Rear Vision — How History Shaped Today

Pentecostalism is a Christian religious movement with over seven hundred denominations world-wide and Australia’s Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, is a believer. What do Pentecostalists believe and what might be the political implications?

The US operates a global network of overseas military facilities that dwarfs that of any other country. How does Australia fit into this picture and what are the risks and benefits?

This week Palestinians should have been voting in their first election for 15 years, but the election was cancelled and now they are again involved in a battle with Israel. Why?  The complexities of Palestinian politics are defined by the Oslo Accords and the Israeli occupation.

It’s unlikely that any of us will be hit by space junk here on earth but collisions in space are a real threat to the satellite systems we all take for granted. How did space become so polluted and what is being done to manage orbital debris?

Prince Harry’s decision to renounce his royal role was not the first time a member of the British monarchy decided to opt out. Almost a century ago, King Edward VIII gave up the crown to marry Wallis Simpson, an American divorcée. These two decisions, several generations apart, engulfed the monarchy in turmoil and sent the media into meltdown. What do these two stories tell us about the British monarchy?

The Suez Canal is one of the world’s most vital trade routes. It’s the shortest sea link between Asia and Europe and about 12% of global trade passes through it each year. But the Canal is situated in one of the most volatile regions in the world and its history has been defined by that geography.

The Irish border—running along five hundred kilometres of rural land—is a paradox. Both visible and invisible, it’s vital to peace in Ireland.

One of the most secretive organisations on the planet, Myanmar’s military has ruled the country with an iron fist for over 50 years. Its brief experiment of sharing power with Aung San Suu Kyi and the National League for Democracy ended with a brutal coup in February.

What brings a military to the point of killing its own citizens? The answer lies in part in the intersection of colonialism and capitalism in Myanmar in the later part of the 20th century.

The recent accounts of bullying, sexual harassment and worse from women who work in federal politics would come as no surprise to anyone who lived through Julia Gillard’s time as Australia’s one and only woman prime minister. Why is it like this and are there countries where women participate more fully - and safely - in politics?

For a couple of hundred years rural and urban communities relied on their local paper for the news that mattered to them. Now those papers are shutting down readers are turning to sites like Facebook for information. But that has troubling consequences for democracy.