{"id":16678,"date":"2014-10-31T06:00:35","date_gmt":"2014-10-30T19:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=16678"},"modified":"2014-12-01T16:59:44","modified_gmt":"2014-12-01T05:59:44","slug":"learning-to-act-like-a-major-power-australia-as-a-top-20-nation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/learning-to-act-like-a-major-power-australia-as-a-top-20-nation\/","title":{"rendered":"Learning to act like a major power\u2014Australia as a top 20 nation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Putting<\/a>Just a few years ago a number of books were released which celebrated an \u2018Australia moment<\/a>\u2019, where the nation was in \u2018The Sweet Spot<\/a>\u2019. Today\u2019s book titles, however, seem to run the other way, with one describing \u2018how a great nation lost its way<\/a>\u2019. So let me therefore commend the ambition of Peter Jennings\u2019 recent post on being a \u2018top 20 defence player<\/a>\u2019.<\/p>\n

While I strongly agree with the desire for a much more confident role for Australia, I have to wonder about the source of inspiration for Peter\u2019s view. In Peter\u2019s take, being a top 20 nation seems to mean doing the same things we currently do but with more resources. It could also be read as trying to emulate the US, but on a smaller scale. Hence the exhortations to take more of a global view and not to take our eyes off remote parts of the world less we need to jump back in.<\/p>\n

Yet it\u2019s not clear that\u2019s the right strategy for Australia. After all, why should access to more resources mean that we automatically seek to expand our horizons of involvement? It wasn\u2019t a lack of resources but a lack of specific threats that led to the Defence of Australia policy and that environmental assessment still hasn\u2019t fundamentally changed.<\/p>\n

Second, even if we decide being a top 20 nation places upon Australia a higher burden of responsibility, why does that necessarily translate into taking a sustained interest in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and across the vast Indo-Pacific? As Peter notes, we\u2019d need every dollar of that 2% pledge to be able to do that, and it\u2019s not clear what we\u2019re get in return. Would significantly larger Australian deployments in Afghanistan, Iraq or even Ukraine change the likely outcome of those conflicts? Putting it in terms of naked self-interest, if we sent twice as many troops to those conflicts, would the US be twice as willing to protect Australia in a future Asian conflict? I suspect the answer to both questions is no.<\/p>\n

Finally, if being a top 20 nation means anything, it should mean having an ability to direct, if not dictate, the security environment of your immediate geography. Australia now has a lot more resources, but we still have to make major trade-offs. We\u2019ll always be a middle power<\/a> in comparison to those at the top of the charts. Does it make sense for us to move from our past experience of an influence spread thinly across the Asia-Pacific to an influence spread thinly across the Indo-Pacific (or beyond) for twice the price? Why not use being a top 20 nation to consolidate our ability to contribute close by?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why I suspect Peter\u2019s inspiration is our friends in Washington. The US really is an exceptional nation. After the demise of the colonial empires of the 19th century and USSR in the 20th, the US is the only country that truly brings global security issues into its defence planning. That produces an outcome for which Australia should be\u2014and is\u2014thankful, but I don\u2019t know it\u2019s wise for us to emulate that process.<\/p>\n

Instead we need to develop our own strategy. When it comes to issues closer to home, Peter and I are in much greater agreement. I strongly agree that Indonesia must be our central focus\u2014and I\u2019d endorse Peter\u2019s excellent suggestion<\/a> to give ANZAC-class frigates to Indonesia. Moreover, we should seek the capacity to substantially shape the security environment of the South Pacific and Southeast Asia. But that should be about it. That doesn\u2019t mean abandoning the dynamics of wider East Asia, but rather playing a role where it can matter. So, to take a hard case, if we decide supporting the US and Japan against China is the right thing to do in the future then something like creating a \u2018distant blockade<\/a>\u2019 would make sense. Seeking the capacity to \u2018rip an arm off<\/a>\u2019 Beijing wouldn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

A constrained regional focus doesn\u2019t mean a slothful one. We could take on some of the provision of public goods in Southeast Asia\u2014which would help lessen the burden on an overstretched US. That\u2019d not only contribute to our security, it\u2019d ensure we\u2019re spending only enough to cover specific tasks and not indulging abstract funding targets<\/a>. The currency of military strength in the 21st century is still currency. Wealth is the foundation of Australia\u2019s claim to top 20 status and the more we spend on defence the less we can spend on improving prosperity at home and in our immediate region.<\/p>\n

If being a top-20 nation means anything, it should mean taking this moment to re-think the major assumptions about how we seek national security. If scarcity drove past defence thinking, then let\u2019s not use this moment of largesse simply to do the same thing but slightly further afield or with slightly more resources. Let\u2019s instead think about a fresh approach\u2014like truly becoming a Southeast Asian power, or developing enough capacity that a potential coup in PNG doesn\u2019t keep us up at night. And let\u2019s remember that of the 20 top defence spenders, those in positions 2\u201320 are almost entirely focused on their immediate shores and neighbours. So while I admire the confidence that drives Peter\u2019s ideas, we should also adopt the wisdom and strength of geographic restraint.<\/p>\n

Andrew Carr is a research fellow at the Strategic & Defence Studies Centre, ANU. Edited image courtesy of Flickr user Katherine Clark<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just a few years ago a number of books were released which celebrated an \u2018Australia moment\u2019, where the nation was in \u2018The Sweet Spot\u2019. Today\u2019s book titles, however, seem to run the other way, with …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":16681,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[17,26,601,603,883],"class_list":["post-16678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-australia","tag-defence-spending","tag-foreign-affairs","tag-middle-power","tag-power"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLearning to act like a major power\u2014Australia as a top 20 nation | The Strategist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/learning-to-act-like-a-major-power-australia-as-a-top-20-nation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Learning to act like a major power\u2014Australia as a top 20 nation | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Just a few years ago a number of books were released which celebrated an \u2018Australia moment\u2019, where the nation was in \u2018The Sweet Spot\u2019. 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