Global Issues
“Black ships”, the Quad and space
At the first in-person leaders’ summit of the Quad in Washington in September last year, the four member countries came forward with an ambitious space agenda. A working group was…
Pacific youth: challenges today need the leaders of tomorrow
The populations of Pacific states are young and getting younger. A glance at the demographic breakdowns of countries such as Fiji and Solomon Islands provides an immediate and…
Lies, damn lies, and North Korea’s Covid statistics
More than two years since North Korea locked down its border in January 2020 and went on to record zero Covid-19 cases and deaths across all the months since, the country last…
A required update for the EU-US Trade and Tech Council
The second EU-US Trade and Technology Council meeting took place in Paris at the weekend. An outcome of the EU-US Summit in June 2021, the TTC was established to strengthen and…
Diplomacy is indispensable to manage the Mekong
Milton Osborne mischaracterises the Mekong River Commission when writing last month in The Interpreter that the regional organisation “ignores reality”. To say we were …
Australia can stand up for the Afghan people, and the time is now
On 19 April, a suicide bomber struck as students were coming out of school in Kabul, Afghanistan, leaving dozens injured and at least six dead. The brutality of the attack – and…
Shanghai lockdown prompts collective action
The Shanghai lockdown following a Covid-19 outbreak last month saw the most stringent restrictions placed upon a Chinese city since the pandemic began. Although Chinese civil…
Musk’s Twitter: Tweet freedom for Asia?
Now that Elon Musk is the sole owner of Twitter – pending formal regulatory and shareholder sign-offs – it’s fair to say that not only will this change the social media giant, it…
Putting Putin on trial to enforce a price for the powerful
Stories of children finding the bullet-ridden bodies of their parents, repeated rapes, and airstrikes have revealed the horrors of Russia’s invasion to the world. In the two…
Even Putin is not beyond the law
Russia’s ability to launch its so-called “special military operation” to undertake “denazification” in Ukraine has not so far faced international legal sanction. On 25 February, a…