‘Human rights with Chinese characteristics’ aren’t human rights at all

Through its words and its deeds, the Chinese government is showing what it really is and how it intends to shape the world in the coming decades.

Australia should back a truly rules based international order

To respond effectively to the emerging multi-polar environment in international affairs, Australia should buttress its backing for its traditional alliances with undiscriminating support for international law.

China’s new era under Xi

Xi Jinping’s efforts to strengthen his personal hold on the Chinese communist party and the party’s ruthless control of the Chinese population have been matched only by his zeal to strengthen China’s influence abroad and dominate its neighbours.

Indonesia’s expanding horizons pose a question for Australia

Indonesia’s accelerating economic prosperity will see the country poised to take a leading role in the Indo-Pacific region. It’s time for Australia to refocus its Indonesia priorities.

Australia–China relations: who’s in the dark?

Australia is wrestling with its relationship with the Chinese regime, looking to reap economic rewards while remaining wary of China’s expansionist ambitions and opposed to its ruthless oppression of its population.

The implications of China’s “Belt and Road” initiative can’t be ignored

Now five years into its existence, China’s Belt and Road Initiative appears to be attracting both new supporters and opponents on a daily basis.

Australia’s Rules-Based International Order

The ‘rules-based international order’ has become a rhetorical centrepiece of Australian international policy. One of the challenges in the current moment is that the rules and principles that were built on the foundation of American primacy are being questioned as power shifts.

The rise and fall of the liberal international order

The broad shape of the international order after the Second World War was that of a liberal internationalist system that would embrace collective security, economic openness and social progress. The central tenets of that liberal order are now all in doubt.

China’s Uyghurs face an Orwellian future

China’s mistreatment of its Uyghur minority in the Xinjiang autonomous region has garnered increased attention in recent months, due to Beijing’s policy of mass arbitrary detention of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in ‘political re-education centres’.

The widening gap between ethics and international relations

In 1918 prominent American philosopher James H. Tufts asked, ‘Is there, can there be, any ethics of international relations?’ In the turbulent century since, that question has inspired many attempts at an answer and contemporary events press the issue again.