Complicity of Australia and New Zealand in US Drone Assassinations
The Joint Defense Facility at Pine Gap, near Alice Springs, has had something of an iniquitous history in the Australian political landscape. It is, more than anything, a sign of the pressing inequalities of the Australian-United States relationship. “Joint command” is a misnomer, given that the facility is under US control. The Pine Gap facility, […]
Sanctions Against Russia: Farcical Tantrums from US and EU?
It has been one of the more absurd spectacles since the Russian annexation of Crimea. Western powers, centered around the European Union and the United States, have been waging a sanctions war against Moscow. Both the targeting, and effect, loom as question marks before governments who have been caught off guard by the speed of […]
Ukraine’s Games of Sovereignty: Russia vs US Exceptionalism
Sovereignty is defined by the power to dictate exceptions, or as the German jurist Carl Schmitt suggested, the power of the exception. Without this, one could never be an overlord of oneself, in a political or any other meaningful way. What is unfolding in Ukraine at this writing is a battle of sovereign will. Most […]
Freedom of the Press: Government Does Not Know Best
David Miranda, who was detained for nine hours in Heathrow Airport on August 18, 2013 on suspicion that he might have violated anti-terrorism laws, apparently had no grounds for complaint. The United Kingdom’s High Court found that the actions taken against the partner of Glenn Greenwald, a key participant in the surveillance disclosures of Edward […]
Bosnia’s Violent Protests: ‘He Who Sows Hunger Reaps Anger’
Bosnia Herzegovina is the microcosm of the rest of the Balkan republics. It was where the dream of a united Yugoslavia was plotted. It proved to be the seat of the multi-ethnic framework that Tito imposed with a mixture of both terror and sweet perseverance. Sarajevo was the ethnic wonderland, a musical and cultural playground […]