3+ day, 15+ hour ago   (280+ words) In part two of a four-part series, daily life in the West Bank reveals how checkpoints, travel restrictions and controls over religious and cultural life shape Palestinians’ experience of Israeli occupation. This was well illustrated later on my trip from…...

6+ day, 15+ hour ago   (179+ words) Australia has no shortage of wealth, projects or policy targets. What it lacks is a coherent strategy for building the capabilities its future society will need. That is why 2088 is a useful horizon. It lies beyond the careers of today’s…...

1+ week, 1+ day ago   (973+ words) Australians are becoming less connected, trusting and satisfied with life, but resilience remains – and tackling insecurity could help rebuild social cohesion. Look around the world and you would think the world is burning and Australian society is burning with it....

1+ week, 4+ day ago   (577+ words) As Labor and Coalition support has collapsed, the Greens have remained stuck around 12 per cent – constrained by geography, culture and a changing generational base. And yet, amid all this churn, one party has barely moved. The Greens. Instead, they have…...

1+ week, 5+ day ago   (910+ words) H5N1 is spreading along southern Australia and is likely to move inland, reach vulnerable island colonies and infect more wildlife. Monitoring will be critical to understanding the damage. The lethal H5N1 strain of avian influenza is rapidly spreading along the coast of…...

1+ week, 5+ day ago   (376+ words) Hugh White’s new book warns that declining US power and China’s rise are remaking Asia, while Australia remains dangerously attached to old assumptions about American protection. Hugh White’s new book on Australia’s post-American future, Hard New World, describes a bleak…...

1+ week, 6+ day ago   (193+ words) Pearls and Irritations The Secret Harbour result may reflect less a sudden embrace of far-right ideology than a deeper mix of economic anxiety, political alienation and collapsing trust. The recent by-election result in Secret Harbour, Western Australia, is a genuine…...

1+ week, 6+ day ago   (343+ words) US production shortfalls, Britain’s submarine crisis and Australia’s own infrastructure delays are eroding the assumptions behind AUKUS. It’s time to take a different path. The AUKUS ‘optimal pathway’ was supposed to deliver a seamless transition from our Collins-class fleet to…...

2+ week, 5+ day ago   (305+ words) America’s record of failed wars exposes the limits of military power and raises serious questions about Australia’s continued reliance on the United States. So, despite its enormous military capability, why has the American so-called superpower been so devastatingly unsuccessful in…...

3+ week, 1+ day ago   (666+ words) While calls to sink the AUKUS deal continue to mount in Australia, UK allies maintain they are “fully supportive” of the $368 billion defence pact. It’s almost as if the new AUKUS catchphrase should be “The Australian government: Keeping our head…...