Australia’s Foreign and Trade White Paper—expected next year—will have several sacred cows grazing through its pages, and the holiest of beasts will be the US alliance, a cow of a bipartisan colour. On the partisan …
Articles by: "Graeme Dobell"
In producing a White Paper next year, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is challenged to define Oz’s challenges and channel some answers. One part of the challenge will be what it asks of …
Australia is to get only its third Foreign and Trade White Paper. The aim is to create a ‘philosophical framework to guide Australia’s engagement, regardless of international events.’ The Foreign Minister sets the bar high …
Australia’s dealings with the ten nations of ASEAN are set by geography, flavoured by history, worked by diplomacy and driven by trade. Throbbing always are the central concerns of power and strategy and defence. The …
‘There are only two people I trust, God and the Commonwealth Statistician.’ So said Billy Hughes—statesman and patriot, renegade and mountebank—Australia’s seventh prime minister and federal MP for a record 51 years. Whatever the trust …
In the 20th century, Australia’s strategic relationship with India was so frigid it was in negative territory for decades. In the 21st century, Australia and India have begun to attempt strategic convergence. That rapid shift …
Some big strategic brains fit the proof about why journalists shouldn’t run things—merely watch five of ‘em decide where to lunch. Robert O’Neill shatters that proof. Here’s a big strategic brain that can think and …
Canberra cabinet making is an inexact science. In creating a front bench, the roll call of winners and losers is writ large. Then comes the harder stuff of gauging the power and personal chemistry throbbing …
Starting as a geographer, Paul Dibb became one of Australia’s great strategists. The discipline of geography is vital to the Dibb understanding of power, strategy and defence planning. For Dibb, geography disciplines strategy in the same …
Politicians can be divided into ‘straights’, ‘fixers’ and ‘maddies,’ and Malcolm Turnbull must quickly find his inner fixer. The transformation isn’t impossible because Turnbull has already tried the other two categories. In his first stint …
Australia does baling wire diplomacy—practical, pragmatic and proudly makeshift. Oz rural tradition decrees a bloke with baling wire can fix a gate or fence or shed or even a tractor. Baling wire diplomacy is adequate …
If China’s future course is the vital question, the answers in economy-world are different to those in security-world. The versions of China offered in the two worlds clash in nature, form and quality. In security-world, …