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Australia and Indonesia can strengthen ASEAN
Graeme Dobell | April 25, 2019Entering ASEAN would help Australia shape the future of South East Asia in concert with the fast growing democracy of Indonesia.
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Australia may turn inward at election time, but the big questions won’t go away
Graeme Dobell | April 16, 2019The federal election on 18 May will focus on domestic issues, given the broad consensus on foreign policy and defence, but the big international issues facing the nation will command the attention of whichever party wins power.
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The uncertain geopolitics of the federal election
Graeme Dobell | April 9, 2019The documents released with the recent Federal budget set out a mixed picture of Australia’s place in the world in the run-up to the May election.
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Media and broadcasting in the age of hate
Graeme Dobell | March 26, 2019The tragic events in Christchurch pose, yet again, agonising questions for journalists as well as politicians and policy makers.
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The puzzles of a post-American world
Graeme Dobell | February 20, 2019Donald Trump’s ‘America First’ policy is a declaration that the hegemon is declining back to the status of normal big power, worried more about itself than the nature of the international system. Far from making America great again, Donald Trump is the first President of the post-American world.
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Imagining Australia’s South Pacific family
Graeme Dobell | February 6, 2019What is needed for Australia to step up engagement in the Pacific island region is a sure-footed approach that is based on a firm footing of mutual respect and partnership.
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Second track diplomacy could calm Asia’s power struggles
Graeme Dobell | December 26, 2018Australia must be nimble and smart as it adheres to the US alliance to ensure its security in the region while simultaneously looking towards Asia on economic and trade issues. Informal second track diplomacy offers a way to negotiate the rocky path ahead.
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The new era of great-power competition in the Pacific
Graeme Dobell | December 11, 2018The first strategic priority for Australia in the Indo-Pacific is to manage great-power competition. And the central trend of that competition is China’s rapidly growing challenge to US dominance.
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The purposes of the Pacific pivot
Graeme Dobell | December 4, 2018A ‘Pacific pivot’ that can marry Australia’s strategic needs with the fundamental needs of Pacific peoples will be a policy which benefits all stakeholders and so ensure enduring results.
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On the side of the angels?
Graeme Dobell | October 9, 2018Nations are never angelic, but in these fraught and disruptive times, the smart national interest should be to stand on the side of the angels.
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Countering China’s challenge in the South Pacific
Graeme Dobell | October 3, 2018Australia is taking an increasingly firm line to maintain its interests in the South Pacific to counter the growing economic, political and military challenge from an ever more assertive China.
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Journalism, international affairs and the new information order
Graeme Dobell | September 30, 2018The world still needs good journalism but the gatekeeping role which journalists and editors once played is in ruins.