14 Feb 2017
North Korea: The case for engagement
A nuclear North Korea reflects the failure of Seoul and Washington’s policy towards Pyongyang for the past quarter century.
-
-
14 Feb 2017
US conservatives embrace carbon tax: Is there a message for Australia?
This is a proposal whose main merit is its political economy mix. -
13 Feb 2017
Kung-Fu Yoga: China's soft power drive goes awry
The response to the recent Chinese-Indian joint venture film Kung-Fu Yoga suggests that global domination by China's film industry is still some way off. -
13 Feb 2017
Tense times for the Iran nuclear deal
Russia, China and the UK have all recently expressed their support for the agreement. -
13 Feb 2017
North Korea is getting better at ballistic missiles
It seems clear a large solid-fuel stage was used for this launch. That’s critical. -
13 Feb 2017
Why Asia still needs a development bank
A dramatic increase in lending (up almost threefold from the year 2000) will increase pressure on the ADB to approve new loans and create a pipeline of bankable projects. -
13 Feb 2017
Khalid Sharrouf: Once was a citizen
Loyalty to the country of which you are a citizen is a fundamental tenet of citizenship. -
11 Feb 2017
Weekend catch-up: US Secretaries, peace in the Pacific, Duterte's wars, and more
Highlights from this week's Interpreter. -
10 Feb 2017
Tanna: Bare feet on the Oscars red carpet
Tanna takes us inside an ancient yet contemporary world that very few people will ever experience. -
10 Feb 2017
Duterte's wars (Part two)
The sharp reversal in the Philippine peace process with the Communists underlines a major problem with the Duterte administration’s approach. -
10 Feb 2017
Battening down for an environmental war
President Trump and his nominee to head the EPA face fierce opposition, both from within the EPA and from environmental groups skilled in the activist tactic of 'lawfare'. -
10 Feb 2017
Digital Asia: Weibo censorship, Pakistan’s missing bloggers, China's top 10 social apps and more
Find out which Weibo posts China's censors took down in 2016 -
9 Feb 2017
Migration and Border Policy links: Trump’s ban, unaccompanied minors, Turkey's hackathon, and more
What's happening in migration policy around the world this week. -
9 Feb 2017
Congress rallies around Australia
Trump’s inner circle cannot have missed such broad-ranging, bipartisan opposition to the president’s approach with the Australian prime minister. -
9 Feb 2017
Economic diplomacy brief: Asian investment, GDP passing lane and Japan trade
The relative strength of Australia’s commercial links Asia is set to come back onto the agenda -
9 Feb 2017
Duterte's wars (Part one)
With no suitable lead agency and rising opposition, it is far from clear when and how Duterte's war on drugs can either start again or end successfully. -
9 Feb 2017
Will the Western Pacific’s long peace endure?
The security picture in the Western Pacific is marked by disputes and enmities. So how has the region stayed so peaceful for so long? -
8 Feb 2017
Pacific Island links: Alternative Russia, Australia's coal, women in politics, and more
A Russian millionaire is in discussions with the government of Kiribati to lease three uninhabited islands. -
8 Feb 2017
North Korea: Not yet ready to change from within
The old system continues not due to the superior functioning of North Korea’s communist institutions but because there is no alternative vision. -
8 Feb 2017
How Trump's economic plans will come unstuck
At some point the Trump Administration will have to confront the fact that the US economy is in better shape than Trump depicted during the campaign. -
8 Feb 2017
Let’s talk about Darwin: Australia, South Korea, and US basing
South Korea has persisted with US basing despite decades of fluctuating public opinion and dark periods in the bilateral relationship. -
8 Feb 2017
Pax Sinica no match for fading Pax Americana
In Asia's defence, it is hard to formulate strategy when the world's most powerful nation is careering around the global stage like a drunk driver. -
7 Feb 2017
The limitations of framing North Korea as a risk
Official US statements regarding North Korea during the past eight years have tended to emphasise the country’s non-normative behaviour. -
7 Feb 2017
Is Trump reigniting the currency wars?
