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26 SEPTEMBER
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US President Donald Trump addressed the United Nations General Assembly in New York overnight, excoriating the "ideology of globalism" and multinational authorities, criticising China for its trade practices and describing Iran as a "corrupt dictatorship".
On North Korea – a nation he famously threatened to "totally destroy" in his speech to the United Nations last year – Trump touted what he views as progress on the Korean Peninsula. He also used Venezuela as an example of how he believes socialism destroys nations.
The assembly laughed when the president claimed his administration has accomplished perhaps more than any other, to which he responded: "Didn't expect that reaction, but that's OK."
Trump made no mention of Russia's interference in Syria or meddling in the US presidential election, but did elicit more laughs after blasting Germany's dependence on Russian oil.
NEWS WRAP
D-Day for Kavanaugh
Republicans seem intent on moving full-speed ahead with Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation as a Supreme Court justice, regardless of the outcome of Thursday's testimony from his accuser Christine Blasey Ford. In her column for The Sydney Morning Herald this week, honorary associate Nicole Hemmer looks at how, 27 years after Anita Hill testified against Clarence Thomas, we find ourselves in such a similar spot. Not because nothing has changed, Hemmer writes, but because only one party has. READ MORE HERE.
- And what about the impact on the midterms? A failure to confirm a conservative majority on the Supreme Court prior to November may not play well with the Republican base – and could see Democrats attempt to drive more people to the polls by reframing the elections as a fight for control of the country's highest court. To discuss the potential midterms fallout, CEO Simon Jackman joined the ABC's Eleanor Hall on The World Today program this morning. LISTEN HERE.
- Comedian Bill Cosby was sentenced to 3-10 years in prison Tuesday for sexually assaulting a woman in his home. Cosby, who has for years dodged accusations that he had preyed on women, said he will appeal the conviction and was denied bail and ordered to prison immediately. A publicist for Cosby, Andrew Wyatt, decried the verdict outside the courtroom and invoked an ongoing “sex war” in this country, tying Cosby’s fate to that of the Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. READ MORE HERE.
- Foreign Minister Marise Payne met her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in New York this week, with the pair expressing support for multilateral free trade at the same time one of China's top trade negotiators accused Washington of putting "a knife to the neck" with massive tariffs. Senior fellow Jared Mondschein spoke to Bloomberg Television this week about the ongoing US-China trade war and how he thinks it will end. WATCH HERE.
- Bob Woodward's book about the Trump White House, Fear, debuted at No. 1 on the coveted New York Times best sellers list last week. Visiting fellow Bruce Wolpe describes it as a "bunker-buster" in his review for Fairfax Media: "a massive smart bomb that burrows under 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and blows open this White House's foundations, shaking its occupants to their core". READ MORE HERE.
It's not something that we want to do, to blame the accuser or to try and second guess the accuser. We don't know the situation she was going through 35 years ago. We don't know the circumstances.
US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley
CNN's 'State of the Union'
23 September 2018
ANALYSIS
Women candidates in the midterm elections
Matilda Steward
Research associate, Foreign Policy and Defence program
Zoe Meers
Research assistant and data visualisation analyst
The 2018 midterm elections are a record-breaking year for women in American politics, with more women running for US Congress and state-wide office than any previous election.
This year’s wave of women candidates is notable beyond its sheer size. It is also incredibly diverse. A greater number of women of colour, Indigenous women, and those from LGBTQ or religious-minority communities have announced their candidacies for elected office, increasing the visibility of these sometimes-marginalised segments of the American population.
The surge in women candidates has so-far been accompanied by promising victories in many primary battles and special elections. In the context of highly-publicised discussions of gender inequality and sexual harassment, many commentators have drawn parallels between the current political climate and 1992’s Year of the Woman, which led to an unprecedented number of women entering the US House of Representatives in a single election.
As with most other democracies, like Australia, women are heavily under-represented in American political office. They are only 20 per cent of the 535 total members of US Congress, including 23 senators and 84 representatives. Eleven US states lack a single woman in their delegation to the national legislature altogether.
While the number of women candidates contesting races up- and down-the-ballot is a promising sign for increased female representation in American politics, November’s midterm elections will still pose an uphill battle. Many women who have secured their party’s nomination will go on to face difficult contests against entrenched incumbents or in districts that heavily favour the opposing party.
Despite the record-number of women running from both sides of politics, the majority of this year’s momentum is coming from within the Democratic Party. Already, there are almost three times as many Democratic women serving in Congress compared to their Republican counterparts, and November’s midterm elections are likely to exacerbate this disparity.
In early 2018, the number of Democratic women running for the House of Representatives had increased by 146 per cent from the same point in 2016, while for Republican women this increase was only 35 per cent. Not only are more Democratic women running, they are also having greater success: vastly outperforming their Republican counterparts in securing party nominations in primaries.
You can find further data on women candidates and a variety of other explainers on our USSC midterms page.
DIARY
The week ahead
Wedensday, 26 September: President Trump chairs the UN Security Council briefing on "counter-proliferation". He will also have bilateral meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and UK Prime Minister Theresa May.
Thursday, 27 September: Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and his accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, are expected to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Friday, 28 September: The 56th New York Film Festival opens.
Sunday, 30 September: The US government is set to run out of money unless a House spending bill is passed and signed by President Trump.
EVENT
The United States and Asia's Four Flashpoints
Major power competition has returned to Asia. China’s regional ambitions are continuing to expand alongside its increasingly sophisticated armed forces. North Korea’s nuclear arsenal has not been eradicated. Japan and Australia are building up their militaries. And the United States, for so long a stabilising presence in the region, is struggling to form a coherent Asia strategy in the face of erratic policy pronouncements by President Donald Trump. From the Korean Peninsula and Taiwan to the South and East China Seas, the possibility of catastrophe looms ever closer.
What are the risks of strategic competition in Asia? How might regional flashpoints escalate to conflict? And what can Indo-Pacific countries do to reduce the risk of war?
Join Brendan Taylor, author of new book The Four Flashpoints and Associate Professor of Strategic Studies at the Australian National University, Alliance 21 Fellow Madelyn Creedon and Ashley Townshend, the Centre’s Director of Foreign Policy and Defence, for a discussion of these critical geopolitical questions.
This event is the Sydney launch of Brendan Taylor’s The Four Flashpoints: How Asia Goes to War published by La Trobe University Press. Copies of the book will be available for purchase at the event.
DATE & TIME
Monday, 8 October 2018
6pm–7.30pm
LOCATION
Abercrombie Business School Refectory, Level 5, corner of Abercrombie and Codrington Streets, Darlington.
COST
$10
VIDEO
Siblings of Republican Paul Gosar endorse his Democratic opponent in campaign ad
THE WEEK IN TWEETS
#Kavanaugh
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United States Studies Centre
Institute Building H03
University of Sydney NSW 2006
