Jiaozhou Bay/Qingdao-Haiwan Bridge, China. Photo: Feel the Planet (feel-planet.com). The Labour-led government in New Zealand has settled on a new mantra when it comes to addressing the US-China rivalry. It claims that New Zealand is ideally situated to become a bridge between the two great powers and an honest broker when it comes to […]
Geopolitics
Confronting Sharp Power.
Written by Paul Buchanan on Wednesday, October 24th, 2018
Source: http://akross.info/?k=List+of+magical+weapons++Wikipedia International relations is about exercising power to achieve objectives on the global stage. The actors that do so are states, companies, non-governmental organizations or criminal and non-state political actors acting directly or as proxies. The tools they employ have traditionally included hard power, which is the threat and use of diplomatic, economic […]
Analytic Brief: Influence Operations, Targeted Interventions and Intelligence Gathering: A Primer.
Written by Paul Buchanan on Saturday, September 23rd, 2017
Revelations of Chinese influence operations in Australia and New Zealand, and the ongoing sequels to the Russian “interference” in the 2016 US election, have caused outcry and concern amongst policy-makers and public alike. Beyond the xenophobic aspects to fears of the spectre of a “Yellow Peril” emerging in the Antipodes (a fear that we do […]
Brazil enters the military airlift market, with New Zealand as a target.
Written by Paul Buchanan on Wednesday, April 12th, 2017
Photo: Embraer.com Military aviation has become a global business that transcends strike forces and combat-only platforms. Flexibility in non-military missions such as search and rescue, firefighting and medical evacuation are now added to traditional military airlift missions like troop and weapons transport, airdrop and long-range patrol, surveillance and intelligence gathering. In this analytic brief […]
Political Risk and Sustainable Enterprise.
Written by Paul Buchanan on Thursday, March 31st, 2016
Boomslang canopy walkway, Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, Cape Town, South Africa. The terms “political risk” and “sustainable enterprise” are not often associated. They should be. The degree of sustainability of an enterprise has direct and long- term cultural, economic, social and political ramifications for the communities in which it is located. The less sustainable the […]
Analytic Brief: Fiji’s strategic pivot.
Written by Paul Buchanan on Wednesday, January 27th, 2016
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov meets with Fijian Prime Minister Voreque “Frank” Bainimarama. Source: Fiji Ministry of Foreign Affairs Last week Fiji took delivery of a shipment of Russian weapons that were “donated” by Russia pursuant to a bilateral Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed in February 2015. The Fijians say that the weapons are […]
A hard rain is a’gonna fall.
Written by Paul Buchanan on Saturday, May 23rd, 2015
Although 36th Parallel Assessments is loathe to prognosticate on fluid situations and current events,we have been thinking about how the conflict in Iraq has been going. Althoughwe do not believe that the Islamic State (IS) is anywhere close to being the global threat that it is portrayed to be in the West, we do believe […]
Strategic Assessment: Systemic Realignment.
Written by Paul Buchanan on Sunday, July 27th, 2014
Photo: Evgenly Maloleka. The chaotic state of contemporary international affairs demonstrates the serious limitations of constructivism and idealism as theoretical frameworks for the analysis of global macro-dynamics. The former claims that the construction of international institutions helps universalise common values and mores, thereby leading to improved interstate relations under supranational (international organisation) guidance and enforcement. […]
Analytic Brief: Issue Linkage in Foreign Policy.
Written by Paul Buchanan on Wednesday, December 19th, 2012
Negotiations to establish the Transpacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Program (RCEP), both multinational trade agreements involving Asia-Pacific countries but with the former led by the US and the latter led by China (with each excluding the other from their respective negotiating blocs), brings attention to an important concept in foreign affairs: […]
Assessment Brief: Indian-Australian strategic co-operation in the early 21st century.
Written by Paul Buchanan on Wednesday, October 31st, 2012
Assessment Brief: Indian-Australian strategic co-operation in the early 21st century. Balaji Chandramohan and Paul G. Buchanan Introduction. In recent years Australia and India have assumed a greater role in international affairs, emerging as regional powers with great power potential. Changes in the international environment, particularly the rise of China as a common source of concern […]