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Friday 18 Aug 2017 | 20:11 | SYDNEY
Friday 18 Aug 2017 | 20:11 | SYDNEY

South China Sea: Beijing raises the temperature again

By Euan Graham

Paranoia on Aotearoa

By John Gooding

Riyadh’s Shia two-step

By Rodger Shanahan
Long reads
11 Aug 2017 11:58

Rhetorical arthritis won’t sell an Australian republic

It is one thing to recognise the realities of current sensibilities; quite another to let them mask the more substantial arguments required to win a greater measure of popular support than in 1999.

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18 Aug 2017 9:35

How India and the US can lead in the Indo-Pacific

By Samir Saran , S. Paul Kapur
Although the Pacific and Indian Oceans have traditionally been viewed as separate bodies of water, India and the US increasingly understand them as part of a single contiguous zone. The US Maritime Strategy (2015), for example, labels the region the 'Indo-Asia-Pacific', while Prime Minister...

18 Aug 2017 8:23

Will the PNG election ever end?

By Sean Dorney
This is the third of several articles for The Interpreter by the Lowy Institute’s Non-Resident Fellow and former long-time Papua New Guinea correspondent, Sean Dorney who was in PNG for the elections as part of the Commonwealth’s PNG Election Observer Mission. You can find Part One here, and Part...

17 Aug 2017 18:01

Paranoia on Aotearoa

By John Gooding
Almost 20 years ago to the day, then-Foreign Minister Alexander Downer addressed the University of Auckland on Australia-New Zealand relations: First and foremost, the Australia-New Zealand relationship is a partnership of equals. We do not offer each other unsolicited or patronising advice on how...

17 Aug 2017 16:38

Timor-Leste’s critical window on ASEAN

By Bec Strating
Amid the celebrations of ASEAN's 50th birthday last week, the question of whether Timor-Leste will soon be granted full membership lingers. ASEAN membership is the cornerstone of Timor-Leste's foreign policy. In March 2011, Timor-Leste applied for formal membership to ASEAN while Indonesia was...

17 Aug 2017 11:31

Australia and Korea’s wars: A debate worth revisiting

By Euan Graham
Tensions have temporarily abated on the Korean Peninsula, following the latest blustery exchanges between Washington and Pyongyang. In typically mercurial fashion, after threatening 'fire and fury', President Donald Trump has now praised Kim Jong-un’s 'decision' not to launch missiles at Guam as '...

17 Aug 2017 9:14

Death of a Lebanese terrorist

By Rodger Shanahan
They say that the wheels of justice turn slowly, but they do turn. And if the reports of the death of the terrorist Khalid Sharrouf are confirmed, then it meant that he died as a Lebanese, rather than Australian citizen (he was stripped of his Australian citizenship early this year). This doesn’t...

17 Aug 2017 7:17

As Malaysia turns 60, its economy is stuck in third gear

By Anthony Kleven
Saudi Aramco, Riyadh's state-owned oil behemoth, has been investing heavily in Malaysia's economy, injecting $7 billion into the Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development project – a contribution that tops ASEAN's merger and acquisition activity for the first half of 2017. Thanks...

1 Aug 2017 9:11

Is the relationship between growth and inflation shifting?

By John Edwards
With all of the focus on interest rates, sometimes fundamental assumptions underpinning monetary policy are overlooked in the commentary. At times like this, when there are tentative but unmistakeable signs of possible change in those fundamentals, it’s worth stepping back to look at the big... 0 9

17 Jul 2017 7:58

The G20 Hamburg riots and the German election

By Marcus Colla
In many ways, the city-state of Hamburg embodies the self-image that contemporary Germany likes to project. With sparkling new galleries and trendy cafés interspersed among rough-and-tumble beatnik quarters and burly workers' bars, it exudes an elegant but unpretentious charm. The gleaming new... 1 9

6 Jul 2017 17:29

Winding back the China Solution

By David Kelly
The cluster of foreign policy initiatives labelled the 'China Solution' has evolved over the past two years, from a strategy that spoke to the aspirations of a still dev­eloping China to those of a nascent major global power. Brexit and the election of US President Donald Trump precipitated a... 2 9

26 Jun 2017 13:11

Rising interest rates and the RBA

By John Edwards
Shrugging off slow first quarter growth in the US economy, the Federal Reserve increased its policy interest rate earlier this month, and intends to do more. Not long after, minutes of a meeting of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee surprised markets by revealing that three of its... 3 9

22 Jun 2017 17:46

Who will abandon Taiwan next?

By Fabrizio Bozzato
Earlier this month Panama established formal ties with the People's Republic of China (PRC) immediately after severing diplomatic relations with the Republic of China (ROC), as Taiwan is officially known. The question that is now being insistently, even fastidiously, asked is which state will be... 4 9

26 May 2017 14:17

'Dizzy with Success': What Putin thinks of the Trump ascendancy

By Kyle Wilson
Russian President Vladimir Putin has had a brilliantly successful 12 months, notching up an impressive series of wins. In the Middle East there has been war and treasure. Putin's military campaign in Syria - he boasted in February that the campaign was his personal initiative - was viewed by many... 5 9

24 May 2017 11:29

Indonesian democracy: Down, but not out

By Aaron L Connelly , Matthew Busch
The imprisonment on blasphemy charges of Jakarta Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, better known as Ahok, has been a blow to hopes that his earlier success in public office represented the emergence of a more pluralist politics in Indonesia. There is little question that the accusation that Ahok had... 6 9

10 May 2017 14:01

Macron and the uprooting of France

By Matthew Dal Santo
For months the world has waited with bated breath for Emmanuel Macron to save France, Europe and democracy by succeeding in his outwardly improbable campaign to become the next French president. Now that he has, it is time to ask: what, with the 'Far Right' duly slain, does he actually have a... 7 9

5 May 2017 11:26

The rise of China’s tech sector: The digital great game

By John Lee
Part two of this two-part series looks at how the outside world shaped China's internet firms, and how they are now shaping the international economy. For part one, click here. The rise of China's internet firms was not a result of autarkic industrial policy from Beijing. It was achieved through... 8 9

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