Written By: - Date published: 1:36 pm, May 22nd, 2026 - 6 comments
The coming oil shock is not just about oil. The future is baked in, and its not good. National’s backward-looking budget will make it much worse.
Written By: - Date published: 4:23 pm, May 7th, 2026 - 11 comments
That RNZ tricolon has always been infuriating fluff. In the real world, analysts warn we are heading for a cliff.
Written By: - Date published: 1:58 pm, May 1st, 2026 - 6 comments
When Ambassador Chen Mingming sent Zhang Wei in 2005 to ask me whether Winston Peters would follow government policy, I said I didn’t know but would ask. I did, and he did.
Written By: - Date published: 9:47 am, April 16th, 2026 - 23 comments
Israel is the UAE’s close ally. They collaborate on the War on Iran and in heartless state-destruction campaigns for greater geopolitical weight in the region
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Written By: - Date published: 4:48 pm, April 11th, 2026 - 67 comments
The Cuban Missile crisis was solved by intelligent leadership acting in the best interests of their nations. The current Iranian crisis shows no sign of quality leadership.
Written By: - Date published: 12:35 pm, March 26th, 2026 - 20 comments
Officials have been doing private, media excluded, webinars with selected businesses. That seems pretty dodgy while our diesel stocks look like they will run out in a few weeks. Rather than (maybe) tomorrow, the government should have been rationing the unproductive Remuera tractors weeks ago.
Written By: - Date published: 7:49 pm, March 23rd, 2026 - 24 comments
Is NZ going to join the Iran war?
Written By: - Date published: 7:10 pm, March 19th, 2026 - 7 comments
The Chinese Embassy is right. The recent joint statement by Australia and New Zealand condemning China’s actions in the South China Sea reads like a relic from a bygone colonial era.
Written By: - Date published: 1:38 pm, March 17th, 2026 - 10 comments
Driven by ideology, this Government has worsened the country’s prospects to reduce oil dependance by axing policies that would have cut greenhouse-gas emissions.
Written By: - Date published: 11:52 am, March 14th, 2026 - 43 comments
Jacinda Ardern led the country through some of the most taxing international crises imaginable. How would she deal with the potential oil shock caused by the Iranian war and how does this compare to Christopher Luxon’s response?
Written By: - Date published: 2:59 pm, March 13th, 2026 - 14 comments
We are now in the opening days of what may be the decisive war to determine either the survival of the Iranian state or the expulsion of the US from the Arab lands.
Written By: - Date published: 1:05 am, March 13th, 2026 - 47 comments
“Every emergency plan principle that I’m aware of says you communicate early, honestly and with a plan.” – Nathan Surendran
Written By: - Date published: 8:55 pm, March 7th, 2026 - 39 comments
The US-Israeli killing of children must be stopped.
Written By: - Date published: 11:44 am, March 5th, 2026 - 39 comments
Trump’s attack on Iran, in cahoots with, or in support of, his regional proxy, Israel, is illegal, but also unconscionable in moral and political terms. It is a resurgence of the post-war experience, in which the development of the rules-based international order was qualified by the arbitrary actions of “big players” in Iran, Suez, Cuba […]
Written By: - Date published: 8:59 am, March 1st, 2026 - 29 comments
Trump’s attack on Iran is one hell of a way to divert away from the Epstein files.
Written By: - Date published: 8:27 am, March 1st, 2026 - 42 comments
Trump’s attack on Iran has a high risk of turning into another Afghanistan in which the United States was utterly humiliated.
Written By: - Date published: 9:27 pm, January 16th, 2026 - 26 comments
To understand what’s going on in Iran, abandon what the Persians invented centuries ago: Manichaeism, black-and-white, political framing.
Written By: - Date published: 5:34 pm, October 2nd, 2025 - 60 comments
The United States Department of Defense has been renamed as the Department of War. Nobody can be under any illusions anymore. More war is coming.
