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236 AUSTRALIAN MARITIME ISSUES 2006: SPC-A ANNUAL
a manifestation of the seemingly impossible task of detecting and halting terrorist
activity. Complicating Australia’s national interests has been the lack of either a
mature regional security community or a strong multilateral alliance mechanism.
ASEAN and ARF have had only limited success in dealing with external threats. The
best one could say about these institutions is that preventive diplomacy, confidence
building measures and Track II dialogue (such as the Council for Security Cooperation
in the Asia Pacific) have helped to damp down tensions between regional states. Their
efforts to combat the emerging threat of the new millennium, however, have been met
with only limited success.
As a way of enhancing Australia’s security, a ‘layered approach’ toward terrorism
appears the best option. These layers would consist of: Australia’s organic resources
to defend the homeland, a bilateral treaty with Indonesia to defend the local area,
continued persistence with FPDA members in order to ‘shape’ the regional environment,
and engagement with the US through ANZUS in order to tackle the issue globally.
Moreover, ANZUS provides Australia with a degree of psychological and strategic
reassurance. In essence, ANZUS and FPDA are as central to Australia’s national
interests as they were in 1951 and 1971 respectively.
An alarmist could argue that asymmetric threats require a profound re-evaluation
of traditional maritime strategy — that the principles of Mahan or Till are obsolete.
This approach would be wrong. The missions that the RAN might be called upon to
undertake include denying terrorists the ability to use Australia’s seas for their own
purposes; this is strikingly synonymous with the concept of sea denial. Central to the
RAN’s success will be the role played by the US. The USN’s influence, technological
superiority, mass and reach needs to be capitalised upon. Moreover, because both
Canberra and Washington now have congruent threat perceptions, this lends itself to
greater maritime cooperation between the two States.