A year after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon, President George Bush has unveiled a new strategic doctrine which foreshadows a first-strike strategy against terrorist organisations and “rogue states” such as Irak and North Korea. It gives the strongest possible indication that the Bush Administration is…
With the establishment of a new inquiry into telecommunications services to rural Australia, the Federal Government is clearly hoping for a favourable report which will facilitate the sell-off of the remaining 50.1 per cent of Telstra which remains in government hands. One problem with such a sell-off is that of increased foreign ownership, attracted by…
The Iraq question has become an agent of momentous change in global politics, with particular emphasis bearing upon Europe, the Middle East and major international institutions such as the UN, NATO, and possibly the EU. There is also a fierce battle going on for the “soul” of America – one in which George W. Bush…
Was it wrong to send troops to Vietnam? No, says Kenneth Gee, despite public reconsiderations by some of those involved. General Cosgrove, who fought in Vietnam, now doubts whether Australia should have been there. Malcolm Fraser also now believes that the Vietnam War had been misguided. This is understandable, since the United States, in its bungled…
Within days, Federal Parliament will commence debate on the contentious Research Involving Embryos and Prohibition of Human Cloning Bill 2002, which will set the ethical and medical ground rules for research on human subjects for years to come. While many of the issues of principle – in particular destructive research on human embryos, and the…
The resignation of former Australian Democrats leader, Senator Meg Lees, and the trenchant attack on current leader, Natasha Stott Despoja, by Senator Andrew Murray as he resigned from the Democrats’ front bench, raises immediate questions about the Democrats’ survival as a political force, and more fundamental questions about why the party is disintegrating. Looking back…