Coral Bell writes that Australian Opposition leader Kevin Rudd's foreign policy approach is not likely to do serious damage to the relationship with Washington, but the alliance might be challenged within the foreseeable future by quite a different factor in world politics. The next landscape of world politics, she argues, which might be with us...

The defence pact between Australia and Japan confirms already accelerating tendencies for both Japan and Australia to militarize their foreign policies, and forms the core of a nascent anti-China US-dominated multilateral alliance system writes Richard Tanter. He argues that Australia's decision to emphasize the military dimension of its relationship with Japan, in mutual concert with...

Pat Walsh, Adviser on Transitional Justice to President Xanana Gusmao of Timor Leste, emphasizes the critical contribution made to the eventual achievement of Timor's independence by international civil society and its continuing importance. Closely associated with the Timor Leste Truth and Reconciliation Commission (CAVR), Walsh notes the close documentation in the Commission's report of global...

Clinton Fernandes reviews the 2006 security agreement between Australia and Indonesia and finds that the realpolitik argument fails on its own terms. He rejects claims that military cooperation will enhance counter-terrorism, contribute to stability in Indonesia, or facilitate awareness of human rights issues within the Indonesian armed forces. The success of the ADF role in...

Bringing guns back to the Solomons, Alpers argues, would reverse a life-saving regional trend begun in Bougainville, and seen most recently in East Timor, where the first Australian peacekeeping commander declared: 'We will be disarming everybody in Dili'. Moreover, across 20 Pacific nations, and now in East Timor, the most destructive firearms used in crime...