People & associates
Tom Switzer
A note of scepticism about the Obama visit
The first time I turned out for a US president was two decades ago when George H.W. Bush came to town. He drove through Sydney and I ran cheering...
Award is work of many men
Sir Isaac Newton, that great creature of the Scientific Revolution, once humbly declared, ``If I have seen further it is by standing on the...
Opening door to an outlaw
China is a sleeping giant, Napoleon once warned. ''Let her sleep, for when she wakes she will move the world.'' The sleeping giant awoke to the...
The world today, foretold by Nixon
"When we see the world in which we are about to move, the United States no longer is in the position of complete pre-eminence or predominance [and]...
Australia's Carbon Warning for Obama
President Obama's Environmental Protection Agency is fighting a rear-guard action to accomplish via regulation what voters rejected via Congress:...
It's deluded to think we're the only apple of America's eye
This year marks the 60th anniversary in security ties between Australia and the United States. To mark the occasion this week, Julia Gillard is in...
Are we all neo-cons now?
An old neo-con colleague from Washington called me at the weekend to gloat about the downfall of Mubarak. "What do you think now, Switzer?" he...
Can Obama do a Reagan?
The outpouring of affection for Ronald Reagan, who would have celebrated his 100th birthday this weekend, has been fascinating, beyond what one...
Be careful what you wish for in Egypt
"Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive," wrote William Wordsworth of the fall of the Bastille, "But to be young was very heaven!" For many...
US strikes the right balance on US-China human rights
As US President Barack Obama's meetings with Chinese President Hu Jintao in Washington serve to remind us, the issue of human rights continues to...