{"id":80407,"date":"2023-06-13T06:00:50","date_gmt":"2023-06-12T20:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=80407"},"modified":"2023-06-12T16:50:22","modified_gmt":"2023-06-12T06:50:22","slug":"aukus-needs-trilateral-technology-safeguards-not-just-capabilities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/aukus-needs-trilateral-technology-safeguards-not-just-capabilities\/","title":{"rendered":"AUKUS needs trilateral technology safeguards, not just capabilities"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

We\u2019re at an important inflection point on the AUKUS timeline.<\/p>\n

Now that a roadmap for Australia\u2019s acquisition of nuclear-powered submarines is in place under the banner of AUKUS Pillar 1, all three members are turning greater attention to building out Pillar 2 and its focus on advanced capabilities and technologies.<\/p>\n

To be sure, the AUKUS partners have yet to demonstrate proof of concept for Pillar 2. But at the very least, the testing<\/a> of an AUKUS artificial intelligence and autonomy capability in the United Kingdom in April certainly demonstrated proof of life in the Pillar 2 enterprise.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s through these sorts of projects that Australia\u2019s latent technological advantages can come into their own. After all, Pillar 2 isn\u2019t simply about accessing US technologies, though that\u2019s certainly part of the appeal. It\u2019s also about Australia making valuable\u2014and valued<\/a>\u2014contributions to developing the capabilities that will help the AUKUS partners achieve shared objectives in the Indo-Pacific.<\/p>\n

For Pillar 2 to truly succeed, Australia will need as much faith in the capacity of our AUKUS partners to safeguard our advantages as they will need in us to do the same. In other words, the three countries need to think creatively about how they will protect their shared advantages, not just how they will develop them, as part of the partnership\u2019s greater architecture.<\/p>\n

Evidence suggests that this is where the conversation is headed. Testimony<\/a> from two senior White House officials before the US House Foreign Affairs Committee last month indicated that discussions about the requirements for a fully functioning AUKUS are evolving in the right direction.<\/p>\n

The hearing in question ostensibly focused on \u2018modernising US arms exports for a stronger AUKUS\u2019, an issue of critical importance to Australia\u2014and the subject of a major report<\/a> published by the United States Studies Centre that I coauthored with William Greenwalt, titled Breaking the barriers<\/em>. On this, there were encouraging signs of progress. Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategies, Plans and Capabilities Mara Karlin and Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs Jessica Lewis both outlined how Washington intends to modernise and streamline export control regimes for AUKUS countries.<\/p>\n

As Karlin said, \u2018This historic opportunity requires historic change.\u2019<\/p>\n

Importantly, however, the hearing raised other questions about how the three countries will protect their military-technological advantages from prying eyes and ears.<\/p>\n

On this issue, Lewis said<\/a> that the US would also seek commitments from Australia and Britain \u2018on shared standards for the protection of defense information and materials\u2019 consistent with US regulations. Doing so, she claimed, would ensure that US export control standards \u2018serve as a shield for our trilateral defence technological advantage\u2019.<\/p>\n

Kickstarting the discussion about how the AUKUS partners will protect their shared defence technology advantages is a good move. It will help to set the conditions for seamless collaboration on advanced military capabilities in the long term. After all, that\u2019s what AUKUS requires: rethinking the way in which Australia, the UK and the US cooperate on defence industry and technology.<\/p>\n

But for Australia, the solution is not a wholesale adoption of the American model. To truly reflect the spirit of AUKUS, the partners need a genuinely trilateral approach to developing common procedures and protections for shared advantages.<\/p>\n

This will be essential for establishing a mutually trusted community<\/a> of commercial and defence companies to help deliver AUKUS projects. The current approach\u2014where the three countries adjudicate the trustworthiness of these entities independently\u2014is not fit for that purpose and will create problems down the line if left untouched.<\/p>\n

Addressing these requirements trilaterally will also put to bed the perennial trust<\/a> issues that have shadowed AUKUS since its inception.<\/p>\n

Australians might have assumed that our Five Eyes membership and already-intimate defence relationship with America would make sharing information and technology through AUKUS Pillar 2 relatively easy.<\/p>\n

In reality, things haven\u2019t been that simple. In private, US interlocutors have increasingly voiced reservations around the integrity of Australian and UK information and technology protections. But until recently, those concerns were rarely articulated with the detail or specificity that would help Australia to understand the issues, let alone address them.<\/p>\n

That led many across the Australian defence landscape to consider the trust discussion a bit of a red herring<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t to say that Australia doesn\u2019t have work to do. Yes, there\u2019s a good news story to tell about measures already taken in areas like foreign interference and investment screening. Yet as the AUKUS partners gear up<\/a> to deliver Pillars 1 and 2, Australia will likely need to consider further reforms to things like workforce vetting procedures, digital platform security and security clearance checks.<\/p>\n

At the same time, these reforms won\u2019t always mirror US practices and procedures. Australia\u2019s painful experience with US export controls is a good example of why simply bringing allies \u2018up to speed\u2019 with American technology protections isn\u2019t always the optimal solution.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, allies could point to the leakiness of Washington\u2019s own defence technology ecosystem as grounds for their own concerns. Reporting in October 2022 revealed<\/a> that front companies connected to the Chinese military had harvested troves of US software products with potential military applications. Evidence suggests that some of these products supported China\u2019s October 2021 hypersonic missile test, dubbed a \u2018Sputnik moment<\/a>\u2019 by US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley.<\/p>\n

But this isn\u2019t about pointing fingers; it\u2019s about underscoring the requirement for a truly collaborative approach to developing technology protections that incorporate the preferences and best practices of all three countries. The mutual trust and spirit of collaboration that AUKUS is supposed to reflect will only be realised if all three partners contribute to setting the terms for new forms of cooperation. A genuinely trilateral approach to developing AUKUS-grade technology protections is the best way to foster\u2014and to keep\u2014that trust.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We\u2019re at an important inflection point on the AUKUS timeline. Now that a roadmap for Australia\u2019s acquisition of nuclear-powered submarines is in place under the banner of AUKUS Pillar 1, all three members are turning …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1229,"featured_media":80411,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3111,51,126,332],"class_list":["post-80407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-aukus","tag-defence-cooperation","tag-defence-industry","tag-technology"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAUKUS needs trilateral technology safeguards, not just capabilities | 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\/aukus-needs-trilateral-technology-safeguards-not-just-capabilities\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"AUKUS needs trilateral technology safeguards, not just capabilities | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We\u2019re at an important inflection point on the AUKUS timeline. 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