Damien Kingsbury led the Australian election-observer mission to Myanmar’s 2015 elections. He recently retired as Professor of International Politics at Deakin University.
Under the 2008 constitution, the Tatmadaw-dominated National Defence and Security Council] can revoke the writ of the elected parliament at any time for any reason.
Papua New Guinea prime minister Peter O'Neill's decision to step down from office follows months of wrangling over his future by the country's highly fractious parliament. O'Neill's letting go of the top job was set against a backdrop of highly personalised leadership, a string of scandals and an increasing number of defections to the opposition camp.
It will take some months to play out, but Australia is finally before an international tribunal to determine whether or not it has acted legally over the division of the Timor Sea with Timor-Leste. At stake is the territorial boundary between Australia and Timor-Leste and, therefore, control of tens of billions of dollars’ worth of oil and gas resources.
The gap between preference and reality in the West's approach to Russia's incorporation of Crimea is defined by two sets of criteria. The first is the West's failure to come to terms with the 'new' Russia, in the way that it acknowledges the 'new' China. The second is the regional realpolitik that manifests the 'new' Russia's aspirations and the inability of the West to do much about it.
It will take some months to play out, but Australia is finally before an international tribunal to determine whether or not it has acted legally over the division of the Timor Sea with Timor-Leste. At stake is the territorial boundary between Australia and Timor-Leste and, therefore, control of tens of billions of dollars' worth of oil and gas resources.
Great powers buying in to Timor Leste's future, and shaping ours. When Indonesia invaded East Timor in 1975, part of its justification was that the then ruling Fretilin intended to allow the country to become a regional base for China. Fretilin had recently assumed power, having defeated the conservative UDT's attempted coup in August of that year. But Fretilin's victory was viewed in Indonesia as establishing a communist base in the middle of its archipelago…
