The Avoidable War

The Avoidable War PDF Author: Kevin Rudd
Publisher: Hachette UK
ISBN: 0733648517
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 502

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Book Description
A war between China and the US would be catastrophic, deadly, and destructive. Unfortunately, it is no longer unthinkable. The relationship between the US and China, the world's two superpowers, is peculiarly volatile. It rests on a seismic fault of cultural misunderstanding, historical grievance, and ideological incompatibility. No other nations are so quick to offend and be offended. Their militaries play a dangerous game of chicken, corporations steal intellectual property, intelligence satellites peer and AI technicians plot. The capacity for either country to cross a fatal line grows daily. Former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who has studied, lived in, and worked with China for more than forty years, is one of the very few people who can offer real insight into the mindsets of the leadership whose judgement will determine if a war will be fought. The Avoidable War demystifies the actions of both sides, explaining and translating them for the benefit of the other. Geopolitical disaster is still avoidable, but only if these two giants can find a way to coexist without betraying their core interests through what Rudd calls "managed strategic competition". Should they fail, down that path lies the possibility of a war that could rewrite the future of both countries, and the world. "A lifelong student of China, Kevin Rudd has become one of today's most thoughtful analysts of China's development. The Avoidable War focuses on the signal challenge posed by China's evolution to America and to world order. Can the US and China avoid sleepwalking into a conflict? Rudd offers constructive steps for the two powers to stabilize their relations." HENRY A. KISSINGER

The Avoidable War

The Avoidable War PDF Author: Kevin Rudd
Publisher: Hachette UK
ISBN: 0733648517
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 502

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Book Description
A war between China and the US would be catastrophic, deadly, and destructive. Unfortunately, it is no longer unthinkable. The relationship between the US and China, the world's two superpowers, is peculiarly volatile. It rests on a seismic fault of cultural misunderstanding, historical grievance, and ideological incompatibility. No other nations are so quick to offend and be offended. Their militaries play a dangerous game of chicken, corporations steal intellectual property, intelligence satellites peer and AI technicians plot. The capacity for either country to cross a fatal line grows daily. Former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who has studied, lived in, and worked with China for more than forty years, is one of the very few people who can offer real insight into the mindsets of the leadership whose judgement will determine if a war will be fought. The Avoidable War demystifies the actions of both sides, explaining and translating them for the benefit of the other. Geopolitical disaster is still avoidable, but only if these two giants can find a way to coexist without betraying their core interests through what Rudd calls "managed strategic competition". Should they fail, down that path lies the possibility of a war that could rewrite the future of both countries, and the world. "A lifelong student of China, Kevin Rudd has become one of today's most thoughtful analysts of China's development. The Avoidable War focuses on the signal challenge posed by China's evolution to America and to world order. Can the US and China avoid sleepwalking into a conflict? Rudd offers constructive steps for the two powers to stabilize their relations." HENRY A. KISSINGER

The PM Years

The PM Years PDF Author: Kevin Rudd
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 9781760556686
Category : Australia
Languages : en
Pages : 672

