The Liberal Internationalist Delusion.
Now that the football World Cup is over and I have sated my thirst for the beautiful game for the time being, albeit with a very bitter taste at the end of the tournament given my background and team...
View ArticlePlaying with numbers.
Reaction to US Secretary of Defense (he prefers to call it “of War”) Pete “Kegseth” Hegseth’s comments that NZ was “freeloading” on the US because it does not spend 3.5% of GDP on defense was...
View ArticleCowardice disguised as prudence.
Here is a short re-post from my other social media. It is a question about foreign policy incompetence, cowardice and coalition politics. After much public hinting, 5 Eyes partners Australia, Canada...
View ArticleSome comments on NZ politics.
I had some time on my hands the past few days so spent more attention than usual consuming news about NZ domestic politics. My interests tend to lie further afield, but recent government assaults on...
View ArticleKash Patel comes to town.
This week FBI Director Kash Patel arrived in Wellington to open a full time Legal Attache office (previously Legal Attaches rotated from offices at the US embassy in Canberra depending on need). Like...
View ArticleAbout that PLAN flotilla in the Tasman Sea.
Here are some thoughts about the hysteria surrounding a Chinese Peoples Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) flotilla conducting freedom of navigation exercises in the Tasman Sea, including live fire drills. 1)...
View ArticleA reminder about soft power.
Waste and fraud certainly exist in foreign aid programs, but rightwing celebration of USAID’s dismantling shows profound ignorance of the value of soft power (as opposed to hard power) in projecting US...
View ArticleMedia Link: AVFA on Israel going rogue.
In this episode of the “A view from Afar” podcast Selwyn Manning and I discuss Israel’s expansion of its war in Lebanon as part of a “six front” strategy that it thinks it can win, focusing on the...
View ArticleMedia Link: ” A View from Afar” on multidimensional hybrid warfare and the...
This week’s “A View from Afar” podcast addresses the issue of multidimensional hybrid warfare using the Israeli pager attacks in Lebanon as a starting point before moving on to discuss the failures of...
View ArticleExcerpting “Security Politics in Peripheral Democracies.”
In the late 2000s-early 2010s I was researching and writing a book titled “Security Politics in Peripheral Democracies: Chile, New Zealand and Portugal.” The book was a cross-regional Small-N...
View ArticleStill the 5 Eyes Achilles Heel?
The National Cyber Security Centre (NZSC), a unit in the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) dedicated to cyber-security, has released a Review of its response to the 2021 email hacking of...
View ArticleAn unexpected honour.
One can take many things as a badge of honour but this was somewhat unexpected. Must have been something that I said. See line 3: https://mid.ru/en/foreign_policy/news/1959715/
View ArticleMedia Link: “A View from Afar” on the moment of friction, and more.
After a hiatus of over four months Selwyn Manning and I finally got it together to re-start the “A View from Afar” podcast series. We shall see how we go but aim to do 2 episodes per month if possible....
View ArticleArguing about a moot point.
I have been following recent debates in the corporate and social media about whether it is a good idea for NZ to join what is known as “AUKUS Pillar Two.” AUKUS is the Australian-UK-US nuclear...
View ArticleA moment of friction.
In strategic studies “friction” is a term that it is used to describe the moment when military action encounters adversary resistance. “Friction” is one of four (along with an unofficial fifth) “F’s”...
View ArticleReminder: “Frenemies” are not friends.
News that the Chinese ATP 40 cyber-hacking unit penetrated parliamentary internet networks in 2021 has renewed concerns about the PRC’s malign intentions in Aotearoa. But is the hack that significant...
View ArticleNZ on Hamas and Zionist Settlers.
Here is one for the road before I shut down for a while due to the previously mentioned family medical issues. It is about NZ designating Hamas as a terrorist entity, adding its political wing to the...
View ArticleA toe in the fire.
The decision to send six NZDF personnel to join the US-led anti-Houthi maritime picket line is a number of interesting facets to it. I made a few about the decision on a social media platform but will...
View ArticleAbout the Houthi Red Sea blockage.
The announcement that NZ has joined with 13 other maritime trade-dependent states in warning Houthis in Yemen to cease their attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea (particularly in the...
View Article“Second image” issues in NZ foreign policy.
The term “second image” in international relations theory refers to an argument about the domestic sources of a nation-state’s foreign policy. The argument posits that it is the nature of those...
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