West Asia

I have been hesitant to use my long-ago experience in Vietnam as a basis to enter the debate about Australia\'s role in Afghanistan, not least because of the great differences between the two countries. But General Peter Leahy\'s suggestion that Australia is pursuing the wrong Afghan strategy and

Dr Giora Eliraz is an Associate Researcher at the Harry S Truman Institute for the Advancement of Peace at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In his article, \'Indonesian democracy: The myth of \'98\', Stephen Grenville argues that my post, \'Indonesia\'s role in Egypt\'s democratisation

As a no-more-than occasional observer of Iranian politics, this news in the latest issue of The Economist came as a bit of a shock. The IMF, it seems, is deeply impressed with Iran\'s recent round of economic reforms: The reason for the praise is Iran’s exemplary

Reports have emerged this morning of an air strike in al-Shebab-controlled southern Somalia. Witnesses report that aircraft and explosions were heard around the town of Kismayo. An al-Shebab official has speculated that the aircraft were from the US. The US has form when it

I was a little confused by the news that a combined Coalition and Afghan National Army Special Forces raid had located and killed ANA deserter Shafiea Ullah, who killed Australian soldier Lance Corporal Andrew Jones almost three weeks ago. The murder of LCPL Jones was a tragic and despicable

Nic Jenzen-Jones is a freelance consultant within the private security and defence industries and coeditor of Security Scholar: Stephanie Koorey\'s piece on Libyan weapon supplies falls short of investigating properly the origin of many of the small arms seen in Libyan rebels\'

My colleague Rodger Shanahan has suggested that my policy prescriptions for Afghanistan were made emotionally, and were inattentive to what really mattered to the formation of national policy — the motivations of soldiers. He is mistaken. For what it\'s worth, I\'ve recommended

I admit to being extremely disappointed with my colleague Raoul Heinrichs\' prescription for an Afghan security strategy: Australia\'s Afghan contribution is pointless, therefore the solution is to bring everyone back behind the wire ASAP and then withdraw.  I can only assume that Raoul wrote

Let\'s face it, you can keep a good autocracy down forever.  Concerted support for Arab democratisation really only has a realistic hope if the West at least remains \'on message\' about the need for substantive democratic reform. But British PM David Cameron sent a mixed message

The problem with policy approaches to the Arab Spring is that each Arab country is quantitatively and qualitatively different and each requires a unique solution. As I have heard said elsewhere, the problem with addressing the current unrest is that \'One size fits none\'.  With that in

Last week\'s announcement by the Gulf Cooperation Council that it was accepting membership applications from two new members, Morocco and Jordan, raised a few eyebrows.  At first glance, the choice appears a bit strange. While Jordan at least has a common border with Saudi Arabia,

If there is one way to endear oneself to the Saudis, it is to display Sunni Islamic solidarity in the face of external opposition. This must be the reason for Malaysia making the public offer to contribute peacekeeping troops to Bahrain in order to \'de-escalate tensions\'.  There is

What lessons you draw from the political unrest we are observing in the Arab world depends to a large degree on where you stand. In the West, the focus has been on the dissatisfaction of the Arab youth bulge, the power of social media to rally activists, the demands for personal and political

Stephan Fruehling is a lecturer in the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, ANU. The Interpreter has carried several informed and informative contributions on Libya, especially on the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) doctrine. But for the decision to intervene, R2P was only one

The news about bin Laden\'s death came while I was en route to Beirut on a research trip. In the short time I have been here it has been interesting to see how the story of the death has been portrayed on western vs Arab television.  On BBC, Sky and CNN there has been nothing but bin

The crimes of Osama bin Laden on 11 September 2001 had lasting, devastating strategic impacts. His death in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad will also have ripples across the international security landscape — and not all the effects will be benign. For now, Americans and their friends

In light of current events in Syria, February\'s Vogue puff-piece on Syria\'s chic first lady now seems particularly ill-timed. There was much about the Assad view on secularism and modernity, but no mention of the stormclouds gathering in the region other than Asma\'s observation that \'

Major Gen (Retd) Jim Molan is author of Running the War in Iraq. The view of Anthony Cordesman on the predicament of NATO and the no-fly zone over Libya, raises important questions for the world and for Australia. The no-fly zone as a tactical technique has predictably failed: but our

There has apparently been much dishdasha readjustment going on in Dubai recently over this Vanity Fair article by British restaurant critic and travel writer AA Gill.  I had two reactions to Gill's eloquent monstering of Dubai. First, Gill's article is breathlessly superficial.

Vanessa Newby is a PhD candidate at Griffith University, studying Arabic in the Middle East. As the mini-bus pulled up at the harbour of Tyre in Southern Lebanon, I was struck by two things. First, the incredible colour of the Mediterranean, something you don't see in Beirut further

I would like to respond to John Hardy's four objections to my argument. John's first objection is that disregarding the unresolved conflicts skews the trend data. This is wrong. Regardless of the number of unresolved conflicts, there are still more counter-insurgent wins after 11 years than

Vanessa Newby is a PhD candidate at Griffith University, studying Arabic in the Middle East. What strikes you first about the political culture in Damascus, is that the status of the name of the President is similar to that of Voldemort in Harry Potter. Quite simply, no one speaks his

Cross-posted from our sister site, Interpreting the Aid Review. There are only two more weeks to contribute to its discussion. The Arab uprisings, the West's military intervention in Libya and the activist role played by Foreign Minister Rudd on both issues, have thrown Australia's development aid

Andrew Farran, a former diplomat, senior lecturer in international law at Monash University and Vice-President of the Australian Institute of International Affairs, writes: A comment if I may, adding to that of Sam Roggeveen's on Gareth Evans' piece in The Age yesterday. Gareth