https://www.scmp.com/rss/309107/feed Robert G. Patman is an inaugural sesquicentennial distinguished chair at the University of Otago, New Zealand, and a specialist in international relations. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com The strategic fallout from the Biden administration’s policy of “ironclad” support for Benjamin Netanyahu’s unrelenting military campaign in Gaza is likely to be much more substantial than many in Washington currently imagine. If there is one thing that seems to unite many US politicians across an otherwise divided society, it is the conviction that China is a “systemic threat” to American primacy on the international stage. However, the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s unrelenting... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3277370/us-arms-sales-israel-hurt-americas-credibility-aukus?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3277370/us-arms-sales-israel-hurt-americas-credibility-aukus?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 06 Sep 2024 21:30:07 +0000 The unfolding humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza is only the latest example of how the veto powers of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council – China, France, Russia, Britain and the United States – are helping to destabilise global security in the 21st century. Since September 11, the council – the key organ within the United Nations for maintaining international peace and security – has been repeatedly paralysed by the willingness of permanent members, such as the United States,... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3247713/gaza-crisis-shows-un-security-council-being-muzzled-vetoes?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3247713/gaza-crisis-shows-un-security-council-being-muzzled-vetoes?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 09 Jan 2024 21:30:16 +0000 While no great power can expect to exert dominance permanently, the US response to Hamas’ horrific terrorist attacks in Israel on October 7 could prove a significant milestone in the waning of America’s influence. However, there is only limited awareness of the real reputational damage in Washington. In a recent opinion piece, President Joe Biden said the United States had “Israel’s back” and remained “the essential nation” which the world looks to, “to solve the problems of our time”. America... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3242741/israel-gaza-war-how-bidens-approach-hurting-americas-reputation?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3242741/israel-gaza-war-how-bidens-approach-hurting-americas-reputation?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 27 Nov 2023 11:30:13 +0000 The debate in New Zealand over whether to join “pillar two” of the Aukus security alliance threatens to overshadow a more important foreign policy challenge: how the country’s allies in the Indo-Pacific region are responding to the Ukraine war. Aukus seems to be based on the assumption it will deter or counter China’s assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific. But it is unclear whether this arrangement would advance the core national interests of New Zealand. While New Zealand’s “stability, security and... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3234430/helping-ukraine-defeat-russia-best-way-new-zealand-counter-chinese-clout-indo-pacific?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3234430/helping-ukraine-defeat-russia-best-way-new-zealand-counter-chinese-clout-indo-pacific?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 13 Sep 2023 20:00:10 +0000 Strategy, as the great military thinker Carl von Clausewitz pointed out, is the process of effectively applying means to achieve clearly defined ends. But good strategy in global politics is easier said than done. The post-Cold War era is full of examples of poor strategy, be it the US invasion of Iraq, China’s claim to 90 per cent of the South China Sea, or the Russian invasion of Ukraine. So does the formation of Aukus – the security partnership between the United States, Britain and Australia... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3232041/new-zealands-foreign-policy-dilemma-remain-independent-or-join-pillar-2-aukus?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3232041/new-zealands-foreign-policy-dilemma-remain-independent-or-join-pillar-2-aukus?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 23 Aug 2023 20:00:16 +0000 New Zealand is currently facing the most challenging diplomatic situation since the end of the cold war. Until 2015, New Zealand’s commitment to a liberal rules-based order and determination to pursue an independent foreign policy had helped the country develop close ties with the two superpowers of the 21st century. In particular, New Zealand’s relationship with China has been a major success story. In 2008, New Zealand became the first developed country to enter into a free trade agreement... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/united-states/article/2187760/new-zealand-unlikely-lift-ban-huawei-and-woo?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/united-states/article/2187760/new-zealand-unlikely-lift-ban-huawei-and-woo?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 26 Feb 2019 11:00:34 +0000 The Islamic State terrorist organisation can be defeated, but it remains to be seen whether the international community is prepared to make the necessary political and diplomatic commitments to do so. Over the past year, Islamic State has extended control over territory covering one-third of Iraq and a roughly equivalent proportion of Syria. It has jurisdiction over about six million people and runs an economy that comprises oil exports, utilities, extortion, kidnapping and the sale of... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1843020/way-defeating-islamic-state-clear-yet-will-lacking?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1843020/way-defeating-islamic-state-clear-yet-will-lacking?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 23 Jul 2015 04:34:01 +0000 Amid the growing clamour in Washington that the Obama administration project strength in the Ukraine crisis, several key points are being obscured. First, the option of America acting like a cold-war great power is over. The global context of the 21st century is fundamentally different from that era. If the events of September 11 or the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 demonstrated anything, it is that extraordinary national power alone does not guarantee security or diplomatic influence in the... https://www.scmp.com/comment/article/1499808/putins-adventurism-ukraine-will-end-disaster-russia?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/article/1499808/putins-adventurism-ukraine-will-end-disaster-russia?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 29 Apr 2014 10:15:30 +0000 It is a truism that an appropriate policy response to a crisis situation requires a clear and accurate understanding of the circumstances that caused it. US Secretary of State John Kerry recently characterised Russia's incursion into Crimea as "a 19th century act in the 21st century" while President Barack Obama described it as a move that put Moscow "on the wrong side of history". For many critics in the West, such statements only confirm that the Obama administration does not "get it" and is... https://www.scmp.com/comment/article/1447090/putin-will-find-it-hard-do-he-likes-ukraine?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/article/1447090/putin-will-find-it-hard-do-he-likes-ukraine?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 12 Mar 2014 10:00:15 +0000 Almost from the moment the first atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, the menacing shadow of the nuclear age has inspired visions of a world free of nuclear weapons. In June 1946, the US delegate to the UN Atomic Energy Commission, Bernard Baruch, tabled a bold plan for the international control of atomic energy. The key to the Baruch Plan was the establishment of an international institution that would have control over all nuclear production in the world and the... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1297239/it-time-supra-state-nuclear-control?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1297239/it-time-supra-state-nuclear-control?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 16 Aug 2013 16:00:00 +0000