Written By: - Date published: 1:56 am, April 22nd, 2024 - 23 comments
Former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark – the safest pair of hands this country has had in living memory – gave a masterclass on the importance of maintaining an independent foreign policy when she spoke at an AUKUS symposium held in Parliament’s old Legislative Chambers on April 18.
Written By: - Date published: 4:18 am, April 15th, 2024 - 15 comments
Israel should not have bombed the Iranian consulate buildings in Damascus. Iran should not have fired 300 missiles at Israel in response. Neither of these actions should have happened, but they now have. The world now watches to see if there is further retaliation and escalation of violence, or if calmer and wiser heads prevail.
Written By: - Date published: 10:15 am, April 6th, 2024 - 60 comments
In the past week it has been disclosed that Israel’s Artificial Intelligence driven security system was responsible for the killing of seven international aid workers. And there are reports that Israel directed a missile attack on the Iraqi embassy in Syria.
Written By: - Date published: 10:38 am, March 9th, 2024 - 18 comments
in a war over Taiwan” is the title of an Atlantic Council paper produced last September. They mean nuclear weapons. These are serious people; Undersecretary Bonnie Jenkins addressed them last year about AUKUS.
Written By: - Date published: 8:21 pm, March 3rd, 2024 - 32 comments
US Undersecretary of State Bonnie Jenkins is in Wellington this week with a hard sell for us on AUKUS Pillar 2 wunderwaffen maybes. We should say tai hoa.
Written By: - Date published: 9:28 pm, February 17th, 2024 - 38 comments
Testifying to the Defence Select Committee last week, Air Marshal Short said Australia was “reshaping” its Defence Force for “a singular threat from a singular direction.” This was described as being an obvious reference to China.
Written By: - Date published: 7:30 am, February 13th, 2024 - 37 comments
Just as he did in 2017, Trump is clear in 2023 that the United States should withdraw from NATO.
Written By: - Date published: 11:28 am, February 11th, 2024 - 9 comments
In March 2023, former Australian prime minister Paul Keating attracted significant media attention when he described AUKUS as a manifestation of the United States’s campaign to encircle China with hostile military allies and partners.
Written By: - Date published: 12:38 pm, January 25th, 2024 - 31 comments
CNN reports that the US has named the ongoing operation against Houthi in Yemen “Operation Poseidon Archer, suggesting a more organized and potentially long-term approach.” New Zealand has joined it – cue the slippery slope.
Written By: - Date published: 9:25 am, January 14th, 2024 - 65 comments
New Zealand has gained prosperity over 40 years within a free flow of trade under peacetime supported by minor attacks to shipping and planes, low international trade costs such as tariffs, and confidence that international trade disputes will be settled by law rather than by might is at risk: all of that required a United States President prepared to support that.
Written By: - Date published: 1:13 pm, January 13th, 2024 - 14 comments
But the ones that run US foreign policy are. Matthew Hooton in a typical smear wants to label Helen Clark as anti-American because she warned that involving us in attacking Houthis was a ”slippery slope.” She’s not and he’s wrong.
Written By: - Date published: 8:49 pm, January 7th, 2024 - 57 comments
South Africa has taken a case that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza to the International Court of Justice. A group of prominent New Zealand lawyers have asked the New Zealand Government to join South Africa in support of their application. I think we should.
Written By: - Date published: 10:51 am, January 5th, 2024 - 39 comments
Can Israel lose a moral battle in Gaza and yet still win?
Written By: - Date published: 10:44 am, January 3rd, 2024 - 106 comments
In the United Kingdom Keir Starmer’s refusal to call for a cease fire in Gaza and his claim that holding back food and water for Gaza was justified has put him increasingly at odds with Labour members and MPs. Meanwhile Jeremy Corbyn’s expulsion as a Labour MP is puzzling, particularly given that his stance on Palestine is increasingly justified.
