Australia’s strategic policy needs to come back home
Decades of small ideas have left the proud independent history of Australian foreign policy in tatters; a new government must not waste the opportunity to dream big in the national interest.
The new Prime Minister of Australia has some choices to make. For the first time this century, Australia is able to reset its geopolitical posture. The Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister are right to be eager to reestablish norms as a global citizen, but the world is not how it used to be, neither are the international norms that a Labor Government knew ten years ago. The international order has shifted dramatically in the last decade, strategic competition between the United States, Russia and China have opened up the reality of a new cold war, now spilling out into open warfare in Ukraine, threatening to overturn global stability as we have come to know it, and many countries, including Australia, are caught in the middle.
In these tectonic geopolitical shifts, Australia has the opportunity to realign its foreign outlook and reconstitute an independent, regionally focused foreign policy that benefits us all and secures our future. After decades of strategic apathy and diplomatic small-mindedness, the Labor Government can fill the vacuum with big ideas. It is not obliged to overcommit to the the frameworks of foreign imposed grand strategic narratives, nor should it. There is more value to establishing meaningful ties in our region and encouraging global consensus, than overpromising uncertain support for unclear objectives in unpredictable conflicts that may not benefit the national interest. Or the interest of the world.
From a QUAD meeting only days after winning the election, to the latest delegation in and around the NATO Summit in Madrid, the Albanese government has pledged support to NATO and their goals in the escalating war in Ukraine, and joined in open condemnation of Moscow, and now Beijing, the closest geographically located superpower to our island continent and our largest trading partner. Clearly there is a repositioning of the global order at hand, spheres of influence open up as a great power competition unfolds, plunging the planet into a dire period of uncertainty. Canberra does not share the same geographical reality as its northern neighbours and must walk a different path in order to secure its future. It should also be patient when considering it.
Back in the region, Penny Wong has wasted no time in reaching out towards the low-hanging fruit and the diplomatic gains that can be made nearby. This is where the work needs to be done. Albanese’s recent visit to Indonesia has been complemented by Wong’s expeditions to Malaysia and Vietnam and her determination towards engagement with the nations of the Pacific has been noticed and is beginning to swing the tide. The newly appointed foreign minister looks to the right places, and the government must continue to prioritise this approach in its diplomatic agenda. There are real gains that can be made as a significant player in the region, as opposed to the complexities of being a backbench contributor on the periphery of a faraway pecking order.
https://noahpinion.substack.com/p/indonesia-the-most-amazing-development/comment/7419389
Currently, the futures of Europe and the United States are not entirely clear. What is clear, no matter how we want to see it, is our need to work with our Asian and Pacific partners to strengthen ties and reach an accommodation with China, whatever it may be - if this is absent, it is all to no avail. There is no doubt that relations have soured between Beijing and Canberra, but the solution to this dilemma is not in taking steps to make it inevitably worse.
Over sixty-five percent of our trade is with Asia, it is the region we prefer to go on holiday, and it’s the place where our future will be made one way or another. Establishing a middle ground in the region is a key challenge for this new government, requiring discipline and foresight, and more importantly, creativity and innovation to balance Australian foreign policy and scratch out a sound position to ensure its best interests regarding its two most important and increasingly delicate relationships, those with Washington and Beijing.
After flying around to join EU and NATO events, wouldn’t it be good to gain some inspiration for a Pacific Union (PU) back here at home? Why not a South Pacific Treaty Organisation (SPTO) while we are at it? As France ensures domestic economic security with its partners in the BENELUX (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxemburg), like the members of BRICS and economies of NAFTA 2.0, could we not set up something similar with Malaysia, Indonesia, New Zealand and our Pacific family (MINZAP)? Could we dream something of a regional version of a Belt and Road from Malacca to the Cook Straits? Who knows, but it’s still inspiring to think about, and perhaps, considering all the mistakes being made by our global partners far away, we should try having a go.
As the viability of global supply chains are under strain from shifting geopolitical realities, securing trade must be a priority for this government. The trade protectionism of the European Union and the powerful farmers lobbies in the Unites States have proven time-and-time again as limitations to our opportunities in these markets and will do so again no differently. We can no longer pretend that there is sound long-term value in these trade relationships. Australia must establish multilateral trade alliances with the dynamic emerging economies of our region in the Asia Pacific and develop exclusive partnerships with our Pacific family, not putting our focus into unnecessary wars along the corridors of Europe and bending to the northern inspired ambitions of AUKUS, the QUAD and NATO.
Selling Tim Tam’s and Vegemite in the UK is not as sensible as developing already vital and important trade relationships with the emerging markets of Asia and this must be prioritised. Talking grand in far-away lands about the farthest away of wars should not be preferred to building relationships with the nearest of neighbours. Australia has a clear choice.
A regional focus was once commonplace in the post-Whitlam foreign policy, a geographical awareness among the Australian population was fostered by governments who recognised the importance of Australia in the region, and what’s more, saw the value in pursuing regional diplomacy in the national interest of the country and the benefits of focusing on our place in the world.
Thinking big in this century is a concept that has been somewhat abandoned by Australian decision makers in this era of strategic autopilot, but it has been an integral legacy of Australian foreign policy in the century before it, and it must resume under this new government. The grinding war on terror, wars in Afghanistan, and Iraq, refueling Saudi bombers en-route to Yemen, operations in the grey zones on the other side of the Sykes-Picot line in Syria – these all contradict the previous decades of robust regional engagement with Indonesia, Malaysia, our neighbours in South-East Asia and the Pacific, and our legacy as a provider of aid, diplomatic assistance and pragmatism. Somewhere along the way we have lost our bearings, and now we have the opportunity to choose our legacy again, based on who we are now and who we want to be.
We should be wary about posturing for another term of northern hemispheric dreaming, when we could be focusing on building an integrated regional foundation that could secure an independent future for our nation, having minimal impact on existing relationships, and potentially embellishing our stance as a respected independent minded and thoughtful global partner. In the last two decades, our strategic policy has been based in distant lands, tuned to the desires of others who may not see the challenges before us: it is time for it to come back home where it belongs.