Tag: war

What Lies Beneath: The Russia–Ukraine War

Arena Online

John Hinkson

7 Apr 2022

Simplistic, black and white judgements are dominant right now, but there is good reason to think that this war may turn out to be much more than a struggle over a lily-white democratic versus autocratic principle.

The War in Ukraine and Imperial Decline

Arena Online

Timothy Erik Ström

24 Mar 2022

This apparently old-fashioned land war seems to be exposing the extreme fragility of global capitalism, a system we have been told is the only possible future. This is a further rip to the fabric of these illusions, which have recently been cast asunder by an apparently old-fashioned plague, and some very cutting-edge climate catastrophes.  

Friends You Can’t Depend On

Arena Quarterly no. 9

Alison Broinowski

Mar 2022

If the United States, United Kingdom and Russia risk nuclear war over Ukraine and a gas pipeline, that is bad enough; for Australia to join this insanity is worse.

Looming Catastrophe: Nuclear Threats in the Ukraine-Russian War

Arena Online

Guy Rundle

10 Mar 2022

Just as atomic and sub-atomic technologies reach into every corner of reality to transform it unceasingly, so too the US post-Second World War empire, powered by notions of a universal idea of right, bound up in individualism, capital and technophilia, seeks to transform and occupy any alternative source of power, locality and difference.

The Manchurian Candidate in Australian Politics

Arena Online

Binoy Kampmark

3 Mar 2022

The Manchurian candidate accusation can be said to be part of the toolkit of politicisation that has characterised the brief history of the Australian Commonwealth.

What Are the Submarines Really For?

Arena Quarterly no. 8

Clinton Fernandes

Dec 2021

The decision to acquire nuclear-powered boats reflects what has been the Australian Way of War for more than a century: to operate inside the strategy of a superpower by contributing a well-chosen, niche capability to augment the larger force.

Forever Partnership, Forever War

Arena Quarterly no. 8

Alison Broinowski

Dec 2021

…if the next war is against China, over Taiwan, the South or East China Sea, or some contrived event, Australia will become involved, will be a principal target, and will lose the war. China is not the Taliban.

Trade routes or War Games?: Subs and the geopolitics behind the China threat

Arena Online

Clinton Fernandes

1 Oct 2021

Australian strategic planners are well aware that it would be absurd to protect trade with China from China… In the real world, the military build-up is about whether foreign military and intelligence activities can be conducted in another country’s exclusive economic zone.

AUKUS: It’s about Sovereignty, not Submarines

Arena Online

Binoy Kampmark

30 Sep 2021

AUKUS is also a screeching message to powers in the region that the Anglophone bloc, with its vast historical baggage, intends to police the region against a country never mentioned in the joint statement but crystal clear to all present.

Sub-Imperial Australia

Arena Online

Guy Rundle

16 Sep 2021

Our focus on subs has long been an expression of our idea that any defence would involve us contributing a subordinated part of a giant US-led naval force in the region.

The US defeat in Afghanistan: An epochal moment

Arena Online

John Hinkson

16 Sep 2021

One does not have to be a Taliban supporter to see that this defeat reflects deep changes in not only geopolitical relations but ways of life that are making their mark on what the West can do practically.

The Bloody Trade

Arena Quarterly no. 7

Michelle Fahy

Sep 2021

Can Australians trust bland assurances from the defence department that Australia’s ‘strict export controls’ prevent the illegal use or transfer of Australian weapons?