Evening Report

https://youtu.be/CJDv8PxnqIA

A View from Afar - In this podcast, Paul G. Buchanan and Selwyn Manning analyse the AUKUS Alliance and deep-dive into:

How the AUKUS Alliance has triggered a geopolitical realignment.

Why has this Anglophone AUKUS alliance formed? And what's the fallout?

What does China do now?

How will Australia assert itself as the Southern Hemisphere’s military great power?

How does the AUKUS Alliance impact on the applied foreign policies of regional independent nations like New Zealand and indeed the ASEAN economies?

Where to from here for France and Europe, China and South East Asian nations, and New Zealand?

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If you miss the LIVE Episode, you can see it as video-on-demand, and earlier episodes too, by checking out EveningReport.nz or, subscribe to the Evening Report podcast here.

The MIL Network’s podcast A View from Afar was Nominated as a Top  Defence Security Podcast by Threat.Technology – a London-based cyber security news publication.

Threat.Technology placed A View from Afar at 9th in its 20 Best Defence Security Podcasts of 2021 category. You can follow A View from Afar via our affiliate syndicators.

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https://youtu.be/R7eD3oO3hBk

A View from Afar - In this week's podcast, Paul G. Buchanan and Selwyn Manning discuss: Geopolitics and how the global order is changing fast after the United States withdrawal from Afghanistan. And overnight the US and Australia announced the nuclearisation of Australia's submarine fleet.

In particular, Paul G. Buchanan and Selwyn Manning examine how the United States’ military arm is now pivoting to the Indo-Pacific region, as the People’s Republic of China pivots its priorities westward to a land-based Silk Road orientation joining Pakistan, Russia, Iran to develop interests in the post-US Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.

It appears both the USA and China are moving to fill a perceived vacuum left by the other side.

While the PRC focusses its attention to Silk Road interests, it also is preoccupied inwardly. China has issues at home. As does the USA where its President Joe Biden is struggling to stabilise intrenched divisions in this post-Trump period.

But back to China, where its leader Xi Jinping has ordered strict screen-time controls over young new generation Chinese; huge regulatory reforms designed to control its wealth generating business sector; and a command for China’s wealthy classes to share and to shift toward a state-wide goal of common prosperity.

What does all of this mean for the states and economies of the Asia Pacific/Indo-Pacific region?

WE INVITE YOU TO PARTICIPATE WHILE WE ARE LIVE WITH COMMENTS AND QUESTIONS IN THE RECORDING OF THIS PODCAST:

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If you miss the LIVE Episode, you can see it as video-on-demand, and earlier episodes too, by checking out EveningReport.nz or, subscribe to the Evening Report podcast here.

The MIL Network’s podcast A View from Afar was Nominated as a Top  Defence Security Podcast by Threat.Technology – a London-based cyber security news publication.

Threat.Technology placed A View from Afar at 9th in its 20 Best Defence Security Podcasts of 2021 category. You can follow A View from Afar via our affiliate syndicators.

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https://youtu.be/BNzs1BIePvc

A View from Afar - In this week's podcast, Paul G. Buchanan and Selwyn Manning discuss: three areas that have been relied on to protect New Zealanders from terror-styled attacks; legal measures designed to protect communities from danger and even protect individuals from themselves and why they failed.

The background to this episode is the tragic, terrifying, attacks that were committed against unarmed innocent people at West Auckland’s LynnMall Countdown supermarket, by Ahamed Aathill Mohamed Samsudeen.

The attacks occurred last Friday, September 3, 2021. It ended with the hospitalisation of seven people, and, the death of Mr Samsudeen who was fatally shot by special tactics Police officers during his attempt to kill and injure as many people as he could.

Immediately after, the Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told the nation that the dead man was a terrorist and that she herself, the Police, and the courts were all aware of how dangerous he was and had been seeking to protect New Zealand from this man.

Within days of the attacks, we learned, that Mr Samsudeen was a troubled man with psychologists describing him as angry, capable of carrying out his threats, and displaying varying degrees of mental illness and disorder.

Mr Samsudeen was a refugee who sought asylum here in New Zealand after experiencing, through his formative years, civil war and ethnic cleansing in Sri Lanka, who, at around 20 years of age, arrived in New Zealand on a student visa and then sought asylum.

