Global Issues
The world sees the climate crisis in Australia’s floods. Do we?
In the late 1980s, while I was a reporter covering one of the mega-cyclones to hit Bangladesh, a government official in Dhaka confided in me that he was fed up with seeing his…
The greening of Bill Gates
Book review: Bill Gates How to Avoid a Climate Disaster (Penguin 2021)
One of the more significant aspects of Bill Gates’ How to Avoid a Climate Disaster is the simple…
Australian politics should be as diverse as its people
Australia likes to see itself as punching above its weight as a middle power, but this boast does not hold true when it comes to the representation of cultural diversity in…
Lockdown déjà vu in the Philippines
It’s hard to tell whether the Philippine government intentionally sought to mark exactly one year since 15 March 2020 Metro Manila Covid lockdown by tightening…
Commentary
‘A dam has been breached’: a COVID crisis on our doorstep shows how little we pay attention to PNG
Originally published in The Conversation.
Commentary
Southeast Asia’s post-pandemic recovery outlook
Originally published on Brooking's Order From Chaos blog.
The Quad gives a boost to India’s vaccine diplomacy
The most notable takeaway from the first-ever “Quad” leaders meeting involving the US, India, Japan and Australia at the weekend was the agreement on expanding the global vaccine…
Unpacking vaccine passports
Vaccine passports are attracting a lot of buzz despite the World Health Organisation having repeatedly advised against them. The International Air Transport Association (IATA)…
A new “concert” to govern the Indo-Pacific
The joint statement issued following the weekend meeting of the four “Quad” leaders was titled “The Spirit of the Quad”. This title could be read as either self-affirmation or…
A smarter use of voting technology to stop election-related violence
Two months after pro-Trump rioters’ cries of “stop the steal” have faded from the US Capitol, many Americans are still reeling from the assault on their most hallowed halls of…