Reflecting on the sixty-year history of the United Nations, it seems obvious that this is an organisation created through the slow and tortured process of natural evolution rather than the product of careful, intelligent design.
Years ago, back when the UN had barely escaped its adolescence, the Nobel laureate and eminent diplomat Ralph Bunche observed that ‘the United Nations is a young organi ... (read more)
Daniel Flitton
Daniel Flitton is one of Australia’s most experienced foreign affairs journalists and is now Managing Editor of the Lowy Institute’s international magazine, The Interpreter. Before joining the Institute, he was Senior Correspondent at The Age and formerly its diplomatic editor and a political correspondent in the Parliament House bureau. He previously worked as an analyst for the Office of National Assessments, Australia’s peak intelligence assessment agency. He has held academic positions at the Australian National University and at Deakin University, where he developed a breadth of knowledge on Asia, the Middle East, and the Pacific. As a Fulbright scholar in 2004, he researched the Australia–United States alliance at Georgetown University in Washington DC.
The danger is complacency. Brendan Taylor cautions readers of this timely assessment of the swirling currents of power in Asia – and currents is the right metaphor, given the heavy focus on disputes at sea – not to simply have faith that everything will turn out okay. ‘The risk of major war in Asia is much greater today than most individuals assume,’ Taylor writes. Even among regional l ... (read more)