Our Team

Timothy J. Lynch is professor of political science at the University of Melbourne. He writes on contemporary America and its intersections with Australian life. An award-winning writer, Lynch’s latest book is In the Shadow of the Cold War: American Foreign Policy from George Bush Sr. to Donald Trump. He holds a PhD in political science from Boston College, US, and was twice awarded a Fulbright scholarship. In 2022, he lived in Wyoming, America’s reddest state. He is a citizen of Australia and Great Britain and lives in rural Victoria.

Latest

commentaryCommentary

TOPSHOT - US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and US Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff attend a watch party after a presidential debate with former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at the Cherry Street Pier in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on September 10, 2024. (Photo by Jim WATSON / AFP)

Harris lands more punches, but debate referee was biased

Scoring the debate like a boxing match, there was a clear winner. But the Democrats could have hardly contrived a more Harris-friendly Grand Inquisitor.

Timothy Lynch

commentaryCommentary

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - APRIL 15: Protestors demonstrate at the March for Reproductive Rights organized by Womenâs March L.A. on April 15, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. The march was organized in response to a Texas federal judgeâs ruling to rescind FDA approval of the abortion pill Mifepristone. U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris made a surprise appearance and speech at the event. Mario Tama/Getty Images/AFP (Photo by MARIO TAMA / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP)

Why abortion and slavery are Democrats’ deepest ideologies

Harris does not want abortion ‘safe, legal and celebrated’ only in California and New York. She wants it nationalised into Alabama and Wyoming. This is a recipe for polarisation and conflict.

Timothy Lynch

CommentaryCommentary

10/03/2023: British singer-songwriter Billy Bragg performing at WOMADelaide festival, Botanic Park, Adelaide. Picture: Michael Selge

The education union is run by political children. At least the CFMEU is sticking it to the man.

National Tertiary Education Union was complicit in enabling Hamas sympathisers to occupy our campuses this year. Stuffed under my office door last week was a breathless call to cut ties with the world’s only Jewish state.

Timothy Lynch

commentaryCommentary

EAU CLAIRE, WI - AUGUST 07: Republican vice presidential candidate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) speaks at NMC-Wollard Inc. / Wollard International on August 07, 2024 in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Vance and Democratic presidential candidate, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris are both set to speak at competing events in the same battleground state this week. Adam Bettcher/Getty Images/AFP (Photo by Adam Bettcher / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP)

Win or lose, Vance has sparked a revolution across conservatism

Vance won’t win Trump the centrist voters he needs. But in picking JD Vance, Trump has, possibly inadvertently, guaranteed the transformation of his party – and of American politics.

Timothy Lynch

commentaryCommentary

(FILES) US Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during an Emily's List discussion on reproductive rights one year after the Dobbs decision, at The Mayflower Hotel in Washington, DC, on June 23, 2023. Joe Biden on July 21, 2024 dropped out of the US presidential election and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic Party's new nominee, in a stunning move that upends an already extraordinary 2024 race for the White House. Biden, 81, said he was acting in the "best interest of my party and the country" by bowing to weeks of pressure after a disastrous June debate against Donald Trump stoked worries about his age and mental fitness. (Photo by Brendan Smialowski / AFP)

Trump’s Vance pick means Harris can target the centre

I have argued before that Harris should be the Democratic nominee for president. No one believed I was serious. Now I’m having a laugh even louder than hers.

Timothy Lynch

commentaryCommentary

US Republican candidate Donald Trump is seen with blood on his face surrounded by secret service agents as he is taken off the stage at a campaign event at Butler Farm Show Inc. in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, 2024. Trump was hit in the ear in an apparent assassination attempt by a gunman at a campaign rally on Saturday, in a chaotic and shocking incident that will fuel fears of instability ahead of the 2024 US presidential election. The 78-year-old former president was rushed off stage with blood smeared across his face after the shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania, while the gunman and a bystander were killed and two spectators critically injured. (Photo by Rebecca DROKE / AFP) / QUALITY REPEAT

Assassin’s bullet shows why the left gets history all wrong

Trump’s narrow escape has no big structural explanation. To have world history turn on the turning of Trump’s head is impossible to model or predict. And it’s something the left simply don’t get.

Timothy Lynch

commentaryCommentary

MELBOURNE, MAY 20, 2024: Students and staff at Melbourne University continue to protest for Palestine at the Arts West building. Picture: Mark Stewart

Oh to be glamping in the quad now the ‘revolution’ is here

Why does identity politics remain so attractive, despite the moral contortions it obliges? Opposing Israel is a ‘luxury belief’ for which the protesters derive radical chic.

Timothy Lynch

ReviewReview

Lech Blaine’s punishing assessment of Peter Dutton in the Quarterly Essay is readable and revealing ... but not balanced.

How Dutton was hung, drawn and Quarterly-ed

Lech Blaine’s punishing assessment of Peter Dutton implies he is a race baiter, Pauline Hanson sympathiser, tax dodger, misogynist, climate denier, and a strategic homophobe. The 119-page Quarterly Essay is written for progressive elites – and herein lies part of the problem.

Timothy Lynch

CommentaryCommentary

Claudine Gay, Edgerley Family Dean of Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences, addresses an audience during commencement ceremonies, Thursday, May 25, 2023, on the schools campus, in Cambridge, Mass. Harvard has announced that Gay is to succeed Harvard University Lawrence Bacow, and is to become its new president beginning July 1, 2023. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

US campuses gave us the Great Awokening, now they give us the counter-revolution

The US offers our universities case studies of good and bad. The version of US campus imperialism Australia embraces will have profound consequences.

Timothy Lynch

CommentaryCommentary

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - OCTOBER 14: A woman reacts during a speech by Campaign Director of Yes 23 Dean Parkin at the Inner West for 'Yes2023' official referendum function at Wests Ashfield Leagues Club on October 14, 2023 in Sydney, Australia. A referendum for Australians to decide on an indigenous voice to parliament was held on October 14, 2023 and compelled all Australians to vote by law. Early voting began on Oct. 2, and activity has been intensifying in both the YES and NO camps, with multiple polls showing the YES campaign headed for defeat nationally. Australia requires a "double majority" of both the states and voters across the country to trigger constitutional changes, with most referendums in the past having failed. (Photo by Jenny Evans/Getty Images)

Peak woke: Why the progressive left is losing referendum wars

From Brexit to the voice, to Ireland’s recent referendum, the progressive left is losing big battles in the culture war.

Timothy Lynch

Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/author/timothy-lynch/page/2