The Sydney Morning Herald logo
Advertisement
Clinton Fernandes

Clinton Fernandes

Professor Clinton Fernandes is part of University of NSW’s Future Operations Research Group which analyses the threats, risks and opportunities that military forces will face in the future. He is a former intelligence officer in the Australian Army.

AS US President, Donald Trump has clearance to use nuclear weapons quickly.

Trump’s threats to ‘kill a civilisation’ were unhinged. That’s exactly how a nuclear option works

The US president has the power to unilaterally launch nuclear strikes. He is briefed by the military before taking office – and his advisers have no power to stop him.

  • Clinton Fernandes

Latest

The Trump administration is a kleptocracy. That alone offers hope for an end to the Iran war

The US president and his associates have significant financial investments in pro-US Gulf states, and these may be ruined in an Iranian retaliatory campaign.

  • Clinton Fernandes
President Donald Trump

There’s a reason Trump set his 48-hour deadline on a Saturday. It had nothing to do with Iran

Trump didn’t follow through on his threatened attacks. The response by the Iranians shows they understand the constraints on the US president.

  • Clinton Fernandes

Trump wants out of this costly war. The Iranian regime has him trapped

For the ordinary Trump-voting American, the Middle East conflict is a long way away. But what Americans will have noticed is that petrol prices have soared more than US80¢ a gallon.

  • Clinton Fernandes
How shipping changed in the Strait of Hormuz during the first week of the war in Iran.

Trump has a limited time to end the war – perhaps a week at most

Iran new leaders may be willing to subordinate their foreign and defence policies to US objectives to retain control of their network of lucrative business enterprises.

  • Clinton Fernandes
US President Donald Trump delivers the State of the Union on February 24.

Trump’s attacks are not about Iran. He’s after a much bigger fish

Behind the turbulence that characterises US President Donald Trump’s actions in Iran lies a shrewd geopolitical strategy.

  • Clinton Fernandes
Advertisement
Donald Trump wants the US, not China, to write the standards of the global economy.

Cuckold Europe, prop up dictators: Trump’s global plot laid bare

The US president’s shifting of the geopolitical tectonic plates may seem chaotic, but it’s not. He is a staunch sovereigntist and a shrewd geopolitical calculus is at work.

  • Clinton Fernandes
Done deal ... Anthony Albanese, Joe Biden and Rishi Sunak during the AUKUS announcement at Naval Base Point Loma in San Diego on Monday.

AUKUS subs deal binds us to a country that can change its mind on whim

Australia has placed a very big bet on two unknowns: that the US’s internal political stability and the US-led global order will endure into the 2070s.

  • Clinton Fernandes
Australia plans to build nuclear-powered submarines like the American Virginia-class boats.

Scott Morrison’s booby trap: Buying US nuclear submarines is a huge mistake

Some submarines will eventually be located here, with Australian flags and personnel, but they’re essentially US boats operated in the great power’s interests.

  • Clinton Fernandes