Between the Lines

Centre-left parties are bleeding the blue-collar vote to the conservatives. Globally. How can the ALP broaden its appeal? Also, with the benefit of hindsight, was the 'Arab Spring' ever going to deliver democracy to the Middle East?

It's 25 years since the coalition was elected to an eleven year term in power. As leader, John Howard represents one of the greatest political comebacks in modern history. How did he do it?

With China’s rise as a great power, it is paying more attention to reclaiming territory, like Taiwan, that it has long regarded as its own.

How should the US and its allies, including Australia, counter Beijing’s conduct? Also, is the West’s hostility towards Putin just driving Moscow closer to Beijing?

A decade ago, the Arab Spring promised to end dictatorship and bring self-government to people across the Middle East. Yet it mostly led to either renewed dictatorship, civil war, extremist terror, or all three. Also; after five decades of military dictatorship came to an end in Myanmar, the armed forces there retained a significant hold on power. After being trounced in last November’s election, the military leaders became even more unhappy, hence the recent coup.

The relationship between China and Australia continues to deteriorate and it goes beyond trade sanctions. By standing up to China, is Canberra just 'pulling the tail of the tiger'? Or are we right to protect our national sovereignty?

Re-naming Australia Day won't help, says a prominent leader of our Indigenous community, who defends our national holiday. Jacinta Nampijinpa-Price says that moves to call January 26, “invasion day”, are pointless and divisive. They won't help Aboriginal Australians, especially those in remote communities, who suffer from profound disadvantage. Also, America post Trump. How will Joe Biden convince a divided America to unite?

Is the Department of Home Affairs too big? Peter Edwards and Jacinta Carroll on the legacy of the Hope Royal Commissions into intelligence which recommended a clear separation between intelligence collection and policy making.

Also: China's Good War. Oxford university historian Rana Mitter on how the new Chinese nationalism is being shaped by a re-interpretation of China's role in World War Two.

Joshua Landis: The French mandate and Lebanese history

Lebanon was once a model for the Middle East. Today, it looks more like Syria or Iraq. Why? And should the French be held accountable?

Joshua Landis, Director: Centre for Middle East Studies and Associate Professor, University of Oklahoma

Japan’s POWs: systematic mistreatment?

During World War Two more Australians died in Japanese prisoner of war camps than were killed in combat. Conventional wisdom says they were systematically mistreated.

Sarah Kovner argues that the story is more complex than that.

Sarah Kovner, Senior Research Scholar in the Arnold A. Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies and Adjunct Professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. Author: Prisoners of the Empire: POWs and Their Captors in the Pacific.

Vale Brent Scowcroft: US foreign policy veteran

Two-time US national security adviser Brent Scowcroft was an architect of the Gulf War, and a leading opponent of the Iraq war. He died recently aged 95.

Weighing up Turnbull’s legacy

Former Prime Minister Malcom Turnbull recently published his memoir A Bigger Picture.  In it he settles old scores with colleagues over his 2018 ousting, which he describes as an “act of madness.”

What is his legacy, and how will history judge our nation’s twenty ninth Prime Minister?

Jacqueline Maley, columnist at The Sydney Morning Herald.

Jennifer Oriel, columnist at The Australian

 

And, the death of a führer

April 2020 marked seventy-five years since Hitler’s suicide. Cambridge historian Brendan Simms challenges past scholarship on the führer, and argues that Hitler saw Anglo-American global capitalism, not Bolshevism – as Germany’s real enemy. He says this philosophical link reveals worrying connections between Hitler and the rise of populism today.

Brendan Simms, Professor in the History of International Relations at Cambridge University, and author of Hitler: Only the World was Enough.

Shinzo Abe resignation

Shinzo Abe is Japan’s most successful post-war political leader. Recently, he resigned for health reasons. So what is his legacy for Japan and the wider region?

 Plus, Putin’s People: how the KGB took back Russia and then took on the West.

Journalist Catherine Belton explains how tensions in Belarus and the poisoning of anticorruption campaigner Alexei Navalny fit into Russa’s post-Communist power politics.