Review
Plumbing the depths of the former East Germany’s grotesque delusion
Book review: Beyond the Wall: East Germany, 1949–1990, by Katja Hoyer (Penguin 2023)
Many of us only know the former East Germany (GDR) at second hand, through the eviscerating…
Boris Johnson: Does distance really lend enchantment to the view?
Book review: Johnson at 10: The Inside Story, by Anthony Seldon and Raymond Newell (Atlantic, 2023)
Are we better off waiting for tardy but considered analyses of our political…
A compelling voice for rethinking Australia’s national security
Sam Roggeveen’s basic storyline in The Echidna Strategy – that the China threat is grossly exaggerated, and that Australia should not, and need not, rely on America for our…
Learning Cold War lessons of espionage anew
Book review: Calder Walton, Spies: The Epic Intelligence War Between East and West (Hachette, 2023)
It’s still not known how close the world came to nuclear war in November…
Fake news, propaganda, and the withering of commitment to truth
Book review: Alan Philps, The Red Hotel (Headline, 2023)
In war, truth is supposed always to be the first casualty. We owe that insight to an isolationist American Senator,…
Far from the limelight, forgotten Afghans continue the fight
Book review: August in Kabul: America’s last days in Afghanistan, by Andrew Quilty (Melbourne University Press, 2022)
Six months after the Taliban toppled the Ghani-led Afghan…
Nobody ever teaches anyone how to be a Minister
Book review: Penny Wong: Passion and Principle, by Margaret Simons (Black Inc. Updated edition 2023)
Contemporary political biography is the art of working out how our leaders…
For Indonesia’s haunting past, Jokowi’s resolution is non-judicial
The civilian witness held a pressurised kerosene lamp. He stood just a step back from the edge of the mass grave, two meters deep. Thirty-one men, purported members and companions…
China’s answer to Top Gun is a flat spin
In the battle for cultural supremacy, the Chinese film industry has released their counterpoint to the American blockbuster Top Gun: Maverick. The May 2023 release of Born to Fly,…
Low Earth orbit: The next frontier
Book review: The Future of Geography by Tim Marshall (Simon & Schuster, 2023)
Earth is the cradle of humanity, but one cannot stay in the cradle forever.
~ Konstantin…