Policy by trial and error: how Silicon Valley culture has infiltrated governments
Fleur Johns, Dean and Head of School, University of Sydney Law School, University of Sydney United States foreign policymaking under the second Trump administration is frequently described as erratic and incoherent. We’ve seen the launch of trade wars and actual wars, all without consulting allies first. This administration advances foreign […]
Review:The Meaning of Your Life
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of From Strength to Strength, an account of how the modern world makes meaning so hard to find—and a plan to discover your life’s deepest purpose. If you struggle to discern life’s meaning, you’re not alone. Millions today describe a growing sense […]
Nations will release an extra 400 million barrels of oil to the market. All we need to do now is not panic at the pump
Tony Wood, Senior Fellow in Energy and Climate Change, Grattan Institute Despite being one of the world’s top exporters of fossil fuels (coal and gas), Australia has little left of its own oil. Neither does New Zealand. Both Australia and New Zealand sit at the end of a long supply […]
Canada’s Mark Carney to visit India, Japan and Australia to expand trade partners
Stewart Prest, Lecturer, Political Science, University of British Columbia Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is having a moment. Accordingly, on his visit to India, Japan and Australia, Carney is looking to find partners for his vision. He’s seeking opportunities to improve relations, expand trade and cooperate on issues of Pacific […]
The Elements of Power
A Story of War, Technology, and the Dirtiest Supply Chain on Earth By Nicholas Niarchos The Elements of Power tells the story of the war for the global supply of battery metals—essential for the decarbonisation of our economies—and the terrible, bloody human cost of this badly misunderstood industry Congo is […]
A major overhaul of NZ’s local government is underway – will it really fix what’s broken?
Phil Walter/Getty Images Guy C. Charlton, Associate Professor, University of New England With a general election looming, the largest shake-up of New Zealand’s local government system in three decades sits on the table. New Zealanders are being invited to have their say on the draft policy proposal, Simplifying Local Government, which would fundamentally reshape how […]
David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest at 30
Julian Murphet, Jury Professor of English and Language and Literature, Adelaide University Thirty years ago, living in Cambridge, England, I wandered into Heffers Bookshop and picked up a monstrous new novel on the display table. It had a title out of Hamlet, a Simpsons-sky dustjacket, hundreds of endnotes, and ran […]
Hypocrisy and folly: why Australia’s subservience to Trump’s America is past its use-by date
(Left)Mark Beeson, Adjunct professor, Australia-China Relations Institute, University of Technology Sydney. Turbulence: Australian Foreign Policy in the Trump Era – Clinton Fernandes (Melbourne University Publishing) Clinton Fernandes has established himself as one of the most original and insightful analysts of Australian security policy. An early career with the Australian Army […]
When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows
This is a brilliantly insightful work that explains how we think about each other’s thoughts, ad infinitum. It sounds impossible, but Steven Pinker shows that we do it all the time. This awareness, which we experience as something that is public or “out there,” is called common knowledge, and it […]
Empire of the Elite
By Michael Grynbaum For decades, Condé Nast and its glittering magazines defined how to live the good life in America. The brilliant, complicated, striving characters behind Vogue, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, GQ, Architectural Digest, and many other titles manufactured a vision of luxury and sophistication that shaped consumer habits, cultural trends, intellectual attitudes, and […]
The Opposite of Settling
Forget settling or “settling down” – you deserve a love that upgrades every aspect of your life. A love that empowers you to get hotter, happier, and more fulfilled… together. The host of the podcast New Mindset, Who Dis? helps you find a partnership that fills your life with “can you believe […]
Weekend coming up…
Close the computer and enjoy a good book. Moby Dick Herman Melville The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony – Roberto Calasso The Universal Turing Machine – Richard Beard A Dance to the Music of Time – Anthony Powell Our Man in Havana- Graham Green The […]
Policy by trial and error: how Silicon Valley culture has infiltrated governments
Fleur Johns, Dean and Head of School, University of Sydney Law School, University of Sydney United States foreign policymaking under the second Trump administration is frequently described as erratic and incoherent. We’ve seen the launch of trade wars and actual wars, all without consulting allies first. This administration advances foreign policy through trial actions that are adjusted or abandoned, depending on what happens. The administration has a political vision, but many decisions are not easily reconciled with it. Trump’s approach is not, however, idiosyncratic or perverse. It’s an extreme expression of a decades-long broader shift in governance around the world, including in Australia. Trump’s foreign policy is symptomatic of a turn towards governance by prototype, an approach that is traceable to Silicon Valley. But governments aren’t in charge of products or websites. The mistakes of government can cost, at best, huge amounts of taxpayer money, or at worst, human lives. ‘Prototyping’ policy Governance by prototype is a way of exercising power that relies less on comprehensive strategies and long-term plans, and more on rapid rollout and fast feedback. Prototyping, in this sense, means deploying partial and temporary interventions designed to generate information quickly about what “works”. These prototypes are not policies in the traditional sense. They are intentionally incomplete measures, such as experimental diplomatic signals, test communications, or what commentators sometimes call “minimally viable” policies, borrowing from business development lingo. They are developed just enough to be put into use so governments can see how people react. Many examples of prototyping in policy take the form of digital applications or measures introduced by bypassing full parliamentary or congressional votes. The COVIDSafe app was delivered quickly, but ultimately did little to help contact tracing.David Hunt/AAP In Australia, the CovidSafe app is one noteworthy example from the past decade. In the United States, Trump’s […]