Contrary to popular belief, the Vietnam war has not ended. Indeed, ever since the beginning of negotiations back in 1968 between the United States and North Vietnam, the war has constantly escalated in so far as it has gradually engulfed Laos and Cambodia as well as the two Vietnams, and involved ever more destructive American fire power.
The recent summit meeting between the Soviet and American leaders has confirmed the trend towards close relations between the two countries. It would seem that this kind of political summitry is to become a regular feature of the international calendar.
For some weeks now, all the headlines of the world’s press have been concentrating, quite properly, on the Middle East war, the emerging oil crisis and the continuing saga of political corruption and deceit within the United States. We have had, therefore, little or no opportunity to be reminded of the forgotten but unrelenting war in Indochina.
The conduct of Australia’s foreign policy under the Rudd and Gillard governments was anything but inspiring. Under Tony Abbott, we have so far been treated to a succession of gaffes bordering on farce.
The course considered some of the most pressing questions facing the Australian Islamic community, including the question of terrorism, the ‘war on terror’, and the so-called ‘clash of civilisations’. Is such a clash the cause of the dramatic events we witness at the local through to the global levels, or are there less emotive yet more critical factors that must be understood?
A series of 10-week and 6-week courses offered each year with the aim of developing better community understanding of the dynamics of a rapidly globalising world and Australia's place in it.
Each year the course attracted between 35 and 70 participants, most of them working in education, government, the professions, media, and religious and community organisations, as well as a number of students.
Despite Australia's obvious national interests in the Middle East, our leaders have been strangely silent about the alarming security threats in that region, write Joseph A Camilleri and NAJ Taylor.
The article was published online on the ABC's The Drum
