{"id":84316,"date":"2023-12-21T06:00:26","date_gmt":"2023-12-20T19:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=84316"},"modified":"2023-12-20T16:48:58","modified_gmt":"2023-12-20T05:48:58","slug":"australia-misses-the-boat-in-the-red-sea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/australia-misses-the-boat-in-the-red-sea\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia misses the boat in the Red Sea"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

The 2023 defence strategic review<\/a> noted that Australia\u2019s economy had become more interconnected with the Indo-Pacific and the world, and that brought a fundamental interest in protecting the rules-based order upon which international trade depends.<\/p>\n

The DSR also said that ensuring the uninterrupted flow of maritime commerce underpinned the importance of resilience as a vital component of Australia\u2019s deterrence-by-denial strategy. The DSR argued that the navy must be optimised to operate in Australia\u2019s immediate region, and to secure sea lines of communication and maritime trade.<\/p>\n

The DSR defines Australia\u2019s primary area of military interest as encompassing the northeastern Indian Ocean through maritime Southeast Asia and into the Pacific, including Australia\u2019s northern approaches.<\/p>\n

The focus on the Indo-Pacific is entirely understandable given the growing challenge presented by China, but it raises the risk that Australia may fail to respond adequately to events further afield that could undermine its security. This has been demonstrated by the attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea launched by Iranian-backed Houthi forces since 7 October when Hamas, also backed by Iran, carried out its vile terrorist attacks on Israel.<\/p>\n

These attacks pose a serious threat to trade. More than 12% of global maritime commerce passes through the Red Sea and its exit to the Indian Ocean, the Bab el Mandeb Strait.<\/p>\n

A failure to respond would not only imperil global trade but also weaken a rules-based order already under attack from authoritarian states, with Iran a key belligerent.<\/p>\n

The US responded decisively, establishing<\/a> Operation Prosperity Guardian with a multi-national naval taskforce to protect shipping. The UK, Bahrain, Canada, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Seychelles and Spain have so far joined the operation. Australia signed a joint statement condemning the Houthi attacks and, as a maritime nation that has long understood the importance of unencumbered sea lanes, there was a reasonable expectation that it would send a warship to join the taskforce.<\/p>\n

The media reported<\/a> that the US, Australia\u2019s most important strategic and security partner, asked Canberra to send a ship but that request was declined. It is understood that the US then asked \u00a0Australia to send additional personnel to the US-led Combined Maritime Forces<\/a> headquarters in Bahrain. While some will praise or justify the response as a demonstration that Australia\u2019s priority is the Indo-Pacific, this fundamentally misses the global nature of maritime security and the fact that the world can no longer be easily compartmentalised into Europe, the Middle East and the Pacific. The global impacts of both the Israel\u2013Hamas war and Russia\u2019s war on Ukraine clearly show this.<\/p>\n

Australia cannot seek immunity through inaction. And we can\u2019t expect support for stability and security in the Indo-Pacific from our American and European partners if we leave the rest of the world to others.<\/p>\n

The government\u2019s contradictory stance suggests that the DSR constrains the Australian Defence Force\u2019s ability to respond to challenges beyond what\u2019s defined as Australia\u2019s area of primary military interest. The DSR is correct to narrow Australia\u2019s strategic focus, and it would be foolish to be dragged into an open-ended deployment in another Middle Eastern war when the main challenge, from China, is increasing in our region.<\/p>\n

However, Operation Prosperity Guardian is not a long-term deployment ashore with ground forces, and the requirement for the ADF to help protect maritime trade is clear. While the ADF should prioritise the defence of sea lanes in the Indo-Pacific, the reality is that an adversary can block trade outside this region and the effect is still the same.<\/p>\n

So, does the ADF, and the navy in particular, fail in its mission to protect trade simply because it\u2019s threatened in an area outside an arbitrary definition of what constitutes Australia\u2019s primary area of military interest?<\/p>\n

The globalised world means it\u2019s difficult to simply divide areas of responsibility and concern into narrow geographic zones when trade, physical and informational, defies geography. The gathering threat to the liberal international order and the free flow of commerce posed by an axis of authoritarian states can emerge at any time and anywhere\u2014from the high seas, to space and cyberspace. Failing to meet that challenge cedes the advantage to the opponent, making future threats more likely. The government\u2019s argument that this request falls outside Australia\u2019s primary area of military interest reflects a failure to understand a globalised threat to a globalised world.<\/p>\n

Even though the US and Australia are firm allies, and the relationship has grown under the Biden administration, the refusal by the government to send even a single warship will be noted in Washington. It\u2019s impossible to know how the relationship between Canberra and Washington may evolve under a new administration with, potentially, a radically different foreign policy agenda after 2024. The passing by Congress of the US National Defense Authorization Act <\/a>reinforcing progress on AUKUS provides grounds for optimism, but Australia\u2019s failure to support the US in an important mission to safeguard freedom of navigation and maritime commerce won\u2019t be quickly forgotten.<\/p>\n

This is not to say that Australia doesn\u2019t have agency or that it should automatically agree to any US request. Australia should always make decisions in its national interests and, despite misleading suggestions otherwise, AUKUS has strengthened not weakened our sovereignty. But this rejection is not about deploying to war or taking our eyes off the threats in the Indo-Pacific.<\/p>\n

Joining a multi-national taskforce to protect shipping lanes and the principle of freedom of navigation would clearly be in Australia\u2019s interest. We would call for such multi-national action if attacks occurred in our region. And if potential threats in the Indo-Pacific are so serious that Australia can\u2019t afford to provide a single ship to the Red Sea taskforce, that might suggest that the messaging about the situation in the Indo-Pacific underplays the reality, including Beijing\u2019s bullying and intimidation of countries like the Philippines.<\/p>\n

While good strategy always involves making wise choices on employing limited resources to achieve policy goals, any inability to respond to multiple and diverse threats\u2014from Houthi terrorists or the People\u2019s Liberation Army Navy\u2014implies that Australia needs to get serious about building up naval capability more rapidly.<\/p>\n

The navy has assured the government it can deploy a warship to the Red Sea if asked to. But any deployment would require rotations of ships and crews, placing additional strain on the navy\u2019s readiness for other tasks. The surface combatant review<\/a> is now with the government, and no comment on it is expected until the first or second quarter of 2024. If the decision not to deploy a ship to the taskforce is based on concerns about Australia\u2019s fleet size and readiness, then a larger and more powerful navy is clearly needed to respond to the growing risks within our area of primary strategic interest and, if necessary, beyond.<\/p>\n

Ideally, this should involve a larger fleet<\/a> of warships with greater firepower that can operate at greater range\u2014but also higher fleet readiness and sustainability for protracted and diverse operations. That means expanding the workforce to crew and sustain a larger and more powerful navy.<\/p>\n

The situation demands an increase in defence spending, sooner than planned, to meet increasingly clear challenges that may not wait.<\/p>\n

These challenges are not limited to one part of the world. China, Russia, Iran and North Korea are all undermining the international rules to which Australia owes its security and prosperity. Australia must play an active role in supporting these rules and deterring those who would remake them in their own malign interests.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 2023 defence strategic review noted that Australia\u2019s economy had become more interconnected with the Indo-Pacific and the world, and that brought a fundamental interest in protecting the rules-based order upon which international trade depends. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":147,"featured_media":84320,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1211,240,533,318],"class_list":["post-84316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-houthis","tag-israel","tag-navy","tag-shipping"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAustralia misses the boat in the Red Sea | 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-misses-the-boat-in-the-red-sea\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Australia misses the boat in the Red Sea | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The 2023 defence strategic review noted that Australia\u2019s economy had become more interconnected with the Indo-Pacific and the world, and that brought a fundamental interest in protecting the rules-based order upon which international trade depends. ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/australia-misses-the-boat-in-the-red-sea\/\" \/>\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=\"2023-12-20T19:00:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-12-20T05:48:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/GettyImages-1804440745-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"576\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Malcolm Davis\" \/>\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=\"Malcolm Davis\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 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'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\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/australia-misses-the-boat-in-the-red-sea\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/GettyImages-1804440745-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/GettyImages-1804440745-1.jpg\",\"width\":1024,\"height\":576,\"caption\":\"INTERNATIONAL WATERS RED SEA, YEMEN - NOVEMBER 20: This handout screen grab captured from a video shows Yemen's Houthi fighters' takeover of the Galaxy Leader Cargo in the Red Sea coast off Hudaydah, on November 20, 2023 in the Red Sea, Yemen. 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