The “Return” of America: Biden’s Maiden Foreign Policy Speech
Few could have been slack-jawed at the first significant foreign policy speech of US President Joe Biden. It can easily be filed under the “America […]
Articles by Dr Binoy Kampmark
Lobbying for Gain: Nick Warner and Australia’s Revolving Door
Governments have an almost crippling trouble appreciating conflicts of interest. Since tentacle-heavy lobby groups decided to move into the world’s capitals to make the case […]
Missions to Mars: Mapping, Probing and Plundering the Red Planet
In the first month of 2020, Forbes was all excitement about fresh opportunities for plunder and conquest. Titled “2020: The Year We Will Conquer Mars”, […]
Trouble in Vaccine Land: The Wiliness of South Africa’s Coronavirus Variant
It began as a shudder through the scientific and public health establishments. A new variant of the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 had been found, mutating in […]
Continuing Prosecutions: Assange and the Biden Administration
With changes of presidential administrations, radical departures in policy are always exaggerated. Continuity remains, for the most part, a standard feature. It is precisely that […]
Information Interruptus: Bing, Google and the News Media Bargaining Code
It’s looking a touch quixotic, but the News Media Bargaining Code has become Australia’s weapon of choice in attempting to redistribute proceeds from big tech […]
China, Papua New Guinea and Australia’s Backyard Blues
Clever diplomacy rarely involves total commitment or unqualified fidelity to any one state. Treacherous waters require careful navigation, an understanding of shifty and shifting allegiances. […]
Let the Investigation Begin: The International Criminal Court, Israel and the Palestinian Territories
International tribunals tend to be praised, in principle, by those they avoid investigating. Once interest shifts to those parties, such bodies become the subject of […]
Going Airborne: Coronavirus and Hotel Quarantine
It has happened again. This time, a diligent worker, having followed all the protocols given to him, had returned a positive result for COVID-19. The […]
Coronavirus Education: Learning and Teaching from the Margins
The coronavirus student, a species brought forth in the world of education by a pandemic that has killed over 450,000 people in the United States […]
Cowardly History: Australia Day and Invasion
It’s the sort of stuff that should have been sorted years ago in Australia: a murderous, frontier society ill disposed to the Indigenous populace; the […]
Boris Johnson and the Deaths of the Hundred Thousand
Not exactly Thermopylae. Not even close. The hundred thousand who have now been taken by COVID-19 in Britain were not determined warriors holding up the […]
The Mad Monk Strikes: Tony Abbott, Taxi Rides and Coronavirus Despotism
This is a man who decries the use of experts. He prefers things rough, ready, pungent with vernacular promise and populist feeling. To be in […]
Not Knowing What You Stand For: Deborah Birx and Public Health
Pity the public health official tasked with convincing those beyond convincing that a pandemic crisis is worthy of serious consideration. This is further complicated in […]
Masking Up under Biden: The Perils of Tribalism, Bureaucracy and Lawsuits
One crackling theme streaking through the US elections of 2020 was the issue of mask wearing. Critics initially felt that facemasks were of the too […]