Written By: - Date published: 8:43 am, January 2nd, 2024 - 8 comments
A bright star in the firmament of justice has gone out. One of the greatest journalists of our era has passed away. John Pilger was always on the side of the oppressed.
Written By: - Date published: 10:18 pm, December 23rd, 2023 - 118 comments
Unlike Mike Smith and other noisy members of the imperialist cohort, I applaud that NZ foreign policy has remained consistent in upholding UN and ICC policies against invasions and forced annexations. Ardern, Hipkins and now Luxon have all said the same thing.Supporting the UN charter has massively reduced war casualties over the last 70 years. Clearly the Russian Federation finds this constraining.
Written By: - Date published: 9:35 pm, December 22nd, 2023 - 32 comments
It is not clear exactly who persuaded Luxon to put Zelensky on his Xmas calling list. It might have been Albo or MFAT, no doubt on orders from the US, who are desperate to keep the illusion of victory alive until after the US Presidential election.
Written By: - Date published: 2:29 pm, November 21st, 2023 - 43 comments
Hamas is deploying a set of tough ethical calculations as it planned its attack on Israeli civilians to kill, rape, and kidnap as it did.
Written By: - Date published: 10:57 am, November 21st, 2023 - 34 comments
Earlier this week the New Zealand Labour Party made a statement on Palestine and it was a good one.
Certainly much better than the positions adopted by its sister Labour parties overseas.
Written By: - Date published: 12:35 pm, November 20th, 2023 - 19 comments
RNZ’s flagship Morning Report was particularly bad today, especially in this 8-minute item, titled on its website “UN expert on Palestinian rights cries for children killed.”
Written By: - Date published: 2:01 pm, November 16th, 2023 - 43 comments
56 UK Labour MPs including 8 front-benchers defied the Leader and the Whip and voted for a SNP amendment to the King’s speech calling for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza.
Written By: - Date published: 7:29 am, November 16th, 2023 - 12 comments
We are further away from peace in parts of the world than a decade ago. But pessimism about peace isn’t a foregone conclusion.
Written By: - Date published: 9:39 am, November 12th, 2023 - 88 comments
There is a growing recognition that Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip constitute war crimes.
Written By: - Date published: 10:52 pm, November 11th, 2023 - 19 comments
“Jewish people exterminating men, women and children in a concentration camp is _______.”
How do you finish a sentence like that?
Written By: - Date published: 2:59 pm, October 31st, 2023 - 57 comments
Unlike the other four Eyes, New Zealand voted for a UNGA resolution calling for a humanitarian truce in Gaza. The US had previously vetoed a ceasefire resolution. Finally on RNZ, Ben Strang asked whether Israel’s response to HAMAS is also a “war crime?’
Written By: - Date published: 4:22 pm, October 20th, 2023 - 129 comments
Nanaia Mahuta’s carefully crafted responses to the Palestinian crisis underlines that the Israeli response to the Hamas attacks by targeting civilians is disproportionate and completely unjustified.
Written By: - Date published: 8:40 am, October 10th, 2023 - 28 comments
I don’t want to talk about Saudi Arabia but it’s time.
Written By: - Date published: 1:38 pm, October 6th, 2023 - 15 comments
The minor leader’s debate last night confirmed the fact that David Seymour and Winston Peters hate each other.
Written By: - Date published: 8:31 am, October 5th, 2023 - 7 comments
Alexander Gillespie complains that kiwis are not being given answers on foreign policy in the election. Given the state of flux in the world, and the questions he poses, it is probably just as well. The answers might all be dangerous.
Written By: - Date published: 5:06 am, September 17th, 2023 - 9 comments
I like my Huawei phone. I’m looking forward to the new Mate 60Pro. It’s launch means the US-led sanctions aiming to crush Huawei, with New Zealand as a fast follower, have completely failed to set back Chinese technology.
Written By: - Date published: 8:36 pm, September 6th, 2023 - 9 comments
New security-state documents show Wellington aligning its military with the “rules-based international order” while preparing Kiwis for war with key trading partner China, writes Mick Hall.
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