United States
De-dollarisation: shifting power between the US and BRICS
There has been increasing talk of the BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) developing a new currency that will rival the US dollar as the global reserve…
The vanishing options for Julian Assange
The weekend, AUSMIN talks in Brisbane have highlighted that Julian Assange’s ongoing legal and political battle challenging his extradition to the United States is about…
Something fishy about China’s anger over the Quad’s open ocean plans
Some international issues should be non-sensitive and uncontroversial. One of these is the regulation of fishing fleets to prevent overfishing and ensure the sustainable use of…
Qin Gang has come and gone, but US-China drama is stuck on repeat
Qin Gang’s ouster as China’s foreign minister, as sudden as it was unexpected, reverberated around the world. One of China’s President Xi Jinping’s most loyal servants, Qin rose…
An agenda for the AUSMIN talks
When Australia’s foreign and defence ministers look across the table at their US counterparts at the annual AUSMIN talks in Brisbane on Friday, they will be looking at the…
A return to old-school mercantilism?
Talk is cheap. In the international system, states closely monitor each other’s actions and rhetoric becomes secondary. With the acceleration of great power competition, states…
Forget Washington, Pyongyang’s most important target has always been Beijing
It’s easily forgotten now, but just over five years ago North Korea and China were not getting along. Beijing was adamant about implementing United Nations sanctions as a…
The emergence of “collective strategic ambiguity” on Taiwan
Since terminating its formal alliance with Taiwan in 1979, the United States has adhered to a policy known as “strategic ambiguity”. The Taiwan Relations Act, which Congress…
The Quad: Tackling the spider, not cobwebs, in cyberspace
The Quad – the strategic security dialogue between Australia, India, Japan and the United States – is accustomed to dealing with threats to international security, including those…
The downsides for Australia from the US‑PNG defence agreement
In May, the United States and Papua New Guinea signed off on a Defence Cooperation Agreement (DCA). While the deal has clear benefits for PNG and potentially Australia, it is…