He was eventually granted refugee status, and since then spent years in prison on various charges and convictions - largely involving the possession of terrorist propaganda seeded on the internet by ISIS, and, threats showing intent to commit terrorist acts against New Zealanders.

In this week’s episode, Paul Buchanan and Manning examine questions as to whether this tragedy could have been prevented and will consider New Zealand’s:

Security and terror laws

Deportation laws involving those with refugee status

Mental Health Act and whether this was available to the authorities.

Buchanan and Manning also analyse whether it is necessary for the New Zealand Government to move to tighten New Zealand’s terrorism security laws. And, if it does, how the intended new laws compare to other Five Eyes member countries.

WE INVITE YOU TO PARTICIPATE WHILE WE ARE LIVE WITH COMMENTS AND QUESTIONS IN THE RECORDING OF THIS PODCAST:

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If you miss the LIVE Episode, you can see it as video-on-demand, and earlier episodes too, by checking out EveningReport.nz or, subscribe to the Evening Report podcast here.

The MIL Network’s podcast A View from Afar was Nominated as a Top  Defence Security Podcast by Threat.Technology – a London-based cyber security news publication.

Threat.Technology placed A View from Afar at 9th in its 20 Best Defence Security Podcasts of 2021 category. You can follow A View from Afar via our affiliate syndicators.

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https://youtu.be/W8iDrwZZkRc

A View from Afar - In this week's podcast, Paul G. Buchanan and Selwyn Manning discuss: With the United States being viewed as responsible for a monumental botch-up in Afghanistan, how should its traditional security partners, including NATO and Australia, regard US-leadership in conflict? And, how should US allies position their own national interest in the future?

For example; why should the United States of America's global security partners, in both northern and southern hemispheres, view the USA as a reliable security leader?

When we consider the United States-led conflicts in Libya, Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan, there is a pattern that stands out: these are all wars of opportunity or choice, rather than necessity.

In analysing this, it follows that lessons learnt by NATO and other global security partners may very well be to not follow the USA into such conflicts if existential threats do not exist.

Also of consideration is this:

Are the United States’ failures tied solely to incompetent leadership?

Or is this clearly apparent incompetence caused by those within the star-general-ranks of occupational forces command?

Or is this problem institutionalised within a morphed alliance-of-incompetence from a broad-base of institutions located within the United States security-defence apparatus?

Now, the United States is shifting its global defence strategy to counter the rise of China in the Western Pacific and Indo-Pacific regions.

Should the states and economies of the Asia Pacific fall in behind the USA once again and risk being drawn into another unnecessary and protracted war?

And considering the United States’ domestic situation being insecure and democratically chaotic, should the USA lead from the rear but only after it gets its own house in order?

YOU CAN CONTINUE THE DEBATE WITH COMMENTS AND QUESTIONS IN THE RECORDING OF THIS PODCAST:

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If you miss the LIVE Episode, you can see it as video-on-demand, and earlier episodes too, by checking out EveningReport.nz or, subscribe to the Evening Report podcast here.

The MIL Network’s podcast A View from Afar was Nominated as a Top  Defence Security Podcast by Threat.Technology – a London-based cyber security news publication.

Threat.Technology placed A View from Afar at 9th in its 20 Best Defence Security Podcasts of 2021 category. You can follow A View from Afar via our affiliate syndicators.

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https://youtu.be/cvga01tHYRc

A View from Afar: In the first half of this week's podcast Selwyn Manning and Paul Buchanan are joined by Dr David Robie to examine instability in the Pacific's Polynesian region - specifically to identify what’s going on in: New Caledonia, Fiji, Samoa. In the second half, Buchanan and Manning analyse the latest on Afghanistan and consider whether the USA's humiliating withdrawal suggests an end to liberal internationalism.

Specifically the first half of this episode looks at:

New Caledonia where there's the third and final referendum on Kanaky independence;

In Samoa there’s a new government but only after the old guard attempted to resist democratic change, a move that caused a constitutional crisis; and

Fiji, to add to its Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama’s politics headache, is the question of how Fiji gets its NGO and aid workers out of Afghanistan.

THEN, in the second half of this episode Paul Buchanan and Selwyn Manning dig deep into the latest from Afghanistan. The deadline for western personnel to have withdrawn from Afghanistan is looming. The Taliban leadership states it will not extend the negotiated deadline of August 31, and United States president Joe Biden insists the US will not request nor assert an extension. But Biden has instructed his military leaders to prepare for a contingency plan. 

