Ever get the impression global leaders are lining up World War !!!?
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Lots of international diplomacy going on - G7 meetings, climate change summits, trade deal announcements.
All the sabre-rattling makes it feel like you're living in a HSC History exam.
I guess the drums of jingoism have been beating incessantly since, well, the last war I suppose, but they seem to have gotten louder since the most recent US election.
Donald Trump was seemingly all about getting cozy with Russia, China, North Korea and anyone else bat-poo mad and/or bad.
Joe Biden, on the other hand, has been standing up to autocratic rivals at any opportunity while at the same giving the impression he could fall down at any given moment if he loses balance.
He branded Putin a killer, warned China about Taiwan, dodged questions about his son's activities in Ukraine.
Nothing hostile, mind you, if you excuse the word genocide, just seeking common ground on who's military and cyber capabilities are more significant.
He later toned down the Putin reference from "killer" to "worthy adversary", leading some to wonder who's hunting who.
I guess, it's all about making America feel great again. And her allies nervous.
Maybe that's why Aussie got a gig at the G7 as a guest.
The meeting certainly seemed a lot about getting European leaders on board to look and talk tough.
Which is never easy when you're French President Emmanuel Macron.
But good to see he backed Aussie in its trade war with China.
In fact all the big liberal democratic powers seemed to promote Aussie as, I don't know, a trigger.
Mr Macron even said he'd look into plugging those leaks in our submarine deal, which are due for delivery in about, what is it? 2050.
The subs I mean, not the leaks.
About the same time we meet our emission reduction targets.
Hopefully we haven't become a target of another kind by then.
PM Scott Morrison meanwhile heralded a historic, new dawn, in-principle, yet to be signed, and let's not get too carried away, trade agreement with Brexit-ed Britain.
The devil will be in the detail, but it appears British Scotch may be cheaper Down Under and Aussie wine will be the same going the other way. So let's drink to that.
It also looks like the guidelines for working holiday visa have been extended.
We could start by granting that Sri Lankan family locked up at Christmas Island since August 2019 a visa to, say, freedom.
Or at least the central Queensland town of Biloela, where they'd been living productively before incarceration and where they'd still be very welcome, according to locals.
They were only trying to escape civil war after all, and you'd hate the shoe ever being on the other foot.
But I guess that's what peace in our time looks like at this time, and any other time, when international tensions are heightened.
