Australia’s strategic hope is to hold tight to what it has with the US while seeking new chances in Asia. To use the language of poker: hold, not fold on America, bet big Asia. At …
Articles by: "Graeme Dobell"
Over five decades, Australia has expanded its defence and security guarantee to stretch from Timor-Leste through Papua New Guinea to all of the South Pacific. Today Australia offers its strategic weight, proximity and resources to …
Australia’s dread of France in the South Pacific in the 20th century has slowly turned into a new desire—that France stay and play and help pay. As the quintessential status quo power in the South …
The argument stretches over decades: can France stay in the South Pacific and, if so, on what terms? Being in the Pacific may serve the glory of France, but can France also act as …
A striking duality drove Australia’s thinking about France in the 20th century. Expressed as a chant it went: In Europe, Good! In the Pacific, Bad! When Australia turns its gaze to Europe it sees France …
Since the 1960s, Australia and Japan have built one of Asia’s closest partnerships. I was going to say one of Asia’s most unusual, but lots of relationships in this region are strange. When times get …
Australia is writing a Foreign Policy White Paper— a ‘philosophical framework to guide Australia’s engagement, regardless of international events’—then along comes Donald Trump. An important bit of policy thinking has run into the unthinkable—as in, …
Donald Trump will stress test America’s alliance with Australia. He’s going to pressure lots of other areas—the alliance will get its share. Australia will strive to confine disagreements. Canberra wants differences to be matters of …
‘So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.’ – F. Scott Fitzgerald ‘The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.’ – L.P. Hartley To delve into government …
Lights up and trumpets sound! Here’s our annual silly-season Madeleine awards, for the use of symbol, stunt, prop, gesture or jest in international affairs. The prize is named after the former US Secretary of State, Madeleine …
Australia is to end a 75-year history of shortwave broadcasting to Papua New Guinea and the South Pacific. On December 6, 2016, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation announced that, it will end its shortwave transmission service …
Australian questions about what Donald Trump will do to the alliance recall Robert Menzies’ fear that ANZUS would be ‘a superstructure on a foundation of jelly’. If Trump has the Oz alliance assumptions quivering, that …