Australia’s incrementalist hedging in a fractured world order

Australia faces challenging circumstances. Its economic wellbeing is increasingly tied to a country, China, that is becoming the enemy of its security guarantor, the United States. The corrosion of liberal institutions reduces Australia’s options and constrains its scope for influence.

A pandemic in the era of great power rivalry and neoliberalism

Dr Oliver Villar of Charles Sturt University argues that the real virus threatening the world is neoliberalism, rather than COVID-19, and the current pandemic is a smokescreen for US-China rivalry.

Hard lessons and soft power

If American policy continues its current chaotic path, COVID-19 will inevitably accelerate existing trends towards nationalistic populism and authoritarian uses of technology.

Power politics threatens global cooperation to combat COVID-19

Fuelled by rising nationalism and protectionism, the United States, China and Russia are attempting to shape the external environment to support their own strategic interests.

Triumph of the autocrats?

Positive outcomes in the battle against COVID-19 may favour those who see strong government as desirable in its own right, but the upsurge in volunteering and group solidarity in many countries may point to a more optimistic future.

Australia should invoke the ANZUS treaty

Scott Morrison has called the ANZUS Treaty ‘the single most important achievement’ of the Liberal Party in any term of government. He can now use that achievement to show solidarity in the fight against COVID-19.

A new world in the making

The world will be different after COVID-19 and our leaders will have to put the same effort, energy and resources into our international dealings as our ongoing domestic challenges.

Geo-politics on planet virus

We’re still in the early days of what might prove an 18-month battering of the international order, and aggressive states such as China and Russia may look to exploit western weakness with audacious power-grabbing moves.

Pandemics and power politics

Coronavirus will have political ramifications we cannot yet see or imagine. Let us hope that this horrific pandemic brings out the best in the international community, rather than the very worst.

Advancing women’s rights around the globe

In 2016, Sharman Stone decided not to recontest her seat in the federal parliament, preferring instead to work in new ways to advance the rights of women around the world.

Coronavirus shock will cascade through the Indo-Pacific

Now that the coronavirus has escaped from China, societies, governments and international institutions around our region must brace for a wave of economic and other problems in its wake.

World Bank in the dock over corruption

The World Bank is being accused of suppressing a study which showed that a great deal of aid to the poorest countries is stolen by corrupt officials and salted away in foreign bank accounts.