Global Outlook

Tensions remain high in Northeast Asia following the G7 summit, which asserted the principles of the US-led order rather than seeking to accommodate the conflicting interests and orders in the region.

How to deal with China? The Western industrialised countries have been trying for some time to find a convincing China strategy. The seven major economic powers that make up the G7 agree that it is not a matter of de-coupling economically from China, but of avoiding risks and reducing dependencies. This strategy is now referred to by the catchy Anglo-Saxon term "de-risking".

India’s presidency of the G20 for 2023 has been hailed with much fanfare and national pride in India. It has the platform and the responsibility to direct the collective energies of the group towards not only addressing the climate crisis but also potentially reshape the ideological contours of international climate politics.

America and the West are more isolated from the rest of the world than at any time since WWII.

During the 21st century, humanity will cross an important planetary boundary and head into a much more climate-insecure future. One characteristic of this future will be higher risks of climate-related disasters, such as droughts, storms, floods, and heatwaves.Both experts and policy makers have long expressed concerns about climate change as a security risk, with disasters playing a key role in these debates.

The Dr. H.V. Evatt Foundation publishes the Evatt Journal. Volume 21, published in April, was a special issue on ‘90 Seconds to Midnight’, referencing the famous Doomsday Clock from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, edited by Casey Thompson and Huw Phillips. The Toda Peace Institute’s Senior Research Fellow, Professor Ramesh Thakur, who contributed a chapter, was a panellist at the launch of the journal in Canberra on Thursday 1 June. This is the text of his initial remarks.