A View From Afar on 26 August 2021. Video: EveningReport.nz
Asia Pacific Report newsdesk
In this this week’s episode of A View from Afar today, Selwyn Manning and Paul Buchanan are joined by Asia Pacific Report editor Dr David Robie to examine instability in the Pacific – specifically to identify what is going on in New Caledonia, Fiji and Samoa.
This is the second part of a two-part Pacific special.
In the second half, Buchanan and Manning analyse the latest developments on Afghanistan and consider whether the humiliating withdrawal of the US suggests an end to liberal internationalism.
- VIEW MORE: The first part of the two-part Pacific special of A View From Afar
- More on Afghanistan with A View From Afar
Specifically the first half of this episode looks at:
- New Caledonia where there will be a third and final referendum on Kanaky independence;
- Samoa where there has been a new government installed — the first in four decades — but only after the old guard attempted to resist democratic change, a move that has caused a constitutional crisis; and
- Fiji Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama has had a new addition to his political headaches — the question of how Fiji gets its NGO and aid workers out of Afghanistan.
In the second half of this episode Paul Buchanan and Selwyn Manning dig deep into the latest from Afghanistan.
The deadline for Western personnel to have withdrawn from Afghanistan is looming. The Taliban leadership states it will not extend the negotiated deadline of August 31, and US President Joe Biden insists that the US will not request nor assert an extension.
But Biden has instructed his military leaders to prepare for a contingency plan.
- What does this humiliating withdrawal indicate to the world?
- Is this the realisation of a diminishing United States, a superpower in decline?
- Can the US reassert itself as the world’s policeman, or does Afghanistan confirm the US is in retreat and signal an end of liberal internationalism?
Watch this podcast on video-on-demand on YouTube and see earlier episodes at EveningReport.nz or subscribe to the Evening Report podcast here.
The MIL Network’s podcast A View from Afar was Nominated as a Top Defence Security Podcast by Threat.Technology – a London-based cyber security news publication.
A collaboration between EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz.
