Australia
Candour, at last, on China – but then what?
The most important foreign policy speech by a cabinet minister so far this year was delivered last Monday. That Treasurer Josh Frydenberg was the speaker was a little surprising…
Economic diplomacy: Australia Inc’s new world order
Risky business
Australia’s sovereign wealth fund – the Future Fund – was established 15 years ago when the rivers of gold from selling iron ore to China were just starting to…
An Afghan test leaves Australia’s principles wanting
When the Taliban emerged from the wastes of Afghanistan in the 1990s, the international community was caught completely off guard. Intelligence on the ground was pretty much non…
ANZUS and Trumpism
Donald Trump himself may have disappeared from our TV screens and smartphones, but Trumpism is alive and well. US President Joe Biden is doing all the right things to fracture the…
Policing national security since 9/11
9/11 and the subsequent terror attacks in Bali were the catalysts for rapid and considerable change in the Australian Federal Police (AFP). Most obviously the AFP was deployed to…
Australia’s potential as a “green” hydrogen superpower
In the lead-up to the COP26 UN Climate Change Conference in November, the world is looking for nations to step up in the clean energy sector. Australia, with its plentiful…
Alliance management – a history in pictures
Call it a measure of remarkable diplomatic consistency. Every year since 2013, at least one of two familiar faces has represented Australia at the regular “2+2” ministerial…
Will ANZUS make it to 80?
The ANZUS Treaty turns 70 today, having been signed on 1 September 1951. When political leaders mark the anniversary, it’s safe to predict they will pronounce the US…
Debating the alliance
Book review: Emma Shortis, Our Exceptional Friend: Australia’s Fatal Alliance with the United States (Hardie Grant, 2021)
Depending on your perspective, Australia’s China debate…
Australia and LGBTQI rights
Less than a month into his term, US President Joe Biden issued a Memorandum on Advancing the Human Rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Intersex (LGBTQI)…