China's huge bilateral surplus with the United States - well over $300 billion each year - means it is high on the President's 'to do-over' list. -
7 Feb 2017
Trump, Russia and renewed fighting in Ukraine
Kiev is taking a high-risk gamble that could prompt the West to distance itself from a belligerent Ukraine. -
7 Feb 2017
Time to harness the motivating force of fear
As the clouds loom and the storm brews, we still have time to think afresh. -
7 Feb 2017
The UK and China: Resetting the relationship
As Britain looks to new friends in a post Brexit world, it is across the Atlantic rather than eastwards that its gaze naturally turns at the moment. -
6 Feb 2017
Aid and development links: Smoking costs a trillion, Global Gag Rule, peak global and more
This week's links cover a range of health, aid and development issues, including the impact of reinstatement of the Global Gag Rule by US President Donald Trump and efforts to plug the subsequent funding gap. -
-
6 Feb 2017
Losing the plot on immigration policy
If immigration policy is now about winning domestic political points - to the exclusion of all else - we can expect much more unnecessary human suffering. -
6 Feb 2017
Trump's travel ban likely to go to US Supreme Court
Legal experts are divided on whether the executive order violates the Constitution and federal law. -
6 Feb 2017
Merkel's Faustian bargain with Erdogan
If Merkel believes she can employ soft power, diplomacy and compromise to reverse Erdogan’s tide, she is sadly mistaken. -
6 Feb 2017
Mattis visit unlikely to calm Trump-rattled allies
President's Trump’s taste for melodrama and conflict undercuts US envoys such as Secretary of Defense James Mattis. -
4 Feb 2017
Weekend catch-up: Trump-Turnbull talks, shortwave services, digital diplomacy, and more
US President Donald Trump's infamous temperament visited itself upon Australia this week in the form of a reportedly terse phone call with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. -
3 Feb 2017
Does Australia need a Digital Ambassador?
Denmark’s recently announced plans to appoint a Digital Ambassador appear to be a world first. Does Australia need a similar Ambassadorial posting to liaise with the world’s digital and tech giants? -
3 Feb 2017
New Caledonia: French election calendar stymies progress
New Caledonia can ill afford discussions to stall for nine months when only 22 months remain before the referendum deadline. -
3 Feb 2017
Quick comment: Kim Woo-sang on Australia and South Korea
Euan Graham and Kim Woo-sang discuss the status of Australia and South Korea as middle powers in the Asia-Pacific, and the immediate challenges facing the region -
3 Feb 2017
The Trump call forces Australia to confront a big question
In an environment of such unpredictability, it is more important than ever that our leaders hold fast to a sense of what ultimately matters to Australia. -
2 Feb 2017
Why Russia's 'slapping law' is bad news for all of us
The bill defines an initial assault that does not require hospitalisation or sick leave from work as an administrative rather than criminal offence. -
-
2 Feb 2017
French socialists reject centrism, want to dream again
Many in the Socialist party feel bitter about Hamon's victory in the presidential primaries. -
-
2 Feb 2017
Little joy for Ireland in May's Brexit plan
Perhaps no country has a greater stake in how Theresa May pursues her vision for Brexit than Ireland. -
2 Feb 2017
Australian immigration in the Trump era
The Trump Administration presents the best opportunity we will ever have to present Australia as a place of welcome and innovation. -
1 Feb 2017
Pacific links: ABC turns off shortwave, IMF on PNG, Bouganville referendum and more
This weeks links examine the regional reverberations of President Trump's executive orders on immigration and NGO funding, the IMF report on the PNG economy the PNG government wanted delayed, and an award-winning Solomon Islands filmmaker. -
1 Feb 2017
Asia will be the testing ground for the Australia-US alliance
The key test of the Australia-US alliance under the presidency of Donald Trump will be his approach to Asia. -
1 Feb 2017
The problem with any US strategy on Syria
Russian and Iranian sunk costs in maintaining the Assad regime in Syria are significant, while Washington's are minimal. -
1 Feb 2017
Radio Australia: The soft power tool eroded by neglect
Suggesting digital content can fully replace shortwave services points to a worrying ignorance by ABC management of PNG and Pacific audiences. -
1 Feb 2017
Australia and South Korea: Time to expand co-operation
Small and medium powers need to go beyond both the existing US-led hub and spoke system and the Chinese alternative. -
31 Jan 2017
Solomon Islands: Big hopes for new constitution
With memories of a five-year civil war still vivid, there is cautious optimism a move to a Federal system will help the nation prosper.