Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s prominent position in Australian life brought into much clearer focus a corrosive culture of commentary on difference. Gillard may have departed, but we really do need to talk about Julia.
To an external observer, it might seem like the US-Australian alliance is as strong as ever. However, if one looks deeper, rising discontent and disagreements are visible.
Australia has not withdrawn its SC candidacy. Whether that confidence is warranted will be revealed next week when the General Assembly meets to elect nonpermanent members of the Security Council.
While other militaries around the world have taken notice of climate change and are now acting, defence planners and policy elite in Australia are pre-occupied by global power shifts. In confining climate change as a third order issue, they are overlooking major risks.
The Australian government will decide on a new submarine programme before mid-2012, its largest ever defence procurement. The debate is part of the discourse about China’s rise. For the first time, Australia’s major trading partner is not a member of the Western alliance.
Inter-state war is threatening to make a dangerous come-back. But the good news is that great power war can be prevented.
Recent years have seen the intensification of political tensions between various states in the Pacific and East Asia. The rise of China as a military and economic power has necessarily triggered concern in the region, causing nations to reexamine their air-power procurement and development plans.
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