Written By: - Date published: 4:41 pm, June 30th, 2025 - 24 comments
Ceasefire will only be a pause in the long-running US-Israeli campaign for regime change in Iran. The good news for our region is that Iran’s resilience pushes back the looming risk of a US-led war on China.
Written By: - Date published: 4:45 pm, June 25th, 2025 - 22 comments
Winston Peters’ Ministerial statement in Parliament yesterday was a disgrace. Echoing other FiveEyes leaders such as Keir Starmer, unable to distinguish evil from good, he accused those who can of “moral posturing.”
Written By: - Date published: 3:30 pm, June 23rd, 2025 - 8 comments
Snap action outside Ministry of Defence tomorrow 24th 1230. All welcome
Written By: - Date published: 1:35 pm, June 23rd, 2025 - 67 comments
The major problem with the political model of a Republic, from Greek and Roman times to the present, is that eventually they invariably deteriorate into an imperial mess and war mongering. for purely domestic personal and political reasons. Which is exactly what Donald Trump did yesterday.
Written By: - Date published: 9:28 pm, June 19th, 2025 - 16 comments
The leak appeared in the Cook Islands media, not New Zealand’s. On the day before Christopher Luxon was due to meet Xi Jinping. One has to ask “cui bono?”
Written By: - Date published: 4:18 am, April 15th, 2024 - 15 comments
Israel should not have bombed the Iranian consulate buildings in Damascus. Iran should not have fired 300 missiles at Israel in response. Neither of these actions should have happened, but they now have. The world now watches to see if there is further retaliation and escalation of violence, or if calmer and wiser heads prevail.
Written By: - Date published: 10:13 am, December 3rd, 2023 - 28 comments
The new National coalition cares little about defence. Defence is surprisingly a large and under-appreciated strength for Labour.
Written By: - Date published: 5:51 am, August 27th, 2023 - 25 comments
Belief in capricious gods would explain the perplexing habit of governments with intelligent and informed people to embrace policies which are manifestly an example of self-destructive stupidity. Clever people doing stupid things.
Written By: - Date published: 8:45 pm, June 5th, 2023 - 34 comments
Gerald Hensley was David Lange’s chief of staff when New Zealand’s nuclear free policy was adopted. He opposed what happened then and opposes it still. He now argues we should prepare for war with China.
Written By: - Date published: 4:57 pm, March 13th, 2023 - 14 comments
Veteran Indian diplomat MK Bhadrakumar describes the resumption of diplomatic relations between Shi’ite Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia brokered by China as a “Suez moment” in the history of the Middle East. Peace in Yemen is only one of the possible benefits.
Written By: - Date published: 4:32 pm, March 20th, 2022 - 194 comments
New Zealand’s sanctions on Russia have not stopped the war in Ukraine. They may have made our parliamentarians feel better, and Tony Blinken was quick to congratulate us on falling into line with the US “high-impact sanctions.” The language is combative, but the evidence shows sanctions do not work. They can have significant blow-back effects, particularly if not combined with effective diplomacy.
Written By: - Date published: 4:44 pm, February 7th, 2022 - 31 comments
The meeting between Putin and Xi Jinping is likely to set the geopolitical direction for the 21st century. If ‘divide and rule’ was the mantra for the US’s hegemonic rule in the 20th century, ‘unite and share’ looks like setting the tone for the 21st. Co-operation rather than competition is the mantra, and “friendship between the two states has no limits.” A truly remarkable turnaround.
Written By: - Date published: 2:54 pm, January 16th, 2022 - 17 comments
Russian peacekeepers are already leaving Kazakhstan having nipped the ‘colour revolution’ in the bud. Blinken clearly didn’t have a clue when he said Russians never leave the house. Russian intelligence was superb. Now we wait for Russia’s response to US likely refusal to pull back from its borders. One thing I’d bet on – no invasion of Ukraine.
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