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Keywords: Deterrence

  • AUSTRALIA

    Reading the entrails of an election

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 21 November 2024

      As Australia watches the U.S. navigate its Trump-era transition, we wait in uncertainty. Any interregnum period is a time for rethinking, for wondering about our own nation, and not just for focusing on another. It is a time to rethink what we have taken granted about what is for the good of Australian society.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Betting on lost causes

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 23 October 2024

    In the spirit of Spring Racing, the United Nations promotes its own high-stakes race: World Disarmament Week and United Nations Day. Despite heavy odds and the relentless rise of nuclear threats, these efforts remain crucial for global peace. Can the underdog of diplomacy prevail in the face of overwhelming opposition?

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Justice and Hope

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 07 June 2024

    Raimond Gaita insists that there is something precious in each human being. He does not rest this conviction on a particular religious or philosophical grounding. It flows, rather, from a rich reading of human possibilities and questioning of the meaning of life.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Advocating against the wind

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 08 May 2024

    With the Queensland Government changing the Youth Justice Act, detention of children will no longer be seen as a last resort, causing widespread dismay among youth justice advocates. It invites reflection on what we should expect when we advocate for a cause, ranging from climate change to perceived injustice, and how we should evaluate our efforts.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Will AUKUS lead Australia down the nuclear path?

    • Binoy Kampmark
    • 04 April 2024
    3 Comments

    Nuclear energy has snuck its way onto the table of Australian public policy. Given that Australia is a country that hosts military nuclear platforms, the impetus to translate it into a civilian context is proving powerful.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    On striving officiously to keep alive

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 22 February 2024

    If the treatment of persons is unethical, it will inevitably lead to ethical corruption in the people and the institutions involved in administering it. It is almost impossible to participate in a policy based on such unethical premises without being complicit in it. If we do, we become blinded to what we owe one another by virtue of being human.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Best of 2023: How Australia's asylum seeker policy has evolved over thirty years

    • Kerry Murphy
    • 04 January 2024

    Throughout recent decades of Australian history, the stance every government has taken on asylum seekers has reflected the shifting political landscapes and challenging humanitarian issues that have continually shaped Australia's response to those seeking refuge. 

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  • AUSTRALIA

    When law making bastardises the Law

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 30 November 2023
    8 Comments

    Any legislation hastily designed to negate the effect of the High Court decisions will be vulnerable again to be struck down on judicial appeal. That haste suggests an initial disregard for human rights and the rule of law by Governments and an ingrained resistance to any limitation of its power. Vindictive laws come at a heavy cost to the integrity and reputation of the lawmakers. 

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  • RELIGION

    The real enemy is war

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 23 November 2023
    3 Comments

    Those who declare that the real enemy is war and who advocate for peace are usually criticised for being naively optimistic. But it is possible to recognise war to be the real enemy, while simultaneously recognising the complex challenges involved in avoiding war and encouraging peace.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Hardened criminals and hardened hearts

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 21 September 2023

    In a better world, people who seek protection in Australia and people removed from prison would not be detained in the same detention centres. But the grounds for differential treatment are not based on the difference between guilty and innocent people; between asylum seekers and 'hardened criminals'. Both groups are worthy of respect and compassion. 

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Three steps back and one step forward: Three decades of asylum seekers in Australia

    • Kerry Murphy
    • 28 July 2023

    How has Australia's asylum seeker policy changed over the past thirty years? The approach of every government has reflected the shifting political landscapes and challenging humanitarian issues that have continually shaped Australia's response to those seeking refuge. 

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  • RELIGION

    The unlikely hope of Easter

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 03 April 2023
    6 Comments

    Easter is a story of unlikely victory, which underlies the hope that inspires Christians to link the Palm Sunday March to the plight of refugees and to walk with them. This hope acknowledges the power of evil in the world which drives people out of their country, yet it refuses to be intimidated by such evil or to allow it to pass unchallenged. 

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