Insight topics
John McCarthy AO
Former Australian Diplomat
25 articles found : Show all articles

Marvin, what do we do now?
As new Prime Minister Anthony Albanese heads to Tokyo for a summit of Quadrilateral Security Dialogue leaders, John McCarthy writes he needs to base his international polices on two broad “mindsets”.

The Perils of an Atlantic Outlook
Australia’s embrace of a western – and European – outlook on the war in Ukraine risks being out of touch with sentiment in our own region, writes John McCarthy.

India and Ukraine: the risks of ambiguity
The war in Ukraine has exposed the fault lines in India’s policy of strategic ambivalence between Russia and the West, writes John McCarthy.

Ukraine signals a return to the travails of the 20th Century
John McCarthy reviews the implications of the war in Ukraine and concludes we face a return to an era of great power conflict.

Ukraine crisis creates dilemmas close to home
As Russia takes advantage of fractured Western politics to push its claims in Ukraine, John McCarthy argues a backdown by the United States and its European allies would impose severe strategic costs. An emboldened China ready to assert its claims over Taiwan would likely be one of them.