Australia and Asia
Hong Kong protests not a harbinger of change for China
After two months of protest and occupation, is the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement over?
It seems the protests are not going to achieve what they set out to do, let alone pose…
Why economics doesn't explain China's FTA decision
Malcolm Cook and I have been debating why China has been willing to bless Tony Abbott with an FTA when Mr Abbott has so strongly opposed Beijing's political and strategic…
East Timor, Australia and the 'Timor Gap'
Tom Allard recently reported in the Sydney Morning Herald that Australia and East Timor are ready to restart talks on the maritime boundary between the two countries, with all its…
Why does China bother with coercion?
Hugh White's willingness to admit his mistakes and revisit his assumptions is admirable. His error in predicting that China would punish Australia by withholding final agreement…
Modi in Australia: An unprecedented level of engagement
Narendra Modi has just concluded his first visit to Australia, the first by any Indian prime minister in 28 years. Combined with Prime Minister Abbott's visit to India in…
Adolescent Australia's road to adulthood
In his new Lowy Institute Paper, Peter Hartcher is correct when he writes that Australia is an adolescent country. However, I believe the roots of our adolescent behaviour lie…
Obama on Asia: Holding the Brisbane line
America's commitment to security, dignity and prosperity in Asia, facing up to global challenges, and some strong words on climate change – President Obama's just-concluded speech…
Time for Australia to emerge from its foreign-policy adolescence
Is culture destiny? Or is geography destiny? These are the existential questions Australians have to grapple with as they ponder their future in the Asian century. As they think…
Australia's provincial reflex
'The provincial reflex', Peter Hartcher's coinage in The Adolescent Country, a Lowy Institute Paper released today, is a neat way of describing the chronic parochialism that has…
Whitlam's visionary leadership on Indonesia
As commentators rightly eulogise Gough Whitlam's foreign policy achievements, most of the attention has focused on his grand outreach to communist China and the independence of…