Terrible Tony Abbott’s assessment of our bumptious and erstwhile Foreign Affairs Minister was mostly spot-on. KRudd liked parading his intelligence and posturing on the world stage, way beyond Australia’s remit as a ‘middle’ (or middling, or indeed muddling) power, neglecting our vital interests in the Asia-Pacific region. Ubiquitous and prolix, Rudd grandstanded on Libya, nuclear proliferation, climate change action (while dropping his [...]
Archive for the ‘Diplomacy’ Category
Ruddy Farago of Foreign Affairs
Posted in Diplomacy, Editorial, Politics, tagged Australian Foreign Affairs, Kevin Rudd on March 1, 2012 | 1 Comment »
Wikileaks, Julian & Wilfred
Posted in Diplomacy, Editorial, World, tagged Jennifer Robinson, Julian Assange, Wikileaks, Wilfred Burchett on February 26, 2012 | 2 Comments »
As Julian Assange awaits the UK Supreme Court’s decision on his extradition to Sweden, to answer questions about dubious sexual assault charges, Australians should be questioning our own government’s lamentable conduct in this affair. European Arrest Warrants and Swedish law are fraught with numerous legal difficulties – outlined by Jennifer Robinson, one of Assange’s lawyers, [...]
Adieu Afghanistan (next year?)
Posted in Diplomacy, World, tagged Afghanistan war on February 3, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
NATO governments & allies (International Security Assistance Force), including us, are gathering momentum for a stampede to the Afghan exit, strategy or not. Or ‘faster beat in the retreat’, as the SMH put it before Xmas. The French have moved forward their departure (despite our clever Foreign Minister Rudd declaring only last week that this [...]
Germany in Europe: Win/Win or No Win?
Posted in Diplomacy, Economy, Politics, World, tagged European financial woes, Eurozone, German dominance on November 30, 2011 | 1 Comment »
So much learned commentary on Germany’s role in Europe’s financial woes, that the simple mind is definitely boggling. And it all sounds so convincing. The most predictable conspiracy theorists argue that Germany has finally achieved its WWII objectives by stealth and peaceful means – that is, the economic domination of Europe, aka the Fourth Reich. [...]
Barracking for Obama
Posted in Diplomacy, World, tagged Henrik Ibsen, Henry Kissinger, Nobel Peace Prize, President Obama, Tom Lehrer, world peace on October 16, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Devilishly-cunning Norwegians know how to apply the blowtorch to Obama’s behind or feet or wherever, with a ’premature’ award of the Nobel Peace Prize to the US President. Those sophisticated Scandanavians (Europeans?) know how to boost an ego with old-fashioned flattery and prestigious awards. He’s bound to fall for it, stop all US wars and deliver world peace any time soon. US critics hit out at those pesky Europeans for ambushing [...]
Missile Madness
Posted in Diplomacy, World, tagged Bush, Iran nuclear weapons, missile defence shield, nuclear disarmament, Obama, Putin, Reagan on September 21, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
President Obama has decided to scrap plans for a US missile defence shield system in Eastern Europe. Proposed by the Bush government as a land version of Reagan’s space-based ’star wars’ scheme, they planned 10 interceptor missiles in Poland and radar in Czechoslovakia. NATO had already been expanded to include these two former Warsaw Pact members. None of this of course had anything to do with [...]
Balancing ‘Balibo’
Posted in Culture, Diplomacy, tagged Balibo, Balibo House Trust, East Timor, Gough Whitlam, Indonesian invasion, Luke Davies, Paul Cleary, Ramos Horta, Richard Woolcott, Robert Connolly, Roger East, Tony Maniaty on August 27, 2009 | 2 Comments »
Robert Connolly’s film ‘Balibo’ relates events in 1975 in East Timor around the killing of Australian journalists reporting Indonesia’s invasion. Jill Jolliffe’s book ‘Cover-Up: the Inside Story of the Balibo Five’ was used, and David Williamson collaborated on the script. The film has certainly had a desired effect of stirring up debate about that shadowy period. So far Gough Whitlam has kept [...]
Timor Time: Letter to G. Whitlam
Posted in Diplomacy, Editorial, Politics, World, tagged Balibo, Don Willesee, East Timor, Geraldine Willesee, Gough Whitlam, Indonesian invasion on August 13, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Dear Gough, Events at Balibo in Timor in 1975, involving the killing of five Australian journalists by Indonesian military, and another in Dili, are resolutely not disappearing from our collective memory. Release of the film ‘Balibo’ will bring this tragedy and sorry chapter of Australia’s foreign policy to the attention of new generations, as only [...]
King Kevin Goes ¡Hola!
Posted in Diplomacy, tagged Cervantes Institute, Juan Carlos on June 25, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Our real GG (not Grechen), the Queen’s Representative in Australia, had to play second fiddle as our reigning monarch KK officially welcomed his Spanish counterpart King Juan Carlos and his missus to the Wide Brown Land. Impressing yet again with his flair for foreign languages, our Kev read an hispanic welcome, strutting his stuff as [...]
