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, 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’s dangerous reading! · 6 November 2011 Anatoly Sobchak, the reformist mayor of Saint Petersburg with whom Vladimir Putin worked after he left the KGB in 1990, once suggested that Putin might be Russia’s Napoleon Bonaparte. And, in a sense Sobchak was right, and much of what I foresaw in a March 2000 article has occurred […]
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 · 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 […]
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 […]
Psychologies of Putin and USA · 14 August 2012 Vladimir Putin as an individual and the USA as a country have a lot in common although they would both hate the comparison. Both Putin and the US are very fearful of the changing world around them. They do not fully understand it and have the same […]
Obama, Jefferson, slaves, murder, Nobel Prizes · 12 December 2012 Gideon Rachman of the Financial Times (America’s drone war is out of control, December 10, 2012) wrote that the use of drone strikes to kill suspected terrorists has become a trademark of the Obama administration. This often involves killing somebody whose name you don’t even know […]
James Packer a man or a God? · 22 October 2006 James Packer’s lieutenants, and other potential beneficiaries of his wealth and influence, paid public homage and reassured him of their loyalty in the Australian Financial Review on Saturday AND provided a reference for my forthcoming book with its theme of power and servility in the […]
Howard & Sinodinos: a mutual need for master and servant! · 7 May 2007 In two articles in the Weekend Sydney Morning Herald, journalist Peter Hartcher profiled Arthur Sinodinos who recently resigned as John Howard’s chief of staff —and related the Sinodinos view on why Howard has been able to remain Prime Minister of Australia for […]