon-to-be again President Trump?
After the week gone by, it’s pretty easy to see the world of differences that we might encounter should Peter Dutton become Australia’s next Prime Minister and Donald Trump win…
Economic diplomacy: Budgeting for deglobalisation
Moving onThere has been quite a movement in Australia in recent times towards better coordination of the three main arms of international relations policy – defence, development…
Australia’s new gas strategy makes for flawed foreign policy
The latest Australian federal budget, handed down on Tuesday night, pledges unprecedented support to making Australia a “renewable superpower”. Yet a new gas strategy that…
The cause for China’s coercion in the skies may lay under the water
During the Cold War, it was not unheard of for Soviet ships to attempt to disrupt US naval operations by “shouldering” vessels, meaning coming abreast and colliding in a semi…
Made in Australia meets China’s export juggernaut
China’s structural industrial overcapacity is undoubtedly the topic du jour.Travelling to Beijing in April, US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen exhorted her hosts to boost…
Australia’s chance to foster good health in Asia and the Pacific
As the Assistant Minister for Health Ged Kearney stumbled, rather excruciatingly, over the name of the Director-General of the World Health Organisation, Tedros Adhanom…
“Squad” goals: Consolidating the new quadrilateral partnership
A few days ago, US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin hosted his counterparts from three allied nations – Japan, Australia and, crucially, the Philippines – in Hawaii, also home to…