Australia in the World

This time last year, when former Chief of Army Lt Gen David Morrison AM (Rtd) was announced as Australian on the Year he described the benefits of embracing diversity in simple and powerful terms: when people have the chance to reach their potential, we all benefit. This applies as much to diplomacy

For many 2016 felt like a punch in the guts. Max Roser helps provide some perspective with his Our World In Data website. Writing for the Washington Post, he discusses why we are programmed to think things are getting worse and tend to ignore or overlook the slow transformations that change our

World Bank member countries have pledged $75 billion in lending to the world’s poorest countries over the next three years. This amount is 50% more than what was committed over the last three years. The increase will be financed through the Bank issuing debt to capital markets, the first time

What are the prospects of Australia meeting its Paris Accord commitment to reduce carbon emissions by 26-28% below the 2005 level by 2030? How we generate electricity will be key to meeting this target: electricity represents 35% of Australia’s emissions and provides the greatest opportunities for

William Easterly writes for the New York Review of Books about why it is time for the war on poverty to separate itself from the war on terror (ungated version here.) Facebook has released high-resolution population maps for Ghana, Haiti, Malawi, South Africa, and Sri Lanka for their internet

The impact of US President-elect Donald Trump's intended withdrawal from the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) on Australia could be seen as relatively benign, if one concentrated soley on trade in goods and services. After all, we have the Australia-United States FTA, concluded in 2004. The

Australian and US military forces have worked together for almost a century. It’s a partnership forged under fire that has evolved into an alliance we should work hard to preserve. We first fought together in the First World War on 4 July 1918. Under the command and masterful leadership of the

Michael Fullilove is right to argue that ANZUS is bigger than any one individual, even when that person happens to be the US president.  However, Trump's election has already affected the way Australian political leaders think about the alliance. Their disparate responses suggest that we

COP 22 is underway in Marrakech. Carbon Brief provides a primer for what the latest UN Climate Change Conference expects to achieve.Despite concerns that it might back out, Australia announced last week at the summit that it will ratify the Paris climate agreement.Smoking cigarettes still causes

A damning report from the UN on its South Sudanese peacekeeping force has resulted in the sacking of their Kenyan commander, Johnson Mogoa Kimani Ondieki. Kenya has responded by withdrawing its 1000 troops from the peacekeeping force of 13,000. Zimbabwe is becoming a cashless society, but not

The Economist discusses why the world should be both encouraged and embarrassed by the latest global poverty figures. It highlights that, were it somehow possible to transfer the right amount of money into the right hands without cost, just $159 billion a year would be needed to end

There’s been a good deal of mixed messaging coming from Australia's Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce recently. This week he made headlines by declaring to an audience (which included the Chinese ambassador) that Labor's policies for insisting on rules concerning vegetation

This is a disconcerting period for all those hoping to see more pushback against China's bid for supremacy in the South China Sea, and its pressure tactics towards that end. The US is in the throes of an epochal political convulsion masquerading as a presidential election campaign. Its ability to

The former Member for Longman's surprise visit to Iraq is drawing plenty of criticism. The ALP's Penny Wong was perhaps the most savage, advising him that Iraq was not a 'place for people to act out their boyhood fantasies', while the foreign minister was also willing to criticise her former

The Clinton Foundation has been under the microscope over the last few months. Dylan Matthews takes a look at its record and details how it has undoubtedly had an impact in saving millions of live through playing a critical role in pushing down the cost of HIV/AIDS drugs in developing

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's pledge to hold an ASEAN-Australia leaders' summit in 2018 is a sign that Australia intends to take a more proactive and public role in shaping the Southeast Asian regional order. With a focus on strengthening economic ties and boosting links between Australian and

With the G20 leaders' summit in full swing earlier this week, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has been meeting with leaders from the UK, India, France and China. Turnbull had much to discuss with Xi Jinping in particular, as The Australian's David Crowe reported: An

The Australian Financial Review is running an ‘agents of influence’ series, in line with the media’s shift from a focus on Chinese investment to a broader discussion of China’s influence in Australia. One article has cast a shadow over the million-plus ethnic Chinese in

On 19 September, a UN high-level meeting to address large movements of refugees and migrants is expected to endorse an outcome document that commits states to negotiating a 'Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework' and separately a 'Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration', for

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and why the unmediated photo is the message. The new Hillary Clinton app has taken a page out of Kim Kardashian's mobile app playbook. The Australian Army, which has taken a leading role in the ADF's digital diplomacy efforts, has a new podcast

It has been an interesting few months in Australia-China relations. Following the Ausgrid decision, accusations of drug cheating at the Rio Olympics and the response to the arbitral tribunal decision, Australia has been on receiving end of considerable Chinese chagrin. Whether in the formal

Just when Treasurer Scott Morrison will have been hoping to put last week’s surprisingly tough move against two Chinese power industry investors behind him, a major new report has reopened the entire Chinese foreign investment debate. The biggest ever independent study of the future of the