The fall of Kabul has raised questions for Australia about the reliability of its alliance with the United States of America. Will the fall of Kabul and the rise of Eurasia provoke the same questioning of foreign policy by Australia?
Tag Archives: Afghanistan
Podcast #17 – Letter to America: you are not the captain now
The latest episode of The Burning Archive Podcast is out and available on all the usual platforms, including Apple and Spotify. America’s defeat in Afghanistan has provoked an imperial crisis. This imperial crisis is not just a geostrategic or diplomatic game. It is a crisis of the ideas driving the empire – American culture, society and politics – its coreContinueContinue reading “Podcast #17 – Letter to America: you are not the captain now”
The Looming War of the American Succession
In 1700 Charles II, King of Spain and Emperor presiding over a vast global empire, died without a child and without a clear successor. His death triggered a great war over geostrategic control of the possessions of the declining Spanish Empire by rival dynasties and rival great states. France and Spain were diminished, and theContinueContinue reading “The Looming War of the American Succession”
Podcast #15 – Imperial Crisis in Afghanistan and the World Island
The latest episode of The Burning Archive Podcast is out and available on all the usual platforms, including Apple and Spotify. America’s capitulation in Afghanistan has provoked an humanitarian disaster, an imperial crisis, and a change in the balance of power between great states in Eurasia. The crisis threatens not only American prestige in the world but some of theContinueContinue reading “Podcast #15 – Imperial Crisis in Afghanistan and the World Island”
Podcast #14 – Afghanistan and the end of America’s 43 Year War
I have released a special episode of The Burning Archive podcast on the situation in Afghanistan. It is available on all the usual platforms, including Apple and Spotify. In this special episode, The Burning Archive makes some fast history, and reflects on the meaning of the capitulation of the American Empire in Afghanistan. There are eight quick takesContinueContinue reading “Podcast #14 – Afghanistan and the end of America’s 43 Year War”
The World Island vs The Atlantic
This year, 2021, may be remembered as a pivot year in world history. Not because of the pandemic. Not only because of the protracted crisis of the American republic. But because of the changed balance of power in international relations brought about by the decrepitude of the American Atlanticist Alliance and the strengthening of theContinueContinue reading “The World Island vs The Atlantic”
The fall of the American Empire’s Potemkin Province
Thus , in a few blitzkrieg weeks, after the Americans declared they would “draw down their civilian footprint” to meet a publicity deadline of the 20th anniversary of 9/11, the Taliban have exposed American power and control in Afghanistan as a projection of illusion, a Potemkin Province of an anxious empire in decline.
Return of a King
Image credit: Elizabeth Butler, Remnants of an Army (1879) Tate Gallery I have finished reading William Dalrymple’s mesmerising and tragical history of the first Anglo-Afghan War (1839-42), Return of a King: the battle for Afghanistan. It tells the story of the British invasion of Afghanistan, or, as it was known by its local rulers then,ContinueContinue reading “Return of a King”
Poem: Nouriel’s Shoes
The following poem is from my Burning Archive collection. It had its origins in a strategic leadership program I attended some years ago at the Australian and New Zealand School of Government. We, the participants, sat in a large circle of maybe 30, and were invited by the facilitator to declare something about ourselves, someContinueContinue reading “Poem: Nouriel’s Shoes”