As Australia prepares to assume its two-year seat on the U.N. Security Council from Jan. 1, it will either have to react to, or may well decide to actively promote, the cause of protecting civilians caught in harm’s way in contemporary armed conflicts. Either ...

In a world beset by many grave problems that threaten to unleash a perfect storm at short notice, many people bemoan the dearth of responsible and high-quality leadership to point the way forward to a more prosperous, peaceful and just future. Yesterday’s leaders may ...

When the Iraq War Inquiry Group (of which I am a member) issued a public call for an inquiry into the decision-making that lay behind Australia’s participation in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, members of the then-Howard government dismissed it in effect as yesterday’s ...

On Aug. 16 a group of Australians, led by former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser and former Chief of the Defense Force Gen. Peter Gration, launched a call for an inquiry into how and why Australia joined the Iraq war in 2003. The goal is ...

This week (Tuesday and Wednesday), Pakistan and India are celebrating their conjoined independence days. Their rivalry has sabotaged India’s tryst with destiny as a global power and Pakistan’s ambition to be the leading light of the Islamic world. Will 2047 mark 100 years of ...

The hits just keep coming. In recent weeks, credit rating agencies have downgraded India’s investment status, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has been described by Time magazine as an underachiever, U.S. President Barack Obama has raised concerns that corporate America is worried about India’s investment ...

On July 24, seven key News International personnel in the United Kingdom and one contracted private investigator were charged with 19 counts of conspiracy to hack mobile phone voice mails between 2000 and 2006. At long last, the allegations will be tested in court. ...

China and Russia have cast three vetoes so far on draft U.N. Security Council (UNSC) resolutions aimed at tougher international responses to the Syrian’s government’s brutal crackdown on protestors and rebels. They have drawn much flak for their obstructionist resistance to United Nations efforts ...

Come October, Australia will be competing with Finland and Luxembourg for two of this year’s five elected two-year seats on the U.N. Security Council. Why against Finland and Luxembourg and not others also contesting for the total of five seats up for grabs? Well ...

As in other aspects of human life, the march of military technology has greatly outpaced the laws and institutions to regulate the behavior they make possible. The Obama administration has so greatly expanded the Bush policy of drone strikes as to leave neutral observers ...

Far from being rendered irrelevant by technological progress, where governments can communicate with one another directly on a need-to basis, diplomacy has become an increasingly critical instrument in an age of interdependence and globalization. Responding to the ever-changing world around it, diplomacy has evolved ...

When a group of gay activists engaged in an angry confrontation with Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, who was having dinner with a major columnist in a Melbourne restaurant, the journalist noted how those demanding tolerance of diversity had shown an ugly face of extreme ...