{"id":68099,"date":"2021-10-28T11:00:09","date_gmt":"2021-10-28T00:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=68099"},"modified":"2021-10-28T10:39:33","modified_gmt":"2021-10-27T23:39:33","slug":"from-the-bookshelf-fear-of-abandonment-australia-in-the-world-since-1942","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/from-the-bookshelf-fear-of-abandonment-australia-in-the-world-since-1942\/","title":{"rendered":"From the bookshelf: \u2018Fear of abandonment: Australia in the world since 1942\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/figure>\n

The timely new edition<\/a> of Allan Gyngell\u2019s Fear of abandonment<\/em> highlights how Australia\u2019s strategic environment has become decidedly more complex since the first edition was published just four years ago.<\/p>\n

The book is a masterpiece on the history of Australia\u2019s foreign policy. Gyngell takes readers on a journey that starts in 1942, when Australia only reluctantly assumed responsibility for its foreign policy, following the Australian parliament\u2019s ratification of the British Statute of Westminster of 1931, long after other dominions like Canada and South Africa had been brave enough to do so. While the first edition concludes with a chapter titled \u2018A fragmenting world\u20142008\u20132016\u2019, most analysts and observers at the time saw Australia destined to reap the benefits of a burgeoning \u2018Asian century\u2019\u2014something that seems much less obvious today.<\/p>\n

The title, Fear of abandonment<\/em>, conveys a strong message, and distinguishes Australia from the way the American founding fathers, such as George Washington, spoke of their fear of foreign entanglements. Gyngell argues that Australia\u2019s anxiety was that we would be forgotten about. Ever since the first British colonists experienced that long and anxious wait for the arrival of the second fleet in Port Jackson, we seem to have been standing here on this remote continent waving our hands in the air, crying out to the rest of the world, \u2018Don\u2019t forget about us!\u2019<\/p>\n

Gyngell contends that Australia\u2019s strategic dilemma was how to protect a small population occupying a large continent, far from its markets and the places from which all except Indigenous Australians, who have been here for at least 60,000 years<\/a>, originally come. From the end of World War II onwards, every Australian government has employed three strands of foreign policy to address that dilemma.<\/p>\n

The first strand is Australia\u2019s relationship with a great and powerful friend, namely the United States. The second is support for a rules-based world order, in which Australia could play a part. And finally there\u2019s engaging with the neighbouring region to shape it in ways conducive to Australia\u2019s interests. But all of these strands of Australia\u2019s foreign policy have been challenged in recent years and provide the substance for a new chapter titled \u2018Sovereign borders\u2019.<\/p>\n

Gyngell recounts the surprise election of Donald Trump to the presidency of Australia\u2019s most important strategic ally. Trump would call into question most of the foundations of post-war US foreign policy, including free trade, multilateralism, the value of alliances and the idea of American leadership itself. This was a worrying time for Australia, aptly expressed in 2018 by Foreign Minister Julie Bishop when she said, \u2018Our closest ally and the world\u2019s most powerful nation is being seen as less predictable and less committed to the international order that it pioneered.\u2019 But, Gyngell notes<\/a>, Australia seemed to maintain better relations with President Trump than most other allies by skillfully \u2018walking on eggshells\u2019.<\/p>\n

Australia\u2019s engagement with its Asian and Southwest Pacific neighbourhood has been a mixed bag. The relationship between China and Australia deteriorated sharply after 2016, and by the end of 2020 Chinese sanctions had been applied to many Australian exports and high-level contacts. Japan has much in common with Australia, being caught between its American ally and the Chinese market, and the relationship between Tokyo and Canberra reached a \u2018new level of closeness\u2019.<\/p>\n

