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Richard CullenPearls and Irritations |
In 1947, former British prime minister Winston Churchill famously observed that: “Many forms of government have been tried, and will be tried in...
Around 18 months ago, The Economist applied uncommon energy to advance the narrative that the US economy was in outstandingly good shape. Very...
The outcome in the recent US presidential election may yet push Taiwan in directions at variance with those advocated in a new article published in...
A very long line has been drawn between two dots: Israel and China, across what looks like a credibility chasm, by the vocal Australian Coalition MP...
One crucial policy initiative outlined by Hong Kong’s chief executive, John Lee Ka-chiu, in his latest annual Policy Address is the project to...
Michael Hirsh, a prominent columnist for Foreign Policy has just published an instructive review in that journal (partial paywall) of Bob Woodward’s...
The Los Angeles Review of Books (LARB) has just published “The Most Moral Army”- an excoriating review of Israel’s continuous reliance on...
America was once a marketplace leader in so many areas. Now the US faces a range of pivotal global markets focused on a greener future, dominated by...
The bombing of the Basque town of Guernica, in Spain, in 1937 “heralded a terrible new age of warfare” that, almost 90 years later, remains...
History confirms how the present, destructive militaristic culture of the US-led Atlantic alliance stands on the shoulders of well over a thousand...
A recent article in the US journal Foreign Affairs, written by Daniel Mattingly of Yale University argues persuasively that: “China’s Soft Sell of...
Look at how favourably situated Australia is in the world. As the foundations were put in place for the Asian Century, most profoundly by China,...
In a recent significant article in the US journal, Foreign Policy, David E Rosenberg, the economics editor of Haaretz, clarifies how a minority of...
A recent, comprehensive social-media interview has provided an acute reminder of how hard it now is to imagine certain flagship, Western current...
Some US commentators are advocating a recalibration of America’s full-spectrum global posture, while others, including Condoleezza Rice,...
Stephen M Walt, Professor of International Relations at Harvard University, recently published an article in the leading US journal, Foreign Policy,...
Is China mired in economic misery while bogged down by old habits- or very successfully developing its exceptional manufacturing prowess as it expands...
An interesting new article in the prominent American journal, “Foreign Affairs”, by three academics from Georgetown University, argues that...
A fundamental reality, which this stimulating book stresses, is how significant British interaction with China pre-dates the British takeover of Hong...
The now-notorious AUKUS agreement was secretly conceived between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States prior to being publicly announced...
Some years ago, the internationally respected, American academic, Professor Joseph Weiler, argued that there are three types of governance legitimacy:...
Major Western news outlets are currently reporting how the Pentagon ran a secret anti-vaccination campaign in order to undermine China’s life-saving...
According to the dominant Western narrative, the history of the entire modern world has been prodigiously shaped by Western historical turning points...
One reason Israel is constantly criticised, even from within its obedient posse of Global West backers, is that it has failed to articulate what it...
China keeps building infrastructure in other countries that is needed by those other countries. Surely this is sinister. But all is not lost. As Joe...
The rather timid headline for a recent aggressive story in the New York Times (NYT) introduced a detailed investigation by that newspaper of how the...
The Westminster Town Hall Forum in Minneapolis in the US recently hosted the leading economist, Professor Keyu Jin, from the London School of...
It is sometimes said that America bombs while China builds. What’s the evidence, and where are the statistics? Let’s examine the origin and...
Ian Bremner argues convincingly that the American Dollar remains embedded as the global reserve currency since: “you can’t replace something with...
Very recently, the leading British daily, The Guardian, ran remarkably informing side-by-side stories covering official United States perspectives on...
One of the Ten Commandments says, with awkward bluntness: Thou Shalt Not Steal. Predictably, some are inclined to read certain qualifications in to...
The Economist, a leading British weekly, enjoys wide global readership. It recently covered the thoughts and written work of two scholars, both...
An interesting essay that takes a critical but well-informed look at the development of China’s Middle East policy-settings recently appeared in the...
The vengeful, scheming, genocidal response unleashed since October last year in Gaza, by Israel, has prompted a profoundly intensified global review...
Pearls and Irritations is widely read outside Australia. In particular, its content is now reviewed by certain media writing and presenting in Chinese...
In October last year, Time Magazine reported a serious lift in poverty levels across America. You can read the full chilling report here. General...
In Hong Kong, a vibrant Chinese media-oasis is forming within the vast territory long staked-out by the exceptionally dominant Mainstream Western...
Agathe Demarais is a senior policy fellow on geoeconomics at the European Council on Foreign Relations and a Foreign Policy columnist. She recently...
David Brooks describes himself as a moderate-conservative. Born in Canada but long resident in America, he is a respected, outspoken columnist for the...
China’s Belt and Road initiative (BRI) operates on a huge scale and is the focus of rarely received negative coverage across many prominent outlets...
Around two decades ago, the Swedish writer, Henning Mankell, took an increasingly close interest in the wretched condition of Palestinians living...
Around 25 years ago, wise commentators said China may, in due course, be able to produce acceptable basic, manufactured white-goods but making motor...
Henry George (1839 – 1897) was a remarkable, self-taught radical American political-economist who developed a theory of land taxation, which evolved...
In January, 2023, Ezra Klein from the New York Times interviewed Yuen Yuen Ang. Professor Ang is a widely published, China scholar at Johns Hopkins...