Foreign Policy
UN Climate Change Summit: A chance for Australia's environmental diplomacy
The UN Climate Change Summit is taking place in New York tomorrow, with attendance by several world leaders including US President Barack Obama and UK Prime Minister David Cameron…
The other humanitarian crisis
The ramping up of the international effort against ISIS has consumed much of the world media's attention in the last few weeks. However, there is another international crisis…
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…
Great Australian foreign policy speeches: Howard on 9/11 and the US alliance
Michael Fullilove began our series on great speeches about Australia's place in the world with a selection of ten speeches, here and here. Graeme Dobell's first pick in this…
Ten speeches on Australia's place in the world (part 2)
Part 1 of this series reviewed great speeches on Australia's place in the world, from Federation to Vietnam. In this post, I look at the period from Vietnam to Malaysia Airlines…
MH17 crash site: A police-led approach is the right solution
Last night Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced that Australia has prepositioned 50 Australian Federal Police officers, presumably from the International Deployment Group, in…
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…
Syria, MH17 and the art of the possible at the UN
Australian diplomacy at the UN has kicked up a gear over the last two weeks. On 14 July the Security Council unanimously passed Resolution 2165, drafted by Australia, Jordan and…
MH17: The Australians get their resolution
The UN Security Council observes a minute's silence for the MH17 victims. (UN photo.)
The clocks at the UN were approaching midnight on Sunday night when the Security Council…
Assessing Australia's UN performance
Prime Minister Tony Abbott visited New York this week and, as leaders have to do when in the Big Apple, got together with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to discuss the state of…