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Book Description
It was the coup that killed Australian politics. Less than three years after taking government in a landslide election victory, Kevin Rudd was betrayed by his deputy and the factional powerbrokers of the Australian Labor Party, the 'Faceless Men', despite enjoying historically high personal and party approval ratings. The betrayal of June 2010 is the most significant Australian political event of the century. No prime minister including Rudd has since seen out a full term before being dethroned by their own caucus. But how did party games in Canberra spiral so catastrophically out of control?Kevin Rudd defeated John Howard on a platform of fresh ideas, progressive innovation and new leadership. He inherited two wars and the legacy of eleven years of conservative economic mismanagement. And within months of taking office, his new government would face the greatest economic cataclysm since the Great Depression - the Global Financial Crisis of 2008. But none of these deterred Rudd from his vision of bringing Australia into the modern age.In witty, forthright and audaciously honest prose, Rudd recounts his early triumphs and challenges in the hard business of government. But beyond the policy goals he kicked - from raising the pension to axing WorkChoices to laying the foundation for a decades-long Labor dream of paid parental leave - he takes us into cabinet, the prime minister's office and the back-corridor conversations that reshaped the country. We learn of the wheeling and dealing of governance as Rudd works with President Obama in the face of the financial crisis, apologises to the Stolen Generations and ratifies the Kyoto Protocol. Yet regardless of Rudd's efforts to combat climate change and his success in keeping Australia out of recession - the great moral and economic challenges of our generation - dark forces within his own party conspired against him. The unceremonious removal of a first-term prime minister from office shocked Rudd as much as it did the nation.Despite great pain, Rudd continued to serve his party, and his country, as backbencher and foreign minister. He documents his time in the wilderness before his brief resurrection as Labor leader and the 2013 election, retaking the party after it had truly 'lost its way'.After years of silence, the 26th Prime Minister of Australia is finally on the record about his time in government, in this second volume of his autobiography. This is the memoir of a prime minister full of energy and ideals, while battling the greatest trials of the modern age. This is Kevin Rudd's response to the ultimate political - and personal - betrayal.'Kevin is somebody who I probably share as much of a world view as any world leader out there. I find him smart but humble. He works wonderfully in multilateral settings; he's always constructive, incisive. And you know I think he is, like me, a pragmatic person. I think he comes to the job wanting to provide better opportunities not just for this generation but for the next. But I think you know he's somebody who isn't an academic, or just thinking about abstract ideas; I think he's constantly thinking in very practical terms about how to get something done.' BARACK OBAMA

The Rudd Government

The Rudd Government PDF Author: Chris Aulich
Publisher: ANU E Press
ISBN: 1921862076
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
"This edited collection examines Commonwealth administration under the leadership Prime Minister Kevin Rudd from 2007-2010. This was a remarkable period in Australian history: Rudd’s government was elected in 2007 with an ambitious program for change. However, as the chapters in this book demonstrate, these ambitions were thwarted by a range of factors, not the least being Rudd's failure to press ahead when he confronted 'road blocks' such the ETS or managing his massive agenda which constantly elevated issues to 'first order priority'. Although he started his term with stratospheric approval ratings, only two years later his support had collapsed and on 24 July 2010 he became the first sitting Prime Minister to be removed by his own Party before the expiry of his first term. In this book, expert contributors consider the Rudd Government’s policy, institutional and political legacy. The 14 chapters are organised into four sections, outlining the issues and agendas that guided Rudd’s government, changes to the institutions of state such as the public service and parliament, followed by discussions of key issues and policies that marked Rudd's term in office. The final section examines Rudd’s leadership and reflects on the personal foibles and political factors that brought his Prime Ministership undone. The Rudd Government has been produced by the ANZSOG Institute for Governance at the University of Canberra. It is the tenth in a series of books on successive Commonwealth administrations. Each volume has provided a chronicle and commentary of major events, policies and issues that have dominated successive administrations since 1983. As with previous volumes in the series, contributors have been drawn from a range of universities and other organisations."--Publisher's website.

Not for the Faint-Hearted

Not for the Faint-Hearted PDF Author: Kevin Rudd
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 9781743534830
Category : Australia
Languages : en
Pages : 688

