Australian Politics and Policy - Senior, 2019a

Australian Politics and Policy
which ultimately ended in the recognition of the Peoples Republic of China in 1973,
and the removal of the Australian Embassy from Taipei in the Republic of China.
The 1970s therefore saw a ‘torrent of change in Australian foreign policy’. 2
Against this backdrop, the Department of Foreign Affairs was established in
1971 (replaced with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in 1987). These
economic problems also led to a reappraisal of trade and financial policy and the
embrace of a ‘neoliberal’ economic agenda in the 1980s: a progressive elimination
of tariffs, privatisation, and opening of markets under the Hawke and Keating
governments. These moves re-established Australian economic competitiveness
and encouraged closer engagement with the Asian region, avoiding the possibility
–inKeating’swords–thatAustraliamightbecomea‘bananarepublic’. 3 Australia
also drove the building of regional multilateral institutions such as Asia Pacific
Economic Cooperation (APEC), and was at the forefront of peace-keeping operations
in Cambodia (1992–93) and East Timor (1999).
The long-running Howard Coalition government (1996–2007) continued these
regionalist and globalist policies, while simultaneously taking a ‘hard-headed’
approach to the national interest despite its nostalgia for the UK–USA ‘Anglosphere’.
By the 21st century, Australia’s firm attachment to the American alliance
and active participation in the Asia-Pacific region was firmly established and
deepened. But the post–Cold War and post-9/11 periods unleashed a range of new
and unfamiliar policy challenges such as the rise of China, international terrorism,
migration, and climate change. While Australia benefitted from the rise of Asian
power and prosperity, the longstanding certainties upon which its foreign policy
settings had been predicated have been called into question.
Australian foreign and defence policy: a thematic approach
In his seminal study of Australian foreign policy from 1942 to the present, Allen
Gyngell identified three perennial aspects of Australian policy: a ‘great and
powerful friend’, ‘regional engagement’, and a ‘rules-based international order’. 4
These have also been officially expounded as ‘three pillars’ (the US alliance,
engagement with Asia and membership of the UN) under the Rudd–Gillard Labor
governments. Moreover, subsequent Coalition governments have not significantly
departed from these aspects, even if their emphases have differed. This introductory
chapter takes these three elements as a point of departure and expands upon them
to cover 10 key themes through which Australian foreign and defence policy can be
understood and appraised. Indeed, former Ambassador to the USA, Kim Beazley,
2 Gyngell 2017, 102.
3 Kelly 1992.
4 Gyngell 2017.
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