Mutual anxieties about China also fostered closer political and defence ties with India. A \u2018comprehensive strategic partnership\u2019 was established, but the economic relationship remains underdone. Australian anxieties about China\u2019s forays into the Pacific drove its \u2018Pacific step-up\u2019 and a focus on economic cooperation and integration. But heightened attention to the Pacific led to Southeast Asia being marginalised, with sharp cuts to official development assistance, especially for Indonesia.<\/p>\n

The past few years saw the dissolution of the rules-based world order, to which Australia is so attached, writes Gyngell. How so? In short, during the second decade of the 21st century, both the US and China ceased to be status quo powers. \u2018The US judged that the investment it had made in the existing order had stopped delivering it the \u201creturns\u201d it deserved. China \u2026 was no longer willing to act as a stakeholder in a system designed by others \u2026 [I]t wanted the order to conform better to its own growing power.\u2019<\/p>\n

Perhaps more than anything, Covid-19 highlighted the deterioration of the world order, as international cooperation to address this pandemic was woeful. It exacerbated things by provoking decoupling, deglobalisation and a breakdown of the international system. As for Australia, Covid has caused a hunkering down and a fear of the outside world\u2014sentiments that may linger for some time.<\/p>\n

The emerging new world over the past four years has led to much rethinking in Australia, as reflected in the government\u2019s 2017 foreign policy white paper and 2020 defence strategic update. The Indo-Pacific has now been adopted as a new framing device for Australia\u2019s foreign policy. Another upshot has been greater participation in \u2018minilaterals\u2019 like the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue and the India\u2013France\u2013Australia ministerial dialogue. But Gyngell laments that Australia\u2019s responses to its new challenges tend to emphasise national security rather than traditional diplomacy.<\/p>\n

Australia\u2019s most recent foray into minilateralism is the new enhanced trilateral security partnership called AUKUS, involving Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States. This will support Australia in acquiring nuclear-powered submarines and involve deeper information and technology sharing. While AUKUS arrived on the scene after the publication of the new edition of Fear of abandonment<\/em>, Gyngell has been quick to signal caution<\/a> about the arrangement. He laments that \u2018AUKUS will be a sign to our neighbours that the Anglosphere is back. That Australia is in its comfortable place, locked down and hanging out with the family.\u2019 Indeed, AUKUS is yet another vindication of the book\u2019s title.<\/p>\n

Gyngell\u2019s new chapter is tinged with pessimism. He argues that today\u2019s Indo-Pacific strategic environment is defined by political divisions and economic decoupling, not the integrated and inclusive Asia\u2013Pacific community Australia once hoped for. He concludes that, \u2018Everything Australia wants to accomplish as a nation depends on its capacity to understand the world outside its borders and respond effectively to it.\u2019 And that\u2019s no easy task.<\/p>\n

In an interview in 2018<\/a>, Gyngell said, \u2018I can’t think of a more challenging time to be a policymaker in Australia\u2019\u2014a comment that he frequently reiterates<\/a>. But there may be no better preparation for a foreign-policy maker than the history outlined in the new edition of Fear of abandonment<\/em>, which is a veritable tour de force. For as George Kenan wrote over 60 years ago, \u2018If we plod along \u2026 unaided by history, \u2026 none can be sure of direction or of pace or of the trueness of action.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The timely new edition of Allan Gyngell\u2019s Fear of abandonment highlights how Australia\u2019s strategic environment has become decidedly more complex since the first edition was published just four years ago. The book is a masterpiece …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1328,"featured_media":68116,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2047,32,285],"class_list":["post-68099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-australia-us-relations","tag-book-review","tag-foreign-policy"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFrom the bookshelf: \u2018Fear of abandonment: Australia in the world since 1942\u2019 | 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\/from-the-bookshelf-fear-of-abandonment-australia-in-the-world-since-1942\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"From the bookshelf: \u2018Fear of abandonment: Australia in the world since 1942\u2019 | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The timely new edition of Allan Gyngell\u2019s Fear of abandonment highlights how Australia\u2019s strategic environment has become decidedly more complex since the first edition was published just four years ago. 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