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The case for national values
Graeme Dobell | March 9, 2022Australia’s leaders need to be idealistic as well as pragmatic in their international dealings, because strong national values are as important as political favours and the economic bottom line.
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Kick Russia’s kleptocrats in their wallets
Graeme Dobell | February 28, 2022Putin runs a ‘rogue mafia state’, having turned Russia into ‘a gas station with nukes,’ in the words of Russian chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov, and so the best way to hit the ruling clique is to seize the money they have looted during their self-serving reign.
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Australia in the Pacific
Graeme Dobell | February 14, 2022Historian Ian Hoskins’s new book “Australia and the Pacific: a history” offers a sweeping account of Australia’s role in shaping – for good and ill – the current geo-political state of the Pacific.
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Follow the money in the South Pacific
Graeme Dobell | February 1, 2022Australia’s ‘Pacific Pivot’ looks to counter the increasing economic, diplomatic and military influence of China in the South Pacific.
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The peaks and troughs of ANZUS at 70
Graeme Dobell | April 29, 2021The defence pact between the USA, Australia and New Zealand will turn 70 this year, but may be more important than ever.
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Australia’s evolving guarantee to the South Pacific
Graeme Dobell | April 19, 2021Australia is strengthening its security guarantees to the Pacific in the light of Chinese expansion, but the region may be taking this protection for granted in terms of their own policies.
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The end of the old order shakes Australia’s grand strategy
Graeme Dobell | March 5, 2021The problem for Australian international policy is that the job we’re focused on is shape-shifting at alarming speed.
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Government focuses on strategic shaping as DFAT drops soft-power review
Graeme Dobell | February 24, 2021Until the last decade, Australia was the pre-eminent international media voice in the South Pacific, but we’re falling behind our allies and competitors.
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Turn and face the strange
Graeme Dobell | February 17, 2021While some of the worst fears around COVID-19 haven’t come to pass, the world has still been turned upside down over the course of the last year.
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Rhyming history: America has been here before
Graeme Dobell | February 8, 2021Donald Trump’s fall into disgrace invites comparison with the end of Richard Nixon, but America soon revitalised itself, and now will have to once again.
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The Liberal Party’s struggles with multilateralism
Graeme Dobell | February 1, 2021Although the Liberal Party is a staunch supporter of Australia’s security alliances, its faith in the United Nations has ebbed and flowed over the years.
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The “scrooge effect” on foreign affairs
Graeme Dobell | December 21, 2020DFAT has built an admirable record in navigating the rapids of international diplomacy over the last 50 years, but gradual cuts in funding can only undermine its future efficacy.