James ONeill

Thirty years ago, then Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and United States president Ronald Reagan agreed that the then Soviet controlled territory of East Germany could be reunited with the western sector of the country, then known as West Germany. In exchange for this Soviet gesture, Reagan promised that NATO “would not advance one…

This past week saw the electronic meeting of Russia’s president Vladimir Putin and United States president Joe Biden. It was billed as a head to head meeting of two of the world’s most powerful political figures. In fact, Biden was supported by four of his top aides in foreign affairs. Their precise role was unclear. One suspects that, given Biden’s propensity…

During the period of the last Labor government in Australia, the general policy of that government, which was in power for six years from 2008 to 2014, was to abstain on votes in the United Nations critical of Israel. When the Liberal government has been in power, as it has continuously since 2014, the vote is almost invariably against any motion…

One of the overhyped events of recent times has been the 3+ hours of telephone conversation between the presidents of China and the United States of America Xi Jinping and Joe Biden respectively. There are two major reasons to doubt the sincerity of the Americans over their accounts of the meeting…

Europe today faces a demographic crisis. It is the great unmentionable in the current furore over migration from North Africa and the Middle East by persons seeking a better life, as they perceive it, in Europe. That migration is receiving significant resistance from a number of countries, although their demographic position…

The normally placid waters of Australian political life had a rude awakening in the past week. The French president Emanuel Macron was interviewed by a group of Australian reporters. He was asked if he thought he had been lied to by Scott Morrison, the Australian Prime Minister, on the issue of the cancellation of the Australian order for French built…

There are signs that the United States is moving away from the position it has held since 1971 when the island of Taiwan was an independent state, deserving not only of recognition as such, but also a place in the General Assembly of the United Nations. The revelation came in a recent speech by the United States secretary…

One of the things one finds constantly amazing is the ability of western politicians, or political figures, to describe the world in a way that is unrecognisable to the averagely informed citizen. A classic illustration of this point was recently evident in an interview given by NATO’s Jens Stoltenberg to the London…

In 1949 when the Communist Party succeeded in the Civil War in China the nationalist regime fled to the island then called Formosa. They did not however, forsake their seat on the United Nations Security Council and continue to represent China in that body until 1972. This history is too readily forgotten in the current discussion about the status…

One of the least noted political movements of recent times has been the gradual reconciliation between Saudi Arabia and Iran. They recently held their fourth meeting this year in Baghdad, to almost no mention in the western media. It is only one of several movements by Saudi Arabia to gradually moving away from the United States’ orbit…

The so-called Quad nations, the United States, Australia, India and Japan have just had a meeting in the United States. A rather bland statement was issued by the four following the meeting. It contained no surprises. What is a surprise and remains a puzzle is the presence of India in the quartet, whose intentions of its formulator…

The recently announced deal between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States for Australia to acquire nuclear submarines in place of the deal to buy conventionally powered French submarines has set off a wave of consequences among Australia’s allies that have caused shockwaves among members…