The Focus

Since the tragedy that gripped the country of Cambodia during the 1970s under the genocidal rule of Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge, the country has managed to re-stabilise itself and even to prosper under long time Prime Minister Hun Sen. But after 37 years in power, has Hun Sen’s lustre waned? In this episode John speaks with journalist David Hutt to find out more.

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The Civil War in Syria has been ongoing since 2011. A multisided conflict against the regime of Bashar Al-Assad which also involves the United States, Turkey, Russia, Iran, Southern Lebanese Hezbollah and Israel, Syria is a chessboard of a complicated strategic game for the heart of the Levant. To discuss this, John is joined by returning guest, Professor Scott Lucas from the UK’s University of Birmingham.

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The People’s Republic of China and Australia are enjoying their worst relations in decades. Australia sees itself as a front-line state in an overarching Sino-American Cold War in the Indo-Pacific. Central to this Cold War is a battle for influence whereby Beijing dominates all of Asia and displaces America’s forward military presence in the region. Western media has long touted that China is a rising superpower and that its ‘superpowerdom' is inevitable. But how inevitable is it? In this episode, John is joined by Flinders University’s Dr. Michael Sullivan to find out.

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Yemen is a human tragedy on a massive scale. The ongoing civil war is the world’s largest humanitarian crisis. The local militant factions, Sunni or Shiite, northern or southern, Saudi-backed or Emirati-backed have lost any sense of their culture or their country. The international media has abandoned Yemen as an issue, Western NGO’s while thick on the ground trying to do some of the world’s worst work in an active war zone are unable, or maybe even unwilling to bend to the needs and requirements of deeply traumatised and desperate locals, mired as NGO's are in their own highly bureacratised policies and processes. Can the fighting end in Yemen? Can peace come to this war-ravaged land?  In this episode of The Focus, John speaks with Yemeni activist, Hisham Al-Omeisy to find out.

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The last German National election (26 Sept. 2021) was atypical in that there was no incumbent from the ruling party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) fighting for re-election. Indeed, long-time German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the steady hand of German politics had retired, leaving the party’s fortunes to new CDU leader Armin Laschet. With Laschet & the CDU having lost the election, what lies ahead for Germany and Europe? Will there be change or will things remain the same. To discuss this, John is joined by the Academy for Political Education’s Prof. Ursula Muench.

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In this episode John is joined by Professor of Physics at the University of the Sciences, Philadelphia, author and public intellectual Paul Halpern where they discuss Paul’s latest book:  Flashes of Creation. George Gamow, Fred Hoyle, AND THE GREAT BIG BANG DEBATE . This debate was central to our understanding of the shape and nature of the universe and an important milestone in the development of contemporary cosmology. 

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We live in an age of great uncertainly and fear. With Climate Change affecting our global commons with no guaranteed way of stopping it and COVID-19 disrupting our lives it is easy for us all to give into despair. But from ancient times an old European philosophy holds the key to keeping us rational and upright in spite of the things that frighten us. Stoicism. We often talk about people being Stoic, but do we really know what this means? In this episode John speaks with Massimo Pigliucci. Massimo is Professor of Philosophy at City College, New York.

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In this episode of The Focus we take a blow-torch to the fall of Kabul and the implications of this seminal event. Who’s to blame for the disaster? How did it go so badly wrong? Were there any winners? In this episode of The Focus, John speaks with Georgetown University’s Dr. Christine Fair to find out. We guarantee that you haven’t heard this sort of analysis anywhere on the mainstream media! 

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