Holding Pattern

One of the most misunderstood aspects of the history of Zionism is the assumption that, from the beginning, its founders unanimously demanded the creation of a Jewish majoritarian state. When the First Zionist Congress met in Basel in 1897, it adopted a program calling for the establishment of a “publicly and legally assured home” for […]

AUKUS, Great Power Coercion and the Future of the Alliance Richard Marles argues that Australia’s defence policy can no longer be based simply on protecting the continent and its immediate approaches—a task well suited to a larger number of conventional submarines. Instead, he argues that Australia must develop the capacity to project military power into […]

Three recent articles illustrate that Australia is taking a very large gamble with AUKUS. In The Bulwark (29 May), Jonathan Last argued that both Russia in Ukraine and the United States in its confrontation with Iran have discovered a hard truth: relatively cheap drones can neutralise vastly more expensive military systems. The significance of drones, […]

Pope Leo XIV has released what may prove to be one of the most important documents of his papacy: an encyclical on artificial intelligence. In many ways it is the Church’s equivalent of asking the same question Pope Leo XIII asked during the Industrial Revolution: how do we ensure that technological progress serves human beings […]

What does Hannah Arendt’s famous idea of the “banality of evil” mean in the age of artificial intelligence? Arendt developed the concept after attending the trial of Adolf Eichmann, one of the organisers of the Holocaust. What struck her was not that Eichmann was a monster, but that he appeared ordinary. She argued that great […]