{"id":7677,"date":"2013-07-17T13:45:12","date_gmt":"2013-07-17T03:45:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=7677"},"modified":"2013-07-18T06:39:23","modified_gmt":"2013-07-17T20:39:23","slug":"the-anglosphere-and-tony-abbott","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-anglosphere-and-tony-abbott\/","title":{"rendered":"The Anglosphere and Tony Abbott"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a>Tony Abbott has sworn off talking about the Anglosphere because the responses are too Pavlovian. Too late.<\/p>\n The Liberal Leader is destined to wear the Anglosphere label with the same mixed results that John Howard had with that Deputy Sheriff badge. But Abbott will lose little sleep over the dogs barking and biting: standing with Howard, the US alliance and the military and economic traditions of Anglo-American history will suit him admirably.<\/p>\n We venture into Anglosphere territory because of the fine work of Hugh White and Peter Jennings; it’s always stimulating to see two top players at the top of their game, going for it at top speed. See their Strategist<\/em> exchanges (here<\/a>, here<\/a>, and here<\/a>).<\/p>\n Rather than getting too close to the cut and thrust of these two superb semantic swordsmen, I\u2019ll approach the Anglosphere through three columns: Abbot, Oz voters and what the Anglosphere offers in thinking about the Asia Century or the Indo Pacific Age. This first effort is about Tony because he, single-handedly, has injected the term into Oz politics.<\/p>\n Tony Abbott believes in the Anglosphere, as he made clear in his book Battlelines<\/a>. For a witty version of why the Anglosphere works for Abbott, read his Oxford speech<\/a>\u00a0on how he was formed by studying there as a Rhodes Scholar.<\/p>\n The strongest foreign policy element in the address is his aside giving the Anglosphere an Asian tinge:<\/p>\n As with all the countries that think and argue among themselves in English (that these days include Singapore and Hong Kong, Malaysia and even India), what we have in common is usually more important than anything that divides us.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The jests are elegant, in an Anglo sort of way, especially his musing that one reason Bill Clinton (another Rhodes scholar) experimented with the smoking of exotic weed during his studies was \u2018because the Rhodes House no smoking signs were in Latin!\u2019<\/p>\n See also the wonderful line from the historian of the Conservative Party, Lord Blake, passing judgement on Tony\u2019s student performance: \u2018Mr Abbott needs to temper his robust common sense with a certain philosophic doubt\u2019. Oz voters will get their Lord Blake moment later this year.<\/p>\n Shortly after that Oxford speech, Tony Walker\u00a0asked Abbott<\/a> whether he would exclude the word \u2018Anglosphere\u2019 from his political vocabulary, irrespective of his attachment to that world view. This was the laughing Abbott reply: ‘Whenever that term is used it tends to prompt a Pavlovian reaction and it’s best not to prompt Pavlovian reactions if you can avoid it’.<\/p>\n