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Book Description
In 2007, Kevin Rudd became only the third Labor prime minister since the Second World War, after Whitlam and Hawke, to win government from opposition. In doing so he also defeated, and unseated, John Howard, the longest-serving conservative prime minister since Menzies.So who was the man behind the phenomenal success of the Kevin07 campaign? This Mandarin-speaking professional diplomat, committed Christian and self-described policy wonk, who grew up as the son of a dairy farmer in rural Queensland to become the 26th prime minister of Australia?While journalists, the professional commentariat and Rudd's political foes have together felled forests writing about the 'real' Kevin Rudd, until now he has refused to provide any written response to his many critics. That changes with this volume, which takes us to his election as prime minister in 2007. This is the first time we hear from the man himself, in his own words, about what makes him tick.With a level of self-reflection, and a capacity for sending himself up that is rarely seen in political autobiography, Rudd chronicles a childhood shaped by the love of his mother and tragically disrupted by the death of his father when he was eleven - an event that left the family without a home or an income, and which would foster in him a visceral passion for social justice, and the foundations of his own political vision.He tells of his years as a budding China scholar, his many misadventures as a young diplomat in Stockholm and Beijing, his marriage to the remarkable Th�r�se Rein and the centrality of his tight-knit family to both his private and public lives. He takes us through his years as Queensland's most powerful public servant during the days of the Goss government, and the soul-destroying moment of losing his first election to Federal Parliament in 1996, before finally prevailing through the maze of Labor factional politics to win his seat in 1998.Rudd's account of the next nine long years in Opposition lays bare the inner workings of our national politics, including the absurdities of the factional system, the essential nature of Australian conservatism, and the arrogance of the Howard government, culminating in Howard's two greatest follies: the decision to take Australia to war in Iraq, and the introduction of WorkChoices. He also describes the monumental task of wresting office from a conservative prime minister who tried every trick in the book to hold on to power.Rudd also carefully chronicles the evolution of his own deepest beliefs, values and political convictions over many decades, long before his entry to Parliament. He describes his book as 'an essay in encouragement' for those considering a public life who are committed to changing the world for the many, not the few, but are uncertain if they have the stomach for it.This is an optimistic book, written with passion, conviction and insight. It is the first in a two-volume autobiography. It covers the unlikely rise of the 'boy from Eumundi' to the most powerful office in the land.

Kevin Rudd

Kevin Rudd PDF Author: Nicholas Stuart
Publisher: Scribe Publications
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
Kevin Rudd emerged after a period of prolonged instability and internal strife within the federal ALP to establish himself as a popular leader who could unify his party and mount a real challenge to John Howard. The early reaction to his leadership, from both voters and his political adversaries, suggests that he is widely regarded as Labor's best hope in a decade of ending the Howard ascendancy. Kevin Rudd: an unauthorised political biography explores the events that have made this ambitious, self-reliant man, and the influences that have shaped his vision for the future of Australia. Based on extensive interviews with the main participants (except with Rudd himself, who refused to be interviewed), Canberra journalist Nicholas Stuart traces Rudd's life from his childhood on a Queensland dairy farm and the family's struggle after the tragic death of his father to the present. He examines in detail Rudd's university years, his diplomatic service in Stockholm and Beijing, his political apprenticeship as Wayne Goss's chief of staff and later head of the cabinet office, his entry into federal politics and his eventual rapprochement with Julia Gillard, and the background story of his ultimate emergence as Labor leader. Kevin Rudd: an unauthorised political biography is a comprehensive, spin-free examination of the making of this key player in Australian political life. It is essential reading for anyone interested in the future of Australia.

Kevin Rudd

Kevin Rudd PDF Author: Patrick Weller
Publisher: Melbourne Univ. Publishing
ISBN: 0522867324
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 404

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Book Description
It was a very different Kevin Rudd who returned to office in 2013. Kevin 07 was a fresh face and a new image: the convivial, Mandarin-speaking nerd who seemed so different from past leaders and who held so much potential. By 2013 Rudd retained some of his popularity but none of his novelty. The Opposition could say nothing derogatory about him that his colleagues had not already said. A series of policy grenades had to be defused. His second term was to be short, brutal and nasty. Yet, despite his defeat, Kevin Rudd was an unusual Labor leader and prime minister. Political scientist and biographer Patrick Weller spent several years observing and talking to Rudd and the people around him to explain how one person came to the job and sought to meet its demands. Weller takes us back to Rudd's boyhood in Nambour, son of a poor Queensland dairy farmer; to a member without a faction who led a bitterly factionalised party; to the only federal Labor leader to win a majority since Paul Keating in 1993; and to only the second prime minister since 1914 to be sworn in for a second time. This book has the advantage of interviews in 2008 and 2009 with ministers who were then supporters but who became diehard enemies. Weller also had the benefit of unique access to the Prime Minister's Office. His biography is a revealing account of the man who became prime minister - twice.

