Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s White House visit crowns a sustained and disciplined execution of the MacArthur manoeuvre on President Donald Trump. Employing the MacArthur method involves embracing the power of America while displaying enthusiasm for …
The Brexit poison in the British polity has also infected Europe. Britain is finished with Europe. Equally, Europe is finished with Britain. The angry British sentiment to get the thing done is matched by an …
With Britain as the mother country and the US as the alliance father, Australia has a dysfunctional family. Mum has gone nuts; dad has gone rogue. The anchors of the Anglosphere are angry and adrift, …
‘Give me chastity and continence, but not yet.’ — Saint Augustine of Hippo Pondering nuclear weapons, Hugh White offers Australia a reverse Augustine: Give me nuclear chastity, until there’s no alternative. The White version of …
Sink the navy and start again. Shrink the army. Double the air force. That’s the military revolution of Hugh White’s How to defend Australia, based on his claim that Australia has spent two decades building …
Australia’s traditional way of war is to send expeditionary forces abroad to fight in a coalition—to secure the continent by fighting far from it. For more than a century, a central tension of Oz strategic …
The biggest threat to Australia’s alliance with the United States has always been posed by the US—and what it demands or fails to deliver. Wars have strengthened, not weakened, the alliance. In the Pacific war …
Australia’s pivot to the South Pacific talks up both personal connections and foreign policy interests. The pivot pitch tries to meld strategy and Pacific family, bringing together policy and the needs of Pacific people. Such …
Scott Morrison has been touched by Forrest Gump magic. Come the election, the prime minister went into full Forrest mode: ‘Run, ScoMo, run!’ A federal election is like a box of chocolates. You never know …
Australia has a Voldemort problem. Our big new ambition for the South Pacific—economic and security integration—has become the policy that can’t be named. Australia’s policy is integration, and we’re working to make it happen. We …
The comfortable Canberra consensus on how to handle China has boiled over. A set of simmering debates has become extremely hot. Australia was long able to keep its economic relationship with China in the prosperity …
Asia’s rise is changing the world. This is a defining feature of the 21st century—the Asian century. These developments have profound implications for people everywhere. Asia’s extraordinary ascent has already changed the Australian economy, society …