There have been some dark signs about the prospects for global international conflict over the next ten years. Without getting into details, the war is not going well for NATO, and there are signs that the leaders of those states are not prepared to eat humble pie in order to make genuine peace.
For 7 years between 2006 and 2013 I was directly responsible for alcohol and drug policy in Victoria (Australia). It is a contentious field, and it was a personally rewarding field. But it is a field in which many common problems of governing are revealed.
The big story of the week is the standoff between the NATO allies and Ukraine at the Vilnius Summit. Famously, President Zelensky was photographed all alone and angry, after being refused a pathway to membership to the “greatest alliance in history”.
On the podcast this week I gave a rapid fire history of the Altlantic, structured around seven key dates. These dates provide glimpses into the multipolar history of the Atlantic Ocean, and the chameleon-like character of the Atlantic idea, institutions, alliance and civilization. It tells the story of how NATO emerged from the depths of the Atlantic Ocean.
Vladislav Zubok compared the Time of Troubles, Russia’s major civil war of the early 1600s, with the political situation in Russia today. It has the flaws of many historical articles penned this week. The mutiny fizzled so fast that the facts fell before the drafting was finished.
John Menadue and the team at Pearls and Irritations has published an article of mine on the public service today and the problems of the overuse of consultants.
The protest of Yevgeny Prigozhin and a small group of his Wagner fighters is over. It began and ended in 30 hours. Noone died. So the Russian government has controlled the protest, and most likely emerged stronger.
So Biden’s remarks were not a gaffe, not a slip. They are not words of petty anger, even if they are the simmering resentment of Captain Ahab’s obsessive revenge. Biden’s remarks are more boastful than angry, though they have that edge too. Biden is angrily defending his inflated image of his own prowess as political leader and foreign policy leader, and indeed the infinite ‘possiblilities’ of America.
The first casualty of war is truth. But what is the second casualty?
Melbourne City Councillors should reflect on the reality of its long pretence to be a sister city with St Petersburg. The ‘sister relationship’ always flattered Melbourne.