Section: Australian Institute of International Affairs (Australia)
The MH17 Anniversary Marks Steady Progress
The one year anniversary of the downing of MH17 shows steady progress has been made in the fight for justice, however many questions still remain unanswered. 17 July 2015 marked the anniversary of the tragic downing of the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17) that was scheduled to fly from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. The Boeing airliner was shot...
Making a Martyr of Morsi?
The Execution of Mohammad Morsi will have wide ranging domestic and international ramifications and going ahead with it could make a martyr of a man President Al-Sisi would rather forget. The coup d état in July 2013 in which General Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi overthrew Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood, has seen a systematic reversion to authoritarian...
Saudi Arabia’s Unlikely Flirtation with Russia and Israel
Saudi Arabia’s recent courtship with Russia and Israel should be understood as a failure of the United States government to assure Saudi Arabia of their security. For much of the last 35 years Saudi Arabia has looked to the United States as a beacon of security and a source of political clout. This relationship was born out of, and in...
Is Democracy in Retreat?
As part of the Millenium Project, 15 Global Challenges have been established to provide a framework to assess the global and local prospects for humanity. One of these urgent challenges is the retreat of democracy around the world as more nations roll back the hard fought democratic freedoms. After peaking in the late 1990s, democracy around the...
The 2015 Global Peace Index
The 2015 Global Peace Index has been released today and shows that overall, global peace levels remained stable in 2014; but are lower than 2008. However the overall score disguises an increasing division between the most and least peaceful nations. Since last year, four out of the nine geographical regions experienced an improvement in peace:...
Glitz Meets Politics: an Australian Viewer’s Guide to Eurovision Voting
There is no denying that Eurovision is political, and separating the geopolitics of Europe from this contest remains impossible. After years of being sidelined as observers, 2015 marks the year Australians can finally get involved in the Eurovision Song Contest. Not only will Guy Sebastian become our first official entry, but Australians will...
The Warsaw Pact: Forgotten Relic of the Cold War
Sixty years after the signing of the Warsaw Pact on 14 May 1955, relations between Russia and Western Europe remain fraught with tension. This week marks the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the Warsaw Treaty Organisation (WTO), better known as the Warsaw Pact. Up until at least 1991, European and even global security concerns were...
Delhi ‘Cracks’ Brussels: India’s Mission to Access the European Market
The European Union and India might not seem like the most obvious of natural partners. Yet, as Professor Pascaline Winand writes, the story of their on-off engagement over the past 60-or-so years and their efforts to build a mature trade relationship have turned up a fascinating story of trade access and shifting realities. First encounters: New...
The US-Russian Space Station Mission is a Study in Cooperation
As space becomes increasingly militarised, it will become crucial for states to coordinate extra-terrestrial activities. The unfortunate loss of the Russian Progress M-27M cargo vessel destined for the International Space Station (ISS) has highlighted the interdependence of the US and Russia in the project. Despite such setbacks, this...
Can the EU and the Eurasian Economic Union Be Friends?
Lack of cooperation between the European Union and the Kremlin-dominated Eurasian Economic Union reflects a widening divergence in their political and economic objectives. The new economic union between Russia, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Belarus has faced challenges in its first months. The economic sanctions against Russia and the fall of the...
