{"id":523,"date":"2012-08-03T11:21:35","date_gmt":"2012-08-03T01:21:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=523"},"modified":"2012-08-07T10:32:44","modified_gmt":"2012-08-07T00:32:44","slug":"australia-in-the-indo-pacific-century","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/australia-in-the-indo-pacific-century\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia in the Indo-Pacific century?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Defence Minister Stephen Smith used his ASPI speech on Wednesday night to make the definitive case for bringing the White Paper forward by a year. Close followers of the defence debate will be familiar with his strategic themes, but some interesting points emerged that hint at potentially sharp discussions around the Cabinet table. Most notable of these was Smith\u2019s emphasis on the growing strategic importance of the Indian Ocean region: \u2018In this century, the Asia\u2013Pacific and the Indian Ocean Rim, what some now refer to as the Indo-Pacific, will become the world\u2019s strategic centre of gravity.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Smith does not just mean India; he is talking about the factors which drive Chinese and US interest in the region, in Indonesia\u2019s growing role above and beyond ASEAN and in the wider range of countries around the Indian Ocean that engage Australia\u2019s strategic and commercial interests. Smith sees the US as an integral part of the Indo-Pacific and says that \u2018substantially enhanced practical cooperation between Australia and the US is an essential part of Australia\u2019s contribution to regional peace and security.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s be clear: if geographic terms have any meaning, this is not a vision of \u2018Australia in the Asian Century\u2019\u2014the working title of Dr Ken Henry\u2019s white paper. Stephen Smith is painting on a broader canvas, one which defines a wider set of Australian interests and which explicitly incorporates the United States. Australia will have two white papers, released perhaps some six or nine months apart. If these documents are truly to provide blue-prints for government decision-making, they should agree on how to think about the region and Australia\u2019s place in it.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The Minister\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.minister.defence.gov.au\/2012\/08\/01\/minister-for-defence-to-the-australian-strategic-policy-institute-aspi-australias-changing-strategic-circumstances\/\" target=\"_blank\">written speech<\/a> put a sharper emphasis on the urgency of reshaping the ADF\u2019s force posture. It says: \u2018With some obvious exceptions, these days what we still might term a World War Two style \u2018Brisbane Line\u2019 disposition of Navy, Army or Air Force assets does not reflect the reality of where the ADF must operate, whether for military operations or humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, or other contingencies.\u2019 That puts more pressure on the Defence White Paper drafters because, almost without exception, the proposals contained in the Force Posture Review released a few months ago are unfunded.<\/p>\n<p>A final point is that there was no change of emphasis in the Minister\u2019s written comments about the impact of Defence budget cuts. He said that key priority areas were \u2018ring-fenced from these savings\u2019. In particular, \u2018core Defence capabilities will continue to be delivered\u2019. That\u2019s a deeply courageous call.<\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/aboutaspi\/StaffList.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">Peter Jennings<\/a>\u00a0is executive director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Defence Minister Stephen Smith used his ASPI speech on Wednesday night to make the definitive case for bringing the White Paper forward by a year. Close followers of the defence debate will be familiar with &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[41,17,1425,56,21],"class_list":["post-523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-defence-white-paper-2013","tag-asian-century","tag-australia","tag-defence-white-paper-2013","tag-indo-pacific","tag-strategy-2"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Australia in the Indo-Pacific century? | 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\/australia-in-the-indo-pacific-century\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Australia in the Indo-Pacific century? | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Defence Minister Stephen Smith used his ASPI speech on Wednesday night to make the definitive case for bringing the White Paper forward by a year. Close followers of the defence debate will be familiar with ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/australia-in-the-indo-pacific-century\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ASPI.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-08-03T01:21:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-08-07T00:32:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter Jennings\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ASPI_org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ASPI_org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Peter Jennings\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/\",\"name\":\"The Strategist\",\"description\":\"ASPI&#039;s analysis and commentary site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/australia-in-the-indo-pacific-century\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/australia-in-the-indo-pacific-century\/\",\"name\":\"Australia in the Indo-Pacific century? | The Strategist\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-08-03T01:21:35+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-08-07T00:32:44+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/fa4e2bf870963c9c47a6b86c5c08a548\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/australia-in-the-indo-pacific-century\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/australia-in-the-indo-pacific-century\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/australia-in-the-indo-pacific-century\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Australia in the Indo-Pacific century?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/fa4e2bf870963c9c47a6b86c5c08a548\",\"name\":\"Peter Jennings\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/05b37bcdeef0bd9074f96dc18c547536?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/05b37bcdeef0bd9074f96dc18c547536?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Peter Jennings\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/author\/peter-jennings\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Australia in the Indo-Pacific century? | The Strategist","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/australia-in-the-indo-pacific-century\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Australia in the Indo-Pacific century? | The Strategist","og_description":"Defence Minister Stephen Smith used his ASPI speech on Wednesday night to make the definitive case for bringing the White Paper forward by a year. 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