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Keywords: Syria

There are more than 200 results, only the first 200 are displayed here.

  • INTERNATIONAL

    Chickpeas and peace in the Middle East

    • Na'ama Carlin
    • 26 June 2018
    2 Comments

    'If only we could sit down with Palestinians for a bowl of hummus, all the problems would be solved,' says my Israeli friend, as we wipe hummus down with warm pita. He isn't the first to say this. Indeed, a film was made about the virtues of hummus, which asked if a regional love of hummus be the recipe for peace. Personally, I'm not so sure.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    What is Western Civilisation anyway?

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 20 June 2018
    60 Comments

    The dispute about the Ramsay Centre Foundation for Western Civilisation had everything for those who like pub brawls. The question least discussed but most intriguing is precisely what is meant by Western Civilisation. Protagonists praised or damned its ideological associations, but rarely troubled to share their understanding of it.

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  • ECONOMICS

    The big, bad business of America's war industry

    • David James
    • 20 April 2018
    6 Comments

    As the West flirts with starting World War III in Syria, it is worth examining some of the financial and business dynamics behind the US 'military industrial complex'. War may not be good business, but it is big business. And in contrast to Russia and China, the industry in the US is heavily privatised, including the use of mercenaries.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    China, aid and the gift of interdependence

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 19 April 2018
    2 Comments

    In recent months comment on international politics has been about taking sides and falling into line. Against such strident calls, two apparently unrelated pieces of speculation passed with little response: the prediction of a further cut to aid, and the assertion that China wanted to establish a military base in Vanuatu.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Trump's Syria pantomime

    • Binoy Kampmark
    • 16 April 2018
    4 Comments

    If anything, there seemed to be something hollow about a gesture that all but acknowledges the success of the Russian-backed regime which has taken a stranglehold over the civil war. One conclusion is that brutality is fine as long as it avoids the use of certain types of force, namely chemical weapons.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Don't look away from genocide history

    • Catherine Marshall
    • 29 March 2018
    11 Comments

    The repository of a superfluity of victims' faces and their heartbreaking stories leaves visitors questioning how it is possible for a country to turn on its own people like that. Why do humans turn into killing machines at the behest of their leaders, and when will we allow it to happen again?

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Wearing glitter in the fire age

    • Les Wicks
    • 05 March 2018
    1 Comment

    We all need a bit of weird, turning chops orange or making ice-cream out of beetroot. So I aspire to be a paperclip - that touch of menace as I approach a putative community of sheets despite all their disparate hate and flimsy promise ... A golden paperclip because a psychologist once said I was gilt-ridden.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Australia's arms boost is morally indefensible

    • Noah Vaz
    • 13 February 2018
    10 Comments

    When Australia's arms sales reach the shores of countries and parties with histories of human rights abuses and blunders, the growth or even existence of a defence exports industry must be heavily questioned.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Belle of the ball: A Syrian morality tale

    • Justin Glyn
    • 23 January 2018
    1 Comment

    Assuming the world is a stage upon which we are the pre-eminent player is problematic when applied to real life, particularly if we happen to have some advantage which allows us to get away with the illusion for a time. The perils of such hubris can be seen particularly acutely in the current Syrian situation.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Best of 2017: The rationality of Kim Jong Un

    • Justin Glyn
    • 11 January 2018
    1 Comment

    The ongoing talk of war with North Korea and the threat of nuclear weapons has everybody dusting off their copies of Dr Strangelove and rewatching that classic black farce of innuendo, misunderstanding and paranoia in an age of Mutually Assured Destruction.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    The coal trick

    • Tony London
    • 20 November 2017
    2 Comments

    A suited clown took into the House of Discourse a piece of coal, its darkness shimmering, not quite the diamond it might become. It was his talisman, part of his conjuring trick, now you see it, now you don't, and he tricked them ...

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    The inherent rationality of gun laws and nuclear disarmament

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 10 October 2017
    5 Comments

    It is heartening that the Nobel Peace Prize went to an Australian initiated group pressing for nuclear disarmament. It is disheartening, though unsurprising, that the Australian government did not celebrate its achievement. Down under, deterrence is dogma.

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