Praise where it’s due…
I did little this weekend except walk on the beach, watch the roller derby and surf the interwebs, where I found… After bagging New Zealand’s political media last week about low budget reporting...
View ArticleBland Eyed Soul: Analysing Brand Key
It was a toss-up between posting this or my short fiction story “John Key goes to prison”. I will post the story some other time. While doing research for a few upcoming KP posts on Asia I was...
View ArticleTrump is Toast
Well, all good things must come to an end. But first, let’s play word association: Authoritarian Populist. Racist. Bigot. Xenophobe. Bully. Buffoon. Bankrupt. War-mongerer. Torture fan. Genocidal...
View ArticleMedia Link: Weinstein, Trump’s mental health and Mueller lurking.
Mitch Harris and I continued our weekly radio conversations from the US, this week discussing Harvey Weinstein, reports that Trump is mentally “unraveling” and how the Mueller investigation into...
View ArticleThe beginning of the end of an error
There were no winners in Kim Hill’s interview with Don Brash this morning. Not Kim, and not Don, not Guyon Espiner’s unflinching use of te reo on Morning Report, and certainly not the people of...
View ArticleGoodbye to a good soul.
Yasmine Ryan died this past week in Istanbul. She was only 34. She was an intrepid, dedicated, courageous and honest journalist, someone who unlike so many others vying for attention in the New Zealand...
View ArticlePeddling drivel.
As an admirer of the eloquent written word and nuanced argument, occasional op-ed writer and someone who grew up reading the editorial pages of major newspapers in several countries, I have long seen...
View ArticleThe false equivalence between racists and whistleblowers.
So a National MP and assorted right-wingers believe that Chelsea Manning should not be allowed to speak in NZ because she is a [insert unpleasant adjectives and nouns here]. Many of those who...
View ArticleUnearthing the mole.
The issue of who wrote the anonymous “Resistance” op ed in the NY Times (about Oval Office insiders working to thwart and buffer Executive policy-making from Trump’s impulses and excesses) has...
View ArticleA fraught inquiry.
The inquiry into whether the SAS acted illegally during a nighttime raid on a suspected insurgent’s hideout in Afghanistan in 2010 (code named Operation Burnham), which resulted in six civilian deaths...
View ArticleCloaking hate speech and fake news in the right to free expression.
It should be obvious by now but let’s be clear: The same folk who regularly traffic in disinformation, misinformation and “fake news” are also those who most strongly claim that their freedom of...
View ArticleThe tyranny of the dishonest and stupid.
One theme in the literature dedicated to democratic theory is the notion of a “tyranny of the minority.” This is where the desire to protect the interests of and give voice to electoral minorities...
View ArticleMedia Link: “A View from Afar” podcast on the private military-security...
In this week’s podcast Selwyn Manning and I discuss the ethics and practicalities involved in the so-called “conflict industry.” It includes a discussion of the who and what of the “kill chain” and the...
View ArticleMedia Link: RNZ interview about the fight against on-line extremism two years...
I did an interview with Jesse Mulligan at RNZ about the mixed record with regard to fighting on-line extremism in NZ and elsewhere. You can find it here.
View ArticleWarnings versus threats in foreign relations.
Over my years in academia and then as a security official in the US, I came to believe in the importance of analytic, conceptual and terminological precision. I realised that being precise and...
View ArticleMedia Link: “AVFA” on disinformation and Global South perspectives on the...
In the latest “A View from Afar” podcast Selwyn Manning and I talk about how to approach disinformation in the contemporary media landscape and Global South neutrality or support for Russia in the...
View ArticleHara Kiri.
I do not usually write about NZ domestic politics, much less the personal dramas of those involved in them. But here I will make an exception because I am unhappy about recent events. To be clear, the...
View ArticleThe New Zealand Junta.
Some readers will remember that I spent 25 years in academia researching, writing and teaching about authoritarianism, among other things, and that I was a foreign policy practitioner in/for the US...
View ArticleTwo offenders, different treatments.
See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the...
View ArticleReader suggestions for “A View from Afar.”
My friend Selwyn Manning and I are wondering what to do with our podcast “A View from Afar.” Some readers will also have tuned into the podcast, which I regularly feature on KP as a media link. But we...
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