Australian Politics and Policy - Senior, 2019a

Foreign and defence policy
environmental issues that affect Australia, including the Montreal Protocol of 1987
that addressed the role chlorofluorocarbons played in ozone depletion and antiwhaling
action against Japan in the International Court of Justice in 2010 (though
Australia has had a more mixed record regarding climate change negotiations).
These actions demonstrate the liberal internationalist belief in institutions to provide
opportunities for dialogue, mediate disputes and promote good global governance.
Similarly, Australia identifies the liberal world order established by Pax
Americana (the relative international peace ensured by US hegemony) as a key
securityinterest,withthe2016 Defence White Paper arguing: ‘The growing prosperity
of the Indo-Pacific and the rules-based global order on which Australia relies
for open access to our trading partners are based on the maintenance of peace
and stability.’ 19 Australia has been active in multilateral agreements that uphold this
‘rules-based order’, such as pursuing service as a non-permanent member of the
UN Security Council, sanctioning illiberal states like North Korea or Syria, and
advocacy for the Responsibility to Protect, a principle that seeks to prevent mass
atrocity war crimes.
Australia has also defended such principles, including participation in
operations in Afghanistan and Syria against global jihadism; humanitarian
intervention in Timor Leste in 1999 and again in 2006; a long history of peacekeeping
efforts; and attempts to hold Russia accountable for the downing of the
airliner MH17 in 2014 while on the UN Security Council. Australia has also trod
a ‘middle path’ on nuclear weapons – advocating for a South Pacific Nuclear Free
Zone and the 1996 Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, supporting international efforts
to control horizontal proliferation by actors like North Korea and Iran, but not
supporting recent multilateral pushes to eliminate nuclear weapons, as seen
through the International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and
Disarmament. Australia’s actions demonstrate the liberal intolerance of nondemocratic
countries and their attendant challenge to the liberal order. 20
Section 2: Core policy platforms
Economic diplomacy
Soon after Federation, Australian policy makers agreed to regulate and protect the
economy with tariffs, wage arbitration, state-led development, and British Imperial
Preference for Australian goods. This Australian Settlement and Keynesian economic
management underpinned the long postwar boom. 21 The collapse of British
Imperial Preference, the problem of slow economic growth combined with high
19 Department of Defence 2016, 15.
20 Doyle 1986.
21 Stokes 2004.
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