Opinion by Jane Greenway Carr

Updated 1734 GMT (0134 HKT) May 22, 2022, CNN

(CNN) Shortly after Donald Trump was elected President of the United States, Nobel laureate Toni Morrison wrote in The New Yorker: “Unlike any nation in Europe, the United States holds whiteness as the unifying force. Here, for many people, the definition of ‘Americanness’ is color.” Reflecting on efforts — largely by White men — to define themselves by sustaining that poisonous definition, Morrison argues that those “who are prepared to abandon their humanity out of fear of black men and women, suggest the true horror of lost status.”

ZACK COOPER AND GREGORY POLING

MAY 24, 2022 WarOnTheRocks

The biggest announcement from President Joe Biden’s trip to Asia may be the one that got the least attention. The Quad, a grouping consisting of Australia, India, Japan, and the United States, has just announced a maritime domain awareness partnership that will provide a new stream of data from commercial satellites to countries across the Indo-Pacific. This is a substantial addition to the Quad’s agenda and one of its most promising initiatives to date. Critically, it satisfies the desire of most regional partners for the Quad to provide public goods and address the needs of smaller states in and the Indian Ocean, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific Islands. If properly executed, this effort could be a flagship project for demonstrating the Quad’s value to regional countries. Continue reading THE QUAD GOES TO SEA →

By Graeme DobellGraeme Dobell (graemedobell@aspi.org.au) is Journalist Fellow at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. He has been reporting on Australian and international politics, foreign affairs and defense, and the Asia-Pacific since 1975.

Australia’s election: Quad continuity and climate alignment, with nuclear disagreements

Sworn-in as Australia’s new prime minister, within hours Anthony Albanese was flying to Japan for the summit of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (“Quad”).

An accident of timing—the May 24 summit following Australia’s May 21 election—offered the leader of the Australian Labor Party plenty of flying-start symbolism.

Departing Canberra for Tokyo, Albanese said the “message to the world” was that Australia had a new government that would lift policy on climate change, while emphasizing foreign policy continuity and the value of “friendships and long-time alliances.”
Continue reading Australia’s election: Quad continuity and climate alignment, with nuclear disagreements →

1440 Daily Digest

President Joe Biden is keeping Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps on a list of foreign terrorist organizations, according to officials. The decision could complicate international efforts to restore a 2015 deal meant to restrict Iran’s nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief. Lifting the IRGC’s 2019 terrorist designation (see background) has been a precondition for Iran to return to talks with global leaders, who have been working on reviving the deal for over a year amid rising tensions between Arab nations and Iran-allied groups. 

Transparency International

27/05/2022: No more parties in Davos

This week, policymakers, business executives and other public figures gathered in Davos, Switzerland where the World Economic Forum’s largest meeting took place in person after a two-year hiatus. We sat this one out, but our warning from Davos 2020 on how corruption eats away at democracy still rings true.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addresses Davos 2022 on 23 May.
Photo: Sikarin Fon Thanachaiary/World Economic Forum on Flickr Continue reading No more parties in Davos for Kleptocrats →