No executive in charge of a major construction project should announce the scheduled date for the Queen to open the building until after it’s up and finished. This bit of British building lore drew its …
Articles by: "Graeme Dobell"
As noted in my previous column on the changes the Abbott government is making to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the wombat tribe has lost ownership of Trade. That’s to say, the National …
In ordering administrative upheaval in Foreign Affairs and Trade, Tony Abbott finally killed off an aid consensus that had lasted for a brief political moment, while quietly breaking an Iron Law of politics that ruled …
The South China Sea is ‘probably the world’s single most complex, and intractable, international relations problem’. Gareth Evans, in proclaiming the South China Sea as the biggest and most complex headache, didn’t mention any of …
China’s the great question mark, but its power isn’t in question. Pose this central conundrum of the Asia Essentials in the succinct terms of the question that Hillary Clinton put to PM Rudd in 2009: …
Asia’s hearing a great sucking sound as lots of hot money flees the region as the US Fed signals an end to the great monetary easing. India is getting jittery and Indonesia feeling some currency …
Australia’s approach to France in the South Pacific oscillates between fear and forgetfulness. The fear moments have marked some notable points in Australian history. The fear of what the French were up to in the …
The security system the US has evolved in Asia has dealt with upsets, defeats, setbacks and even the dangers of victory. The US suffered a bitter draw in Korea that’s had a half-life equal to …
The Asia security system is to be constructed atop the foundations of the US hub-and-spokes of alliances in Asia—the San Francisco system, which is enjoying a burst of health and regional affection in its seventh …
Europe’s 20th century offers Asia ample warning about the concert or cataclysm choice. But the solution Europe produced to deliver its own peace in the second half of the 20th century is of limited utility …
The Asia Essentials express Australia’s experiences during more than two decades of slow institutional construction in Asia since the end of the Cold War. The emerging weak system is an expression of Asian habits of …
A new order’s being born in Asia and the power and number of the players mean it’ll be a contested order. The potential for clash and instability is high. The 10 Asia Essentials of my …