Inside Kevin07

Inside Kevin07 PDF Author: Christine Jackman
Publisher: Melbourne Univ. Publishing
ISBN: 0522855725
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
"The book is an inside look at the successful Labor campaign that made Kevin Rudd prime minister in 2007."--Provided by publisher.

Campaign Ruby

Campaign Ruby PDF Author: Jessica Rudd
Publisher: Text Publishing
ISBN: 1921656573
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 332

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Book Description
When she gets the email announcing her redundancy, Ruby Stanhope hopes to maintain the composure expected of your average London investment banker. Instead, the next day's hangover brings two unfortunate discoveries. First, her impromptu reply to the bosses has gone viral, published everywhere from Facebook to the Financial Times. Second, she has a non-refundable, same-day ticket to Melbourne thanks to a dangerous cocktail of Victorian pinot noir, broadband internet and a dash of melancholy. Landing in Australia, Ruby plans a quiet stay with her aunt in the Yarra Valley - but a party at the local winery results in an unexpected job offer- financial policy adviser to the Federal Leader of the Opposition. Intrigued, Ruby heads to Melbourne for morning coffee with the Chief of Staff - and finds herself in the middle of the Treasurer's overthrow of the Prime Minister and the announcement of an early election. Rookie Ruby, dubbed 'Roo' by her Aussie colleagues, is thrown into the campaign and spends four weeks circumnavigating Australia while trying to stay afloat in the deep end of politics. Through trial and plenty of error (including wardrobe malfunctions, media mishaps and a palate for unsavoury men) she finds passion, not just a flair, for her new career. With its light touch and deft comic instincts, Campaign Rubyis a delightful combination of fashion, faux pas, falling for the wrong man and the unexpected fun of federal politics.

The Rudd Rebellion

The Rudd Rebellion PDF Author: Bruce Hawker
Publisher: Melbourne Univ. Publishing
ISBN: 0522864503
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 245

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Book Description
This is a fascinating account of one of the most challenging political campaigns Australia has ever seen. From the detailed war-gaming of potential political outcomes to the nail-biting lead-up to the polls. . . what really happened on that campaign trail? How did Rudd resume the prime ministership? Did his ultimate push come too late, or was saving the furniture the best the ALP could hope for? These diaries reveal the sense of urgency and the size of the hurdles to be overcome in the remarkably short time that Team Rudd was given to try to turn around the Government’s fortunes. They are a rare insight into the complexities of running a campaign—the strategic and tactical decisions that challenged the team every day as they tried to snatch an unlikely win. Framed by a prologue and epilogue to set the scene and to analyse the election wash-up, this is a candid, blow-by-blow account of what really went on.

Triumph and Demise

Triumph and Demise PDF Author: Paul Kelly
Publisher: Melbourne Univ. Publishing
ISBN: 0522866816
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 630

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Book Description
Drawing on more than sixty on-the-record interviews with all the major players, Triumph and Demise is full of remarkable disclosures. It is the inside account of the hopes, achievements and bitter failures of the Labor Government from 2007 to 2013. Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard came together to defeat John Howard, formed a brilliant partnership and raised the hopes of the nation. Yet they fell into tension and then hostility under the pressures of politics and policy. Veteran journalist Paul Kelly probes the dynamics of the Rudd-Gillard partnership and dissects what tore them apart. He tells the full story of Julia Gillard's tragedy as our first female prime minister—her character, Rudd's destabilisation, the carbon tax saga and how Gillard was finally pulled down on the eve of the 2013 election. Kelly documents the most misunderstood event in these years—the rise of Tony Abbott and the reason for his success. It was Abbott's performance that denied Rudd and Gillard the chance to recover. Labor misjudged Abbott and paid the price. Kelly writes with a keen eye and fearless determination. His central theme is that Australian politics has entered a crisis of the system that, unless corrected, will diminish the lives of all Australians.