United Kingdom
Voting “Yes” in the heart of empire
“Oh, they’ve had a hard run of it, haven’t they?”
In perhaps the understatement of the century, this was the reaction of a well-meaning Englishwoman on the platform at Oxford…
Boris Johnson: Does distance really lend enchantment to the view?
Book review: Johnson at 10: The Inside Story, by Anthony Seldon and Raymond Newell (Atlantic, 2023)
Are we better off waiting for tardy but considered analyses of our political…
The social licence for AUKUS has not yet been earned
The Australian Labor Party is firmly committed to the AUKUS nuclear-powered submarines, at least according to the unopposed motion passed at last week’s ALP National Conference…
Stumped by the cricket controversy? Here’s how sport and politics collide
It’s been a good week for one-eyed Australian cricket fans, first watching the England men’s team self-destruct and then the English cricketing establishment forfeiting any claim…
Chemical weapons: Impunity is killing deterrence
In May of 2023, as anticipation of a long-awaited Ukrainian counter-offensive was building, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy touched down in the blistering heat of Saudi Arabia. This…
Australia: The lynchpin of a modernised Commonwealth
From glittering pageantry to a nationwide preponderance of underwhelming quiches, Saturday’s Coronation was a thoroughly British affair. It was, counterintuitively, also the most…
To India, spoils of empire a less sparkly side of Charles’ coronation
As the coronation of British King Charles III approaches, the royals are keenly aware that this time, the celebration will be less a wholesale celebration of Empire and rather, an…
AUKUS: Asking a veteran submariner what to think
When the long-anticipated AUKUS announcement is made in San Diego next week, the specifics of the “optimal pathway” for Australia’s future nuclear-powered submarines – which…
AUKUS and intellectual property
While nuclear-powered submarines steal much of the media limelight, the AUKUS security partnership between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States is about much…
Battle for Chagos
Book Review: The Last Colony: A Tale of Exile, Justice and Britain’s Colonial Legacy by Philippe Sands (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2022)
Popular understanding would have…