Global Issues
Wuhan coronavirus: How upfront has Beijing been?
It is too early to make a definitive judgement about how Beijing has handled the outbreak of the potentially deadly coronavirus in Wuhan, a city of 11 million in central China.
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Learning from extinction
They called the last one Martha. I’d never heard of the passenger pigeon until a couple of years ago, these small birds that once flew in great nomadic flocks across North America…
Commentary
As Wuhan virus spreads, Taiwan has no say at WHO
Chinese pressure keeps Taipei out of international organizations—putting everyone at more risk.
Originally published in Foreign Policy.
Japan has struck low in climate ambition
Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo has repeatedly pledged that his country would lead global efforts to address climate change. Increasingly, however, Japan is facing scrutiny…
At the UN, paying dues and having a say
The recent news that Tonga was among seven countries that had lost their right to vote in the United Nations General Assembly over unpaid dues has brought an additional element to…
Economic diplomacy: Two big-C issues
Change of pace
If Australia’s bushfire crisis has done one thing to inadvertently calm the national zeitgeist during the holiday season, it is in the way climate change has…
The Australian lag in tech policy
Last month, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced a much-awaited reform package to regulate the tech giants and their immense market power. Australia was to be “the model…
Australia’s new strategic geography
Australia’s strategic geography is not what it used to be. Technology has made the “sea-air gap”, an artefact treasured since the 1980s by a generation of Australian strategic…
Jakarta is flooding and its governor is sinking
Jakarta welcomed the new year with a new record — the heaviest rains in decades. The deluge left parts of the Indonesian capital under 5 metres of water, which triggered…
Climate leadership: An idea whose time has come?
Julie Bishop’s seemingly belated call for Australian leadership on climate change has drawn some predictable criticism. Why, it might reasonably be asked, didn’t she do something…