In the aftermath of terrorist attacks in Madrid (2004) and London (2005), many Western governments developed countering violent extremism (CVE) strategies, with the UK's PREVENT scheme, launched in 2007, being considered the world’s first of this kind. What these CVE programs (more recently...
Two starkly different viewpoints published in The Australian over Canberra’s posture toward China show the contrasting approaches to strategic uncertainty and perception of threat from Beijing. The first article was posited by Hugh White on November 21 and the second was put forward by Peter...
Earlier this month, the US, UK and Australia announced an unprecedented agreement to provide nuclear-powered submarines to the Australian Navy. The move provoked outrage from France, which had been negotiating the sale of conventionally-powered submarines to the Australians. French ire led to...
The European Union received a serious shock last week that confirmed the seismic shock it received a month ago when US President Joe Biden made good on his decision to unilaterally abandon the 20-year NATO military campaign in Afghanistan. France had a more specific reason to complain. As AP...
Several political parties and governments around the world have centered their commitment to countering the radical right on tackling hate and racism. The most recent example was the announcement by the German cabinet in late 2020 to spend €1 billion ($1.2 billion) for a four-year program on...
The year 2020 has understandably been a time of deep confusion in the world of diplomacy, marked by the parallel phenomena of a Donald Trump presidency that may come to an end in January 2021 and the ongoing global curse of COVID-19. Those factors and other more local ones — such as yet another...
There is a criminal silence around Australia’s treatment of its indigenous people. I had a call from Rosalie Kunnoth-Monks the other day. Rosalie is an elder of the Arrernte-Alyawarra people who lives in Utopia—a vast and remote region in the "red heart" of Australia. The nearest town is...
East Timor won its independence in 1999 with the blood and courage of its people. But the tiny democracy was then bullied by Australia, says John Pilger. Secret documents found in the Australian National Archives provide a glimpse of how one of the greatest crimes of the 20th century was...
An Australian boxer talks to Maria Khwaja Bazi about being a Muslim woman and someone from an ethnic background. Bianca “Bam Bam” Elmir is dressed in a sky blue shirt, squished on a Skype screen on an early morning in Melbourne. Although she is half a world away, her energy is evident even...
When it comes to the complex disputes surrounding capital punishment, it is important to avoid moral fallacies. It is a messy situation. After months of haggling, eight inmates sentenced to death over drug trafficking were executed by a firing squad in Indonesia on April 28. As two of the...
Australia, a nation without enemies, is now spending $28 billion a year on the military and war, says John Pilger. Following a week in Australia in which the words “heroes” and “heroism” bobbed on a tsunami of raw propaganda, a tribute is due to two unrecognized heroes. The first is Ray...
John Pilger argues that indigenous rights are once again being exploited in Australia. Australia has again declared war on its indigenous people, reminiscent of the brutality that brought universal condemnation on apartheid South Africa. Aboriginal people are to be driven from homelands where...
Describing homelessness as a choice helps gain a sense of control over not only the circumstances, but the identity of the homeless. In 2012, we set out to unpack some of the contexts and circumstances that situate and make meaningful the espoused choices to be homeless that people make. To this...
John Pilger marks the death of Gough Whitlam with the one story missing from “tributes” to a man whose political demise is one of America's dirtiest secrets. Across the political and media elite in Australia, a silence has descended on the memory of the great, reforming prime minister, Gough...
