Media
Querying Martial Law in Mindanao
Even by Philippine standards, the past week has been a tumultuous one. Militants linked to Islamic State fought security forces in the Islamic City of Marawi, President Duterte cut short a state...
Angela Merkel declares independence, sort of
German Chancellor Angela Merkel might have just told the Frankfurt beer hall crowd earlier this week that ‘The times in which we could completely depend on others are on the way out’. But she didn...
China's brazen diplomatic stunt
Shouting down a host country’s Indigenous welcome to country ceremony is diplomacy gone mad. While this may not be the most detailed analytical description of what transpired in Perth on 1 May...
Indonesia 1965: the attempted coup and the rise of Suharto
Early on the morning of 1 October 1965, seven detachments of troops drove through the quiet streets of Jakarta, bound for the homes of the most senior generals of the Indonesian army. On arrival, the...
Race, faith and Ahok’s defeat
After one of the most tumultuous campaigns in Indonesian history, the incumbent governor of Jakarta, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama (Ahok) was soundly defeated by former Education Minister and academic,...
Jakarta election tests Indonesia's limits of tolerance
On 19 April, the residents of Jakarta – Indonesia’s sprawling capital – will go to the polls in an election that presents an unusually stark choice between religious solidarity and governmental...
Bishop's doctrine of denial is no foreign policy future
Julie Bishop is anxious about Asia. She worries about intensifying economic competition as too many workers in rising economies chase too few consumers elsewhere. And she worries about intensifying...
Joko Widodo's stake in Jakarta's gubernatorial race
The result of Wednesday’s gubernatorial election could well be as consequential. The five-yearly fight for the Jakarta governorship is setting itself up as the battlefield for proxies of...
Trump Pushes Australia Toward China
The phone call last week between Mr. Trump and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, in which the president denounced a refugee deal made between the United States and Australia under President Obama,...
Obama's foreign policy legacy in three quotes
After the Bush administration, many believed that President Obama would bring stability to the global order with a fusion of eloquent rhetoric, a preference for multilateralism and a cautious...