The approval of the first global arms treaty by the UN may be more a case of misplaced enthusiasm than cause for real celebration.
EPA/Inter Services Public Relations
The United Nations on Tuesday approved the first treaty on the global arms trade which would regulate a business that amounts to over US$70 billion. There were 154 nations in favour, three against and…
Mourners accompany the remains of the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez through the streets of Caracas.
EPA/David Fernandez
The recent death of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez from cancer comes as no great surprise. The former military leader had rarely been seen in the public eye since December last year when he travelled…
President Nixon’s meeting with China’s Communist Party Leader Mao Tse Tung in 1972 began closer ties between the two countries.
Wikimedia/Office of Presidential Libraries
Now, as at the time of the Vietnam war, the global primacy of the United States is increasingly being questioned. Among the reasons are its role in the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), the continued and…
In something reminiscent of the plot to kill Hitler with a briefcase bomb, several high-ranking figures of the Assad regime have been killed in an apparent suicide attack. The top level security apparatchiks…
The US is growing in popularity down under … have we all got Obamamania?
AAP/Scott Barbour
When Barack Obama was under fire for his foreign policy inexperience in 2007, he told the New York Times that his unique biography could be a vital instrument in a new American foreign policy. “If you…
Chinese paramilitary police prepare for a storm in the South China Sea.
EPA/str
The lines traversing the surface of the globe are legal fictions that determine the fates of nations. Nowhere is this truer than in the South China Sea. China’s infamous U-shaped line claims most of this…
Rudd’s commitment to Australia’s bid for a UN security council seat must continue under Bob Carr.
EPA/Jason Szenes
Now we have a new foreign minister, some have suggested it’s time for Australia to give up its bid for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council. During his time as prime minister and foreign minister…
Police stand outside PNG’s Supreme Court. AAP/Eoin Blackwell.
Papua New Guinea’s volatile political impasse continues even after Michael Somare was today reinstated as prime minister by the Governor-General, with rival Peter O'Neill remaining holed up in Government…
The East Asia Summit could be a useful start on the road towards a ‘concert of powers’.
EPA/Christophe Archambault/Pool
AUSTRALIA IN ASIA: In the eighth part of our series, Sandy Gordon of the Australian National University looks at the possibility of an agreement which would draw the key Asian states together. The CIA…