Counterpoint

In many ways it seems as if the response to the coronavirus, especially in the United States, has been chaotic and irrational but is this really the case? Game theory can explain everything. In recent times Russia has begun to shift its thinking to Asia. However, infrastructure, especially in the Russian far east, is holding it back. Have you ever heard the saying 'go woke or go broke' or even 'ge...

In recent times there has been much talk about the imminent collapse of the liberal rules based order with Russia and China citied as the main culprits for this destabilisation. Is it true? Should nations be telling other nations what to do and how to act or should they be minding their own business? Statues are being torn down across the United States right now, including statues of Theodore Roos...

We've all heard about China's Belt and Road Initiative, which has been making news since it was launched at the end of 2013, but when and how did China start its push westward and how did they do it? They built roads. Cybersecurity is about preparing the nation from a cyber attack from a hostile government or organisation. How are doing with that, not so well. The world's poorest countries are oft...

What is the difference between a riot and a protest and does that depend on who you ask? What would happen if the liberal order, set up in the aftermath of the second World War as a set of international institutions agreed upon by nation states, collapsed? The Australian Space Agency was established in July 2018. Two years later, how do we compare to the rest of the world? Plus the fascinating lib...

Are we seeing a new kind of iconoclasm? That is, are statues being torn down, most notably in the UK and US, to erase the history of almost anyone without any kind of consent? Targeted cyberattacks are growing in frequency, most recently with medical research centres and hospitals being attacked by 'hostile state actors'. The country that is doing the most about this is Estonia. How? How did the K...

Who is responsible for the crisis in American cities right now? Is it the rich, or corporations, or the system or might it be the city leaders themselves? Who do you think the most influential person in modern history is? Might it be the man who was responsible for the beginning of the start of the first World War? How might Europe have a credible and autonomous defence policy and why does it invo...

Is racism just about black and white or something more? Where has our sense of grandeur gone and can we get it back? Washing our hands is really important right now but germs and viruses are also important, so how can we make sure we aren't killing any good germs or bacteria or haver the times overtaken us? Termites produce methane gas the same way we all do but their mounds filter about half of i...

How does China maintain its influence over other countries, and within those countries, the Chinese community? Australia is a middle power, as is New Zealand and a host of other countries including South Korea, but why is it known as a middle power like no other? How did Venice cope with the plague of 1575? By using a new practise called quarantine. The kauri trees of New Zealand are in trouble. C...

Is phrenology making a comeback in the form of facial recognition technology? The history of gibberish shows that saying coochy coo to a baby is a good thing. Why is still so difficult to find flour to feed your mother and why aren't the fields of animal health and human health closer?

What is behind some of the most fanciful conspiracy theories of the COVID-19 pandemic? How do you know what science to believe and when to believe it? What can the history of the Chinese tea trade tells us about the history of capitalism? Are they linked? What is the ancient world's best kept secret and what does it have to do with whiteness?

What will Angela Merkel's European legacy be? What will war look like in the future? The RAND Corporation have published a report assessing the future of warfare. What does it say? Is being angry a waste of energy or can it be constructively used for your greater good? Right now the world is relying on epidemiologists to get us through the COVID-10 pandemic, but who modelled diseases before this b...

Are we more connected than we thought we were? Why is the kind of language that is used during war time being used now? If there is a lighter side to COVID-19 it is in some of the new sayings and terms being used? For example, would you like a quarantini at your is isodesk while we're living through this Miley? Kangaroos have not always been an Australian icon, a new book looks at how they were hu...

Is Libya headed for partition? As China and the US increasingly view each other with suspicion, what challenges will Australia face? Why do you believe what you do? Is it because of where you lived and how you were raised? Did you know that cattle produce more methane gas than many large countries, and that most of it is a result of burping?

What might post COVID-19 China look like? Will they lead the global economic revival or will it struggle? Why are international borders causing so much anxiety over recent years? Are we at the Kindleberger moment and what is it anyway and was the collapse of Virgin Australia inevitable?

What will happen to agriculture after COVID-19, will it be business as usual? Italy may have just eased some restrictions after a complete lockdown but their troubles are far from over. We hear a lot about the scientific modelling that is guiding our response to COVID-19 but what actually is scientific modelling? What is a hero?

While we've been paying attention to COVID-19 another killer has been on the loose. That killer is ISIS and they bombing Sikhs in Afghanistan. Last year roughly 155, 732 people died around the world every day. Death, just like tax, is normal, that is, until now. Are you working from home right now? Are you enjoying it? The benefits of working from home have been talked about for the last 50 years....

Can we trust China? How? The internet has changed the world but has it also created 'unprecedented concentrations of power, which are making society not only less transparent, but more brittle as well'? Can we compare COVID -19 to the Black Death? Are we nearly at the point, with social media, of needing to legislate and police friendship?

Will globalisation survive the COVID-19 pandemic? What are some examples of successful public health polices? In the immediate aftermath of BREXIT many British academics and commentators claimed that people voted Leave because they were racist or were yearning for Empire and the good old days. Is this true? How good is your nose? It's all kinds of brilliant!

President Xi Jinping's rule of China is seemingly absolute, but is all as it seems? Outbreaks of animal-borne and other infectious diseases like Ebola, SARS, bird-flu and CVID-19, are on the rise around the world. Why? How did people in Ancient Greece cope with sickness and disease and how clean is the International Space Station?

Is Narendra Modi's India a democracy in peril? Might COVID-19 be a disaster without precedent? Civilization has brought millions of people out of poverty, out of hunger, and saved millions of lives, so why does it seem that some academics want to destroy it? Emotions can be tricky and unpredictable but should we be using them more to help us face some of our most pressing problems?

Would you buy something from a company if they didn't agree with the same causes that you do? We know, or have heard about, Napoleon Bonaparte and the French Revolution but did you know that he also went to the Middle East? We know the best way of avoiding the spread of COVID-19 is to isolate citizens and adopt stringent hygiene standards. How is this interpreted around the world? When Siri or Ale...

How stable are the autocratic regimes in the Middle East? After the Arab Spring it seemed like possibly the end of authoritarian rule in the region, but was it? Why are there different reactions to COVID-19? Who is getting on with their lives and who is not? Rules are everywhere. Some make perfect sense but others seem to be there simply to annoy us, so how do we know which ones to ignore or break...

The United States now has to share the globe with other great powers. What has happened to their sphere of influence? Who is in the middle class and is it the same now as it used to be? In the aftermath of the Arab Spring what has decentralisation meant for Tunisia? How are diseases named and why is that important?

It's easy for politicians to deflect the blame for their own policy errors by blaming someone or something else. Right now, especially in countries with nationalistic tendencies such as China, the Philippines and the United States, the favourite scapegoat is globalism. As China embraces its facial recognition technology for its Social Credit System, is it also changing the Confucius concept of fac...

Two years after Robert Mugabe was swept from power, how is his successor Emmerson Mnangagwa faring as President of Zimbabwe? The 2017 Foreign Policy White Paper reinforced Australia's commitment to the Indo- Pacific region. Might this have been a mistake? Did you hear the one about Stalin? Life under Russian dictator Joseph Stalin wasn't funny and yet there were jokes. Is there a difference betwee...