But what does this humiliating withdrawal indicate to the world?

Is this the realisation of a diminishing United States, a superpower in decline?

Can the US reassert itself as the world’s Police, or does Afghanistan confirm the US is in retreat and signal an end of liberal internationalism?

WE INVITE YOU TO PARTICIPATE WITH COMMENTS ON THIS PODCAST:

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If you miss the LIVE Episode, you can see it as video-on-demand, and earlier episodes too, by checking out EveningReport.nz or, subscribe to the Evening Report podcast here.

The MIL Network’s podcast A View from Afar was Nominated as a Top  Defence Security Podcast by Threat.Technology – a London-based cyber security news publication.

Threat.Technology placed A View from Afar at 9th in its 20 Best Defence Security Podcasts of 2021 category. You can follow A View from Afar via our affiliate syndicators.

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https://youtu.be/GOWAxGVoND0

A View from Afar: Selwyn Manning and Paul Buchanan present this week’s podcast where they analyse the crisis, the tragedy, unfolding in Afghanistan, including an apparent intelligence failure.

Unanswered questions considered, include:

Why were United States intelligence unable to predict how poised and ready the Taliban were?

How did the Taliban prepare to take every province, every city in Afghanistan, and keep their readiness a secret while they waited for the final phase of the US-led withdrawal to begin?

What should we make of the Taliban leadership? Should we be reassured or concerned at the Taliban’s words of transition?

And, has United States president Joe Biden damaged his reputation beyond repair, in justifying the method of the US’s withdrawal in a speech laced with a cold indifference toward the human carnage that unfolded at Kabul airport?

You can comment on this debate by clicking on one of these social media channels and interacting in the social media’s comment area. Here are the links:

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If you miss the LIVE Episode, you can see it as video-on-demand, and earlier episodes too, by checking out EveningReport.nz or, subscribe to the Evening Report podcast here.

The MIL Network’s podcast A View from Afar was Nominated as a Top  Defence Security Podcast by Threat.Technology – a London-based cyber security news publication.

Threat.Technology placed A View from Afar at 9th in its 20 Best Defence Security Podcasts of 2021 category. You can follow A View from Afar via our affiliate syndicators.

 

https://youtu.be/Xck7qIB33Mc

A VIEW FROM AFAR: In this episode, Paul Buchanan and Selwyn Manning are joined by Dr David Robie to discuss how Covid-19 has become a trigger of instability in the wider Pacific Region.

Dr David Robie is editor of AsiaPacificReport.nz and a renowned expert on Melanesian and Pacific affairs.

In this, the first of a two-part SPECIAL, we analyse how Covid-19 has been a trigger of instability across the Pacific region.

And specifically, for this episode, we deep dive into instability in Melanesia focusing on:

Security issues in Papua New Guinea

Indonesia’s interests in dividing regional groups such as the Melanesian Spearhead Group

a security crisis that has developed in Fiji, after the recent detention of nine politicians and activists who dared to criticise former military coup leader, Frank Bainimarama’s government.

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You can also see this podcast as video-on-demand, and earlier episodes too, by checking out EveningReport.nz or, subscribe to the Evening Report podcast here.

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NOMINATIONS: The MIL Network’s podcast A View from Afar was Nominated as a Top  Defence Security Podcast by Threat.Technology – a London-based cyber security news publication.Threat.Technology placed A View from Afar at 9th in its 20 Best Defence Security Podcasts of 2021 category. You can follow A View from Afar via our affiliate syndicators.

 

https://youtu.be/j2ZmyUav3n0

A View from Afar: Selwyn Manning and Paul Buchanan present this week’s podcast, A View from Afar with a deep-dive into cyber-attacks and hybrid warfare - Especially how 2021 has witnessed a Cold War II styled stand-off between global powers.

To re-cap, there has been:

Allegations of a global-scale hack by the People’s Republic of China.

There’s the Pegasus spyware scandal, where Israel has exported deep-tracking and targeting spyware to despots and authoritarian governments.

Then there’s been the relatively silent mission-creep of Palantir as a Western-oriented Public Private Partnership-styled signals "facilitator".

Paul and Selwyn discuss how all of this sets 2021 apart and adds up to an evolution of hybrid warfare capabilities.

You can comment on this debate by clicking on one of these social media channels and interacting in the social media’s comment area. Here are the links:

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If you miss the LIVE Episode, you can see it as video-on-demand, and earlier episodes too, by checking out EveningReport.nz or, subscribe to the Evening Report podcast here.

The MIL Network’s podcast A View from Afar was Nominated as a Top  Defence Security Podcast by Threat.Technology – a London-based cyber security news publication.

Threat.Technology placed A View from Afar at 9th in its 20 Best Defence Security Podcasts of 2021 category. You can follow A View from Afar via our affiliate syndicators.

 

A View from Afar by Paul G. Buchanan and Selwyn Manning is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Based on a work at https://eveningreport.nz/2021/07/29/podcast-buchanan-manning-on-cyber-attacks-and-the-evolution-of-hybrid-warfare/.

https://youtu.be/m7yh66yS6XE

A View from Afar: Selwyn Manning and Paul Buchanan present this week’s podcast, A View from Afar, where they analyse:

Revelations that the People's Republic of China has further developed missile silos in its north-west desert. How does this fit with proliferation of nuclear silos in the west?

How do great powers enforce their nuclear deterrence dogma and strategy in 2021 compared to when the first Cold War was chilling the world's expectations of longevity?

And what of new nuclear powers like Israel, North Korea and others - with their lack of ability to sustain a total annihilation attack, do they pose a real first-strike threat? And, if so, is nuclear deterrence rendered an obsolete strategy?

And what of Aotearoa New Zealand, does its nuclear-free position, placing it independent of so-called 'protections' of the United States' nuclear umbrella keep us safe from becoming a target? Or has the weaponising of space, the practice where RocketLab sends payloads of US military-tech into orbit, bring New Zealand into scope?

WE INVITE YOU TO PARTICIPATE WHILE WE ARE LIVE WITH COMMENTS AND QUESTIONS IN THE RECORDING OF THIS PODCAST:

You can comment on this debate by clicking on one of these social media channels and interacting in the social media’s comment area. Here are the links:

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If you miss the LIVE Episode, you can see it as video-on-demand, and earlier episodes too, by checking out EveningReport.nz or, subscribe to the Evening Report podcast here.

The MIL Network’s podcast A View from Afar was Nominated as a Top  Defence Security Podcast by Threat.Technology – a London-based cyber security news publication.

Threat.Technology placed A View from Afar at 9th in its 20 Best Defence Security Podcasts of 2021 category. You can follow A View from Afar via our affiliate syndicators.

 

https://youtu.be/S6kjnfoFaWI

A View from Afar: Selwyn Manning and Paul Buchanan present this week’s podcast, A View from Afar, where they analyse: How United States President Joe Biden has confirmed that US troops will be withdrawn from Afghanistan before the 20th anniversary of the 9-11 attacks.

Questions to consider are:

With Afghanistan being far from stable, and with large sectors of Afghanistan once again in Taliban control, will this historically war-torn country, of great strategic importance, descend into civil war?

And what are the competing interest vying for a piece of Afghanistan?

There appears two significant blocs:

There’s the China-India-Pakistan axis. And, there’s the Iran-Russia axis. What are the motivations here? What are the risks and opportunities that await them?

What about all those nations that took part in the US-led occupation forces in Afghanistan? Do they all simply walk away from their geopolitical ‘investment’, to forget that chapter in their history, forget the casualties, the deaths, the alleged war crimes, the economic investment?

And what of the Taliban in 2021. Is this new generation of Taliban aware of the mistakes made by their most recent forefathers?

WE INVITE YOU TO PARTICIPATE WHILE WE ARE LIVE WITH COMMENTS AND QUESTIONS IN THE RECORDING OF THIS PODCAST:

You can comment on this debate by clicking on one of these social media channels and interacting in the social media’s comment area. Here are the links:

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If you miss the LIVE Episode, you can see it as video-on-demand, and earlier episodes too, by checking out EveningReport.nz or, subscribe to the Evening Report podcast here.

The MIL Network’s podcast A View from Afar was Nominated as a Top  Defence Security Podcast by Threat.Technology – a London-based cyber security news publication.

Threat.Technology placed A View from Afar at 9th in its 20 Best Defence Security Podcasts of 2021 category. You can follow A View from Afar via our affiliate syndicators.