The Best of Inquirer

Two international stories came to define 2014 for Australians – the rise of the barbarous Islamic State and the shooting down of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17.

The Best of Inquirer

Two international stories came to define 2014 for Australians: The rise of the barbarous Islamic State and the shooting down of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17.

From the moment footage emerged of James Foley kneeling in the desert at the mercy of an executioner with a British accent the world has been reeling. Inquirer commissioned counter-insurgency expert David Kilcullen to write a three-part series on the causes of this brand of terror and the immense challenges the movement poses for the West. Closer to home Paul Maley and Greg Bearup tapped into the network of radicalised young Muslims in Sydney to produce their superb Journey to Jihad investigation. There was only one thing worse than seeing photographs of distant Ukrainian fields strewn with suitcases, fuselage and bodies, some of them Australian, some of them children, and that was being told that pro-Russian militants would not permit inspection of the site. Inquirer turned to the geopolitical expertise of foreign editor Greg Sheridan to explain the unfolding diplomatic quagmire, and to capture the national mood.

If anyone was expecting a quiet year in politics after the turbulent Rudd/Gillard era, they would have been disappointed. Between the Budget impasse, the new players in the Senate and the drama surrounding the Prime Minister’s chief of staff, there has hardly been a slow week. Editor-at-large Paul Kelly received a Walkley for his book Triumph and Demise; Inquirer’s exclusive extract on Rudd’s fatal flaw was a must-read. In December, Dennis Shanahan wrote what everyone was thinking when he said the new government had lost its way.

Meanwhile, Inquirer’s other core subjects - education, indigenous issues, climate and the economy - were given rigorous workouts; calling out for special mention was Noel Pearson’s poignant essay on how race has become irrelevant.