Australia-United States Relations
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…
On Whitlam and the US alliance
The passing of Gough Whitlam was always going to be a seismic moment in Australian national life. As Paul Kelly writes in today's Australian, the former Labor leader lived 'long…
Why America's Iraq strategy will work, and why Australia should take part
Here are three observations on Iraq:
1. Australia does have a core interest in Iraq
One of the arguments already used by opponents of any Australian participation in military…
Australia's Iraq deployment: Pragmatism over principle
The Prime Minister's unsurprising announcement of an Australian military commitment to the US-led anti-Islamic State (IS) coalition answered a few questions and raised others. I…
Is Abbott spreading Australia too thin?
Two months ago, as Prime Minister Abbott's globalist reflexes were becoming increasingly apparent, I offered a perspective from Washington that the US should welcome a more…
Abbott's first year: What the pundits get wrong
So, the first-year assessments are in, and it seems the Abbott Government has done well on foreign policy.
Mark Kenny says Abbott has established 'a solid profile as a man of…
Five fallacies in Australian thinking on Iraq
An RAAF C-130H Hercules deploys aid to civilians in northern Iraq. (Image courtesy of the Department of Defence.)
There's a lot to be concerned about in the way Australia is…
Obama 'doesn't have a strategy yet' for ISIS. Do we?
President Obama is already being pilloried for his statement, made in a press conference earlier today, that 'we don't have a strategy yet' for combating ISIS. No strategy? This…
AUSMIN 2014: What are we getting ourselves into?
Here's The Australian's Greg Sheridan on this week's AUSMIN talks:
...the two governments committed to establish a working group on integrating their efforts on ballistic…
Australia's new activism: The view from Washington
When US officials talk about the US-Australia alliance, they almost always highlight, as President Obama did in his November 2011 speech in Canberra, that Australians have fought…