Opinion & Commentary
Opinion and Commentary contains media articles written by CIS researchers.
Categories
Moral mission of small government
Regardless of which party wins the election in September, the new government will have much more important issues to deal with than whose turn it is to be leader. Read More
Business didn’t wait for White Paper
We can expect meagre policy returns from the Asian Century White Paper. Read More
A cultural revolution to celebrate
In a very real sense, Australia is already Asian. Read More
Sorry, Malcolm, Australia needs the US in the Asian century
Now is the time for our friendship with America to prosper and thrive. Read More
Faith placed in Uncle Sam as neighbourhood warily welcomes China
Australians have become used to thinking about the rise of China, the role of America, and what the interplay between these two powers means for us. Related Read More
The march of democracy in Southeast Asia
Both Malaysia and Singapore are nominally democratic. Yet both are what Fareed Zakaria calls 'illiberal democracies': "democratically elected regimes... routinely ignoring constitutional limits on their... Read More
Complacency is the danger in Asia's power games
Even if one disagrees with Wolfowitz's thinking on the Middle East, this viewpoint on China policy cannot be easily dismissed. The assistant secretary of state for east Asia and the Pacific when Ferdinand... Read More
Complacency is the danger in Asia's power games
Even if one disagrees with Wolfowitz's thinking on the Middle East, this viewpoint on China policy cannot be easily dismissed. The assistant secretary of state for east Asia and the Pacific when Ferdinand... Read More
Pakistan a Chinese pawn to stall India
AT the Shangri-La Dialogue meeting of defence ministers in Singapore last month, Indian Defence Minister Pallam Raju was asked whether India could exercise similar self-restraint should another terrorist... Read More
ASEAN must include US in talks on South China Sea
Indonesia was positioning itself as an ‘honest broker’ in the South China Sea dispute. Now it appears much more circumspect. Read More
Malaysia's phony war on affirmative action
Policies favouring the Malay majority over Chinese and Indian Malaysians must change, but progress so far has been slight. Read More
Why Rudd has overstayed his welcome in Asia
John Howard had far more gravitas and influence in Australasia than Kevin Rudd, who is starting to look like he doesn’t know how to respond to China’s rise in Asia. Read More
Chinese Urbanization Put on Hold
Beijing will gradually relax the hukou, or household registration system, to give rural Chinese citizens an opportunity to seek a better life in the city – not just speeding up the rate of poverty alleviation... Read More
We must dance with the devil
IN the wake of the Bali bombing, it is imperative that we think clearly and, if necessary, coldly, about what the national interest requires with respect to Indonesia. Read More
Be a realist, not a lap dog: A cooling off period will improve ties with indonesia
Ours is an age that believes in action. Faced with a problem, virtually any problem, the demand is that someone—and these days it is invariably the state—should act immediately. Action is evidence... Read More