To see what Donald Trump will do to the future of the Oz-US alliance, ponder the lessons of the foundation legends. Start with the Labor Party’s creation saga: John Curtin’s turn to the US. The …
Articles by: "Graeme Dobell"
Vale the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The TPP has shattered, or sunk, or just slipped away. The symbolism is a US retreat from Asia. Donald Trump is changing the way America’s substance is weighed by the region. …
‘If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.’ As the Pivot passes, Asia confronts a new President who seems to think all the US needs is a bigger and better hammer. …
Five years ago this week, Barack Obama launched the Pivot. Thus, on its fifth birthday, the Pivot expires. This is an epitaph. The American people have decided and the Pivot is Trumped. Asia confronts Amexit: …
‘We have finally reached the gates of Hell.’—Robert Manne’s final sentence in The Mind of the Islamic State. Australia has been at war with Islamic State since ISIS took Mosul in June, 2014. As Iraq’s …
In Asia’s slow-motion power shift, the Philippines has just lurched towards China’s orbit. Now to work out a sense of the import and meaning of the shift. President Rodrigo Duterte goes to Beijing to declare …
Australia this year marked the 50th anniversary of three events that still influence the way we think about strategy and defence. Two of these 1966 events were US alliance biggies: The political and military embrace …
Des Ball was an extraordinary Oz strategist in range and depth. Des, who died last week, was a virtuoso on global strategy, Asia–Pacific security and Australian defence policy. He worked at the highest level on …
Rodrigo Duterte is a maddening, murderous maverick who’s achieved a weird feat in the South China Sea (SCS)—delivering benefits to both China and the United States. His swing towards China offers Beijing all sorts of …
International law has had its go at the waters of the South China Sea, and what a magnificent splash. The ruling from The Hague on 12 July was surprisingly definitive. As Mira Rapp-Hooper comments: ‘The …
In Canberra, the orbits of the economic world and security world are coming closer and their different gravitational fields are reacting as China conundrums confront the coming Foreign and Trade White Paper. The inhabitants of …
The ecosystem that is the Canberra public service is wonderfully complicated. Journalists always have problems getting a handle on the public service, not least because of the diversity of its purposes. Then there’s the secrecy …