National Observer - Australia and World Affairs articles from December 2006

National Observer - Australia and World Affairs archives from December 2006

Costello's latest bouts of self-harm.
December 22, 2006... If the Coalition loses the next federal election, every government in Australia will be a Labor government, not a cheering prospect if one believes that a country's political life is healthier for the odd check and balance. John Howard has...

Israel's disastrous war in South Lebanon.
December 22, 2006... One can blame Hezbollah for many things, and they are not popular among wide sections of the Lebanese people including the Christians and the Druze, but they are a respectable force for social action in southern Lebanon, which accounts for...

West Papua.(Editorial)
December 22, 2006... Obviously it would be against the interests of Australian military security for Indonesia to fragment. Indonesia is not a natural geographical or ethnic entity and it has no unifying identity apart from the historical one. The alternative...

In the issue.
December 22, 2006... The present issue of National Observer includes a wide range of articles, each of which is pertinent in some sense to Australia's national interest. While this journal is not invariably uncritical of particular aspects of American foreign...

Industrial modernity and its anti-Americanisms.
December 22, 2006... The Manichean clarity of the Cold War has been sufficiently obscured by the rise of anti-Americanism to make it virtually impossible today to assume that all the then anti-communists are now staunch supporters of the United States, or to...

Mr Peter Costello's wasted opportunities.
December 22, 2006... In an article in this journal a year ago I said: (1) "The past three months have seen two major political developments--the Prime Minister's so-called 'Athens declaration' and associated political brouhaha, and the...

The United States and India.
December 22, 2006... When U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited India in March last year, she said: "This is my first step as Secretary of State in Asia. The President has personally put a lot of time and energy into the relationship. The U.S. has...

Exposing environmental myths about the Great Barrier Reef.
December 22, 2006... Over the past four decades, hardly a year has passed without some dire threat to the Great Barrier Reef being proclaimed. Crown-of-thorns starfish, over-fishing, tourism, anchor damage, pesticides, fertilizer, cattle, cane, oil shale, coastal...

The uneasy alliance: liberalism, conservatism and religious belief.
December 22, 2006... We hear a great deal these days about the value of liberal democracy in allowing the free expression of all forms of religious belief. Very often, this is contrasted with the situation in Communist China or in some Islamic countries. And, of...

The West's Last Chance: Will We Win the Clash of Civilizations?(Book review)
December 22, 2006... THE WEST'S LAST CHANCE: Will We Win the Clash of Civilizations? by Tony Blankley Washington DC: Regnery Publishing, 2005 Hardback: 232 pages Rec. retail price: AUD$54.95 A few months ago Tony Blankley, former senior policy analyst for...