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Mark Beeson, Professor of International Politics, School of Management and Governance, Murdoch University

Balancing powers, juggling priorities: