Posted: 10:00 am on 10th May 2012
In a revealing article in Foreign Policy, Christopher Stephen highlights the high costs and derisory results of the International Criminal Court (ICC). Despite the recent conviction of the former Liberian dictator Charles Taylor for aiding and abetting war crimes in neighbouring Sierra Leone, the ICC balance sheet remains disappointing. With its tenth birthday only months away, 750 staff and a price tag of more than US$1 billion, the ICC has…
Posted: 8:00 am on 4th May 2012
Australia is sitting between two giants. It is no delusion of grandeur to think our extensive economic connections with China and deep security bond with the United States place us on a fault line between a superpower and a superpower-in-waiting. The arrival of US marines in Darwin and the Gillard government’s decision to bar the Chinese telco Huawei from bidding for the NBN have brought the complications of life on…
Posted: 8:00 am on 28th April 2012
Alexander Downer was Australia’s longest-serving Minister for Foreign Affairs from 1996 to 2007. This is an extract from his article ‘The European Union’ in the latest issue of Policy magazine (Autumn). It always sounded like a great idea. The bellicose continent of Europe which brought us two world wars in a little more than 30 years and plenty before united in a single entity called the European Union. At its…
Posted: 8:00 am on 26th April 2012
France’s fraught relationship with globalisation has once again been laid bare. Global economic, political and cultural integration seem to be a constant source of concern for the French political class. Notwithstanding the policy space between the French presidential candidates, they share an abiding distrust of the rest of the world. The centre-right’s Nicolas Sarkozy is calling on his fellow citizens to ‘Buy European,’ while the socialist presidential front-runner, François Hollande,…
Posted: 9:48 am on 4th April 2012
On Sunday, the Friends of Syria stepped up pressure on the Assad regime with a decision to provide financial support and communications equipment to Syria’s opposition groups. While the coalition of more than 70 countries, including the United States, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Great Britain, has stopped short of arming the Free Syrian Army, the move is a healthy injection or realpolitik to the international community’s response to the Syrian…
