Keywords: National Security
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AUSTRALIA
- Justin Glyn
- 30 August 2013
7 Comments
For the second time in a little over ten years, the US and its allies seem about to launch hostilities against an Arab country on the basis of the possession or use of chemical weapons. They have made clear that while they may seek a Security Council resolution, they do not consider themselves bound by it. This is worrying.
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INTERNATIONAL
- Evan Ellis
- 27 August 2013
5 Comments
In some ways the intense focus on chemical weapons and red lines is diversionary. Enough blood has been spilt to paint a thousand red lines. 100,000+ people have been killed already. Is it somehow easier on the International Community’s conscience to think of families being ripped apart by artillery shells than dying from chemical warfare?
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INTERNATIONAL
- Bill Calcutt
- 09 August 2013
1 Comment
Since the turn of the millennium several major technology-enabled developments have significantly altered the balance between national security and civil liberties. In Australia, the hyper-politicisation of national security finds voice in the discourse on the issue of border security, turning a complex humanitarian and policing challenge (asylum seekers arriving by sea) into an enormously controversial and expensive imbroglio.
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AUSTRALIA
Unease about the Australian Federal Police obtaining phone and internet records without a warrant coincided with a greater, global anxiety about the more troublesome surveillance activities of the US National Security Agency. The Obama administration's defence of the NSA has been as lame as Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus's defence of the AFP.
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AUSTRALIA
- Michael Mullins
- 22 October 2012
8 Comments
As a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, Australia has the opportunity to make a substantial contribution to creating a better world. Foreign Minister Bob Carr declared Australia a 'fine global citizen'. Yet last Wednesday, we cynically ratified the international treaty to ban cluster munitions after legislating to create a loophole that will undermine the treaty's effectiveness.
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MEDIA
- Fatima Measham
- 16 July 2012
2 Comments
As word of the national security inquiry filtered through Twitter last week, one wit remarked, '1984 is meant to be a cautionary tale, not a manual'. The proposed reforms constitute a disturbing concession that our intelligence sector is not equipped to deal with the increasing sophistication of covert online activity, without resorting to questionable laws.
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AUSTRALIA
- Jack de Groot
- 21 June 2012
2 Comments
With the crisis in Europe, it's understandable that this week's G20 meeting has focused on international financing. But it gave less attention to the needs of the world's most vulnerable, who could benefit from greater food security that comes with better regulation of markets.
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AUSTRALIA
- Benedict Coleridge
- 07 March 2012
5 Comments
Critics of Australia's bid to join the UN Security Council have either a narrow view of what constitutes Australia's national interest, or a view of Australian taxpayers as shareholders who should expect a financial return on every investment.
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MEDIA
Following the success of the UN Security Council approved action in Libya, Gaddafi ought to be allowed into some safe international haven. To push hm into a last-ditch Hitlerian bunker stand would cause much unnecessary civilian death and destruction.
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EDUCATION
- Ben Coleridge
- 05 January 2010
5 Comments
After midnight, a group of international students, on a break from their night jobs as waiters, gather in a concrete stairwell and share their stories. Victorian premier John Brumby could learn a thing or two in that shabby stairwell. September 2009
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EDUCATION
- Ben Coleridge
- 30 September 2009
7 Comments
After midnight, a group of international students, on a break from their night jobs as waiters, gather in a concrete stairwell and share their stories. Victorian premier John Brumby could learn a thing or two in that shabby stairwell.
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ARTS AND CULTURE
The most profound shock to Australian foreign policy was not 9/11 but our change of government in 1996. Under Rudd Labor, Australia's international agenda is once again becoming less about national security and more about being a good international citizen.
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