As President Obama looks across the beaches of Normandy for the ceremony commemorating the D-Day landings, he could be forgiven for feeling ambivalent. Certainly, these are sites of great tragedy and a…
Drone strikes may be slowing in Pakistan, but the damage has already been done.
EPA/Nadeem Khawer
The US’s program of drone strikes in Pakistan has, according to recent reports, slowed down considerably. But while this will encourage various observers, and while the Obama administration earned some…
Who will deliver justice to the civilian victims of the Syrian conflict if not a properly constituted international court?
EPA
The Obama administration has decided to back a push to have the International Criminal Court (ICC) open a formal, United Nations-sanctioned investigation into potential Syrian war crimes, according to…
The array of handmade signs at the Sydney rally reveals the disparate nature of March in March participants’ concerns.
AAP/NEWZULU/Peter Boyle
Political participation in Australia will soon be about hope – and the transformation of citizenship engagement in this country. Here is why. Traditionally, Australian political participation was centred…
On March 14, in an address to the Oxford Union supposedly about “innovation”, Republican Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann talked about her 2012 presidential run, and went so far as to hint she might consider…
The US is desperate to revitalise its Asia-Pacific hegemony, trying to weave together a web of military and political alliances and relationships.
EPA/Jeon Heon-Kyun
When introducing the Pentagon’s US$496 billion budget last week – $31 billion below what President Barack Obama requested – US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel said: We are repositioning to focus on the strategic…
The Obama administration’s revised drone warfare policy is currently being put to the legal and ethical test.
World Can't Wait
When is a government entitled to kill its own citizens? That’s the question at the centre of recent revelations that the Obama administration might conduct a strike against an American suspected of plotting…
Simply standing in front of a class and telling children how we are used to doing things ‘just won’t work’, according to leading American education expert Linda Darling-Hammond.
AAP/Dan Peled
Watch the video of Maxine McKew interviewing Stanford professor Linda Darling-Hammond below. Australian schoolkids are scoring higher than their US counterparts in maths, science and literacy, but a visiting…
US president Barack Obama used his State of the Union address to motivate his party’s base, but will it work ahead of the mid-terms in November?
EPA/Larry Downing
Barack Obama may have delivered the annual State of the Union speech before Congress, but his real audience was the Democratic base that his administration needs to mobilise before this November’s midterm…
Obama promises to address inequality through his executive powers if the US Congress won’t.
EPA/Larry Downing
US President Barack Obama is preparing to move on inequality after several long years of frustrated reform, if we are to believe his State of the Union address. This year, according to Obama, is a “year…
Has US president Barack Obama seized on the right issue at the right time by targeting income inequality in his State of the Union address?
EPA/Larry Downing
Just over half a century ago, after his presidency began with the Bay of Pigs fiasco in Cuba, John F. Kennedy sought out advice from his recently defeated rival, Richard Nixon. The two men had a special…
US president Barack Obama is set to address Congress to map out his agenda for the year. What’s he likely to say?
EPA/Pete Marovich
On Tuesday evening (Washington time), US president Barack Obama will deliver his sixth State of the Union address. It comes at an important moment in his presidency. He has little to show for the first…
‘Corporations are people’ – and so, apparently, is Mitt Romney.
Gage Skidmore
Mitt, a newly released documentary about former presidential candidate Mitt Romney, provides an up-close look at the exhausting presidential election process in the U.S. This is no House of Cards when…
The latest intelligence documents published by The Guardian tell us that the US National Security Agency (NSA) is harvesting up to 200 million text messages a day under the DISHFIRE programme, and that…
Whatever Barack Obama says, the fact is the US president reined in spying powers in response to public knowledge gained from leaks about NSA activities.
EPA/Shawn Thew
All eyes were on US president Barack Obama when he announced his plan to reform the National Security Agency (NSA) and its ability to collect phone metadata. Three main changes will be pursued: the government…
Can you spot your Facebook data?
National Security Agency
President Obama faced a difficult task in his speech on reform of the NSA’s surveillance activities. As an accomplished orator, crafting a well-received speech was obviously within his capabilities, but…
Many fine words of tribute were uttered as some of the world’s most powerful people gather to pay tribute to former President Nelson Mandela. In spite of the rain, thousands gathered to hear the tributes…
‘We will never see the likes of Nelson Mandela again.’
AP Photo/Evan Vucci
South Africa – and the world – has said its formal goodbye to Nelson Mandela. It was a celebration of a life gloriously lived, an event that united us as a global family. Earlier this year, I reflected…
Flying high: John Kerry and Baroness Ashton after signing the deal.
Carolyn Kaster/AP/Press Association Images
The nuclear deal reached between the United States and Iran represents both a breakthrough and a risk for Barack Obama. A breakthrough because it stalls Iran’s progress towards nuclear weapons capability…
Should Tony Abbott follow Barack Obama’s example and apologise personally to Indonesia leaders over the spying scandal, as Obama did to Angela Merkel?
EPA/Andrew Harrer
The contrast between Australian prime minister Tony Abbott’s self-defeating response to spying allegations with Indonesia and US president Barack Obama’s reaction to smooth its similar row with Germany…
Professor in U.S. Politics and U.S. Foreign Relations at the United States Studies Centre and in the Discipline of Government and International Relations, University of Sydney