Global Roaming with Geraldine Doogue and Hamish Macdonald

As long-held relationships between the US and traditional allies like Canada and the UK unravel, does Australia need to start eyeing the emergency exit? 
Does Australia need a plan B? That was the topic at a major United States Studies Centre debate in Sydney held earlier this month between former department of Foreign Affairs secretary Peter Varghese and former Home Affairs secretary Mike Pezullo, hosted by Global Roaming's Geraldine Doogue.
On today's episode of Global Roaming, Geraldine Doogue and Nick Bryant discuss the major arguments of the debate, the assumptions and myths underpinning the relationship between Australia and the US, and whether Australia might be more independent in its foreign policy than some detractors might have thought.
Plus, what countries are the best candidates for Australia to forge closer relationships with? And how has the Australian-US relationship changed from Menzies and JFK to Trump and Albanese?
Guests: Peter Varghese, former Secretary of the department of Foreign Affairs and Trade & Mike Pezullo, former secretary of the Department of Home Affairs.
Get in touch:
If you'd like to attend the 2026 ABC Boyer Lectures in Sydney on October 14th, please email us at global.roaming@abc.net.au
Please note tickets are limited.
Find all the episodes of Global Roaming now via the ABC Listen App or wherever you get your podcasts.

It's been called the largest mass abduction of children since World War II. Tens of thousands of Ukrainian children have been taken by Russia since the full-scale invasion began, and many have never returned.
ABC Europe correspondent Kathryn Diss joins Geraldine Doogue and Latika Bourke to explain what investigators, lawyers and Ukrainian officials say is a systematic effort to separate children from their families, erase their Ukrainian identity and absorb them into Russia.
Kathryn describes the underground network trying to bring children home, the obstacles facing rescue missions, and the obfuscation strategy employed by the Russian government.Guest: Kathryn Diss, ABC's Europe Correspondent
Get in touch:
If you'd like to attend the 2026 ABC Boyer Lectures in Sydney on October 14th, please email us at global.roaming@abc.net.au

Three years after October 7, the Middle East that emerged from the attacks looks very different from the one that existed before them.
In this special Global Roaming roundtable, Geraldine Doogue, Laura Tingle, Latika Bourke and Hamish Macdonald examine how the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023, and the war that followed have reshaped Israel, Palestine and the wider region.
They discuss the trauma that still defines Israeli society, the unresolved questions around security failures on the day, and why many Israelis remain focused on accountability for what happened.
The conversation also explores Gaza's future, the decline of Hamas's leadership, and whether new governance plans backed by regional and international actors could eventually create a path forward.
Plus, the role of Iran, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey in a region whose balance of power is still shifting.
Get in touch:
We'd love to hear from you! Email us at global.roaming@abc.net.au
Find all the episodes of Global Roaming now via the ABC Listen App or wherever you get your podcasts.

Eight months into the war between Iran, Israel and the US, the Middle East's old order is being redrawn, while opportunities and pitfalls abound. Geraldine Doogue and Nick Bryant ask Middle East scholar James Dorsey how Gulf states like Saudi Arabia and the UAE are navigating a world where the US is no longer a guaranteed protector, why the Houthis remain a potent force in Yemen, and why Dorsey believes a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians may now be genuinely unworkable. Plus: new sectarian unrest in Bahrain, the shrinking autonomy of Kurdish forces in Syria and Iraq, and what the UK's decision to send air refuelling support to Saudi Arabia signals about where the region is headed next.
Guest: James Dorsey, scholar and author of the newsletter The Turbulent World
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We'd love to hear from you! Email us at global.roaming@abc.net.au

China's ultra-rich have started quietly selling down stakes in their own companies ahead of a looming October 22 deadline that will close a decades-old tax loophole on offshore family trusts. 
Geraldine Doogue and Nick Bryant ask International Intrigue's Jeremy Dicker what's driving Xi Jinping's push to tax China's wealthy under the banner of "common prosperity," and what a historic property crash and hundreds of billions in capital flight reveal about the health of the world's second-largest economy. 
Plus: what this year's aviation awards reveal about the soft-power battle being waged in business class, and a cold war turns up the heat in South Korea after a landmine blast on the DMZ. Is North Korea to blame?
Guest: Jeremy Dicker, managing editor, International IntrigueGet in touch:
We'd love to hear from you! Email us at global.roaming@abc.net.au