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US Missile Defence

US Missile Defense · 5 March 2001 US National Missile Defense (NMD), or mini-Star Wars Jeff Schubert’s 5 March 2001 presentation to the Australian Institute of International Affairs (Sydney Branch) (1)……………The Proposed United States NMD The US NMD proposal at this stage appears to be for the deployment of several hundred missiles that would be able […]

Tony Abbott

Confidence — Abbott and Gillard · 26 October 2010 The Australian prime minister, Julia Gillard, and the leader of the opposition, Tony Abbott, last week very strongly supported the military efforts in Afghanistan. A good summary article is here:https://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/gillard-moves-labor-closer-to-obama/story-e6frg6zo-1225942439405 Whether or not you agree with the military actions in Afghanistan, it is difficult to argue that […]

Putin, Gillard, Abbott, Medvedev

Putin, Gillard, Medvedev, Abbott · 19 November 2012 My internet site www.russianeconomicreform.ru has an implied theme that Russian economic policy makers could learn much from the approach of Australia over the last few decades. While historical factors and in-place institutional arrangements place substantial limits on what leaders as ultimate economic policy makers can influence and control, […]

Putin in 2000

Putin in 2000 · 23 March 2000 This article appeared in the AFR on 23 March 2000. The post-USSR chaos in Russia was bound to throw up a leader whose instinct was more authoritarian and nationalistic than Boris Yeltsin. This leader has now arrived. His name is Vladimir Putin and he will be elected president of […]

Putin: New Faces and Flaws in the Weave

Putin: New Faces and Flaws in the Weave · 11 July 2010 Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin recently issued reprimands to six deputy ministers for not fulfilling Dmitry Medvedev’s presidential orders in a timely fashion. Apparently, under the Russian Labor Code, a reprimand is the lightest possible form of punishment. Last year, only one in six […]

Psychology of Secret Courts / Military Tribunals

Dangerous Psychology of Secret Courts / Military Tribunals · 4 September 2006 Psychologist and ex-army officer, Norman F. Dixon, in his book, On the Psychology of Military Incompetence, wrote about the staggering irrationality which can beset the thinking of otherwise highly competent, intelligent, conscientious individuals when they begin to act as group. The Penguin Dictionary of […]