Global Issues

In early 2016, I contributed to an Armament Research Services (ARES) report on the use of commercially available drones by non-state actors in contemporary conflicts, including in Syria, Iraq, and Ukraine. We predicted that the use of commercial drones, which up until that point had been used

Conflicts in the Middle East and Africa are causing dramatic increases in internally displaced people and refugees across the world. According to estimates from UNHCR for 2016, 10.3 million people were newly displaced by conflict or persecution; 2 million new claims for asylum were lodged; and

The first woman to become a prime minister was appointed in Sri Lanka in 1960. One might have expected this to pave the way for generations of Sri Lankan women to pursue careers in politics. It did not. Sri Lanka is now ranked 180th in the world for women’s participation in political

At The New York Times, a data-rich interactive examines the myth that greater immigration levels lead to higer rates of crime. In December 2017, the Nauruan Government quietly ended an agreement that saw the High Court of Australia serve as the Pacific Island’s final court of appeal

China’s first space station is coming home, but not in the way China originally planned. The Tiangong-1 space laboratory was launched in 2011 and hosted two crews of Chinese astronauts. In 2016, while carrying out an extended (uncrewed) mission with its externally mounted cameras and sensors,

In mid-2015 I was approached to work as a claims assistance provider at the Manus Regional Processing Centre. Initially, I was hesitant because I did not want to be part of an arrangement I believed was morally, if not legally, reprehensible. The processing of asylum seekers was of concern

With the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) now signed and awaiting ratification by the member states, the issue of investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) is again being debated. The high-profile opinion-catalysing group GetUp is encouraging 

Last week in the Australian Parliament, the House of Representatives agreed to a motion recognising the ISIS-perpetrated genocide of the Yazidi community in northern Iraq. The motion was the last in a suite of three from both houses of parliament calling for the investigation and prosecution of

Tentative signs the US may have been adopting a more sensible view on trade have been dashed by President Donald Trump’s recent decision to impose tariffs of 25% on steel imports and 10% on aluminium imports. Hopes that Trump’s protectionist views were mellowing were kindled at Davos

This year marks the seventh anniversary of the Syrian conflict, and the new edition of Forced Migration Review focuses on displaced Syrians. This article from the issue, by Margarite Helena Zoetewij-Turhan, examines changes to Turkey’s asylum laws that are leaving the country

In 1912 a team of explorers were stranded for a miserable winter at Inexpressible Island, in Terra Nova Bay, Antarctica. “The road to hell might be paved with good intentions,” the team doctor noted of the experience, “but it seemed probable that hell itself would be paved something after

The zero draft of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration was released on Monday, following the release of the zero draft of the Global Compact on Refugees last week. The International Rescue Committee was among the first to offer an analysis, criticising the refugee compact

Australia was quick to welcome US President Donald Trump's casual comment that the US might be prepared to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership if a "substantially better" deal could be struck. Yet while making it clear that we would welcome US participation on the terms already negotiated,

The Davos summit is taking place this week. At the Center for Global Development, Michael Clemens and Kate Gough argue that human mobility and migration solutions should be a central topic of discussion. Egypt and Ethiopia are fighting over the Nile. Damming the Blue Nile tributary

News Deeply has published a list of the top refugee issues to watch in 2018. The article names the refugee and migration compacts, the migration control policies of wealthy countries, the testing of alternative approaches, and questions over migrant returns as major discussion points for 2018

Last month, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman visited North Korean officials to promote a political solution to heightened tensions over Pyongyang's nuclear program. Feltman's mission has not received the attention it should have. The visit was the first

He was hailed as the ‘hero’ of the Kyoto climate talks 20 years ago, but the diplomat who oversaw negotiations for the world’s first legally binding emission cuts had some remarkably simple approaches to success. The first was to cut back on time. Raul Estrada Oyuela reduced the length of

Australia's tyranny of distance is no protection from global health threats. In recent months, the government has taken a number of positive steps to reaffirm the importance of international norms and cooperation to protect against threats to global health security. This includes participating in an

Richard Marles' address to the Lowy Institute this week was delivered with a rare eloquence. Marles is an impressive orator with genuine knowledge of the region gained over many years. As a colleague of mine commented quietly afterwards, if this is what Marles is like in opposition, imagine what he

It has been a strange coup. First the army leadership held a press conference two days in advance to warn it might occur. Then when the troops did move, the main targets President Robert Mugabe and his hated and ambitious wife Grace were neither killed, nor held incommunicado, nor put on a

The Guardian's Ben Doherty has published a special report from inside the former processing centre on Manus Island. The Council on Foreign Relations has published an interview with Human Rights Watch's Skye Wheeler focusing on sexual violence perpetrated against Rohingya women. The

The strong expectation of the leaders of many countries involved in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), including Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, was that an agreement would be concluded in the margins of the APEC Summit at the weekend in Vietnam. This was to be a significant achievement given the

Before his fall from grace, former Democratic vice-presidential candidate John Edwards used to talk about 'the two Americas' to describe the gap between the poor and the wealthy. But the phrase earned an afterlife, not least to describe the philosophical chasm between the coastal areas that