Foreign Minister Penny Wong has delivered (yet) another speech, this time in Washington DC, and Darren thinks it’s a big deal. Is he overreacting? Meanwhile, Allan draws some interesting contrasts analysing the recent 2+2s Australia’s Foreign and Defence Ministers held with their US counterparts (AUSMIN) and then with Japan, and also summarises what we know about the Labor government’s foreign policy so far. Darren’s word of the year is ‘polycrisis’ and he (tries to) explain why, while Allan’s is ‘statecraft’. We thank Walter Colnaghi for research and audio editing and Rory Stenning for composing our theme music. Relevant links Penny Wong, “Speech to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace”, Washington DC, 7 December 2022: https://www.foreignminister.gov.au/minister/penny-wong/speech/speech-carnegie-endowment-international-peace Richard Marles, “Sasakawa Peace Foundation Speech”, Tokyo, 9 December 2022: https://www.minister.defence.gov.au/speeches/2022-12-09/sasakawa-peace-foundation-speech Doug Palmer, “WTO says Trump's steel tariffs violated global trade rules”, Politico, 9 December 2022: https://www.politico.com/news/2022/12/09/wto-ruling-trump-tariffs-violate-rules-00073282 Joint Statement on Australia-U.S. Ministerial Consultations (AUSMIN) 2022: https://www.dfat.gov.au/international-relations/joint-statement-australia-us-ministerial-consultations-ausmin-2022 Tenth Japan-Australia 2+2 Foreign and Defence Ministerial Consultations, Joint Statement, 9 December 2022: https://www.foreignminister.gov.au/minister/penny-wong/media-release/tenth-japan-australia-22-foreign-and-defence-ministerial-consultations Penny Wong, “Why I’m imposing sanctions on human rights abusers”, Sydney Morning Herald, 10 December 2022: https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/penny-wong-why-i-m-imposing-sanctions-on-human-rights-abusers-20221209-p5c51i.html?btis Adam Tooze, “Chartbook #130 Defining polycrisis - from crisis pictures to the crisis matrix”, 24 June 2022: https://adamtooze.substack.com/p/chartbook-130-defining-polycrisis Reuters, “Factbox: Energy crisis revives coal demand and production”, 20 October 2022: https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/energy-crisis-revives-coal-demand-production-2022-10-19/ Tim Schauenberg, “COP27 host Egypt criticized for climate targets, repression”, Deutsche Welle, 6 November 2022: https://www.dw.com/en/cop27-in-sharm-el-sheikh-climate-change-human-rights-violations-and-other-issues-making-waves/a-63624720 Guardian Australia, “Penny Wong on stabilising Australia’s relationship with China”, 26 November 2022: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/audio/2022/nov/26/penny-wong-on-stabilising-australias-relationship-with-china National Security Podcast, “Gareth Evans on repositioning Australia for a new age of geopolitics”, 1 December 2022: https://www.policyforum.net/national-security-podcast-australias-new-geopolitical-outlook/ Ross Douthat, “Hootie and the Blowfish and the End of History”, New York Times, 9 December 2022: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/09/opinion/chatbot-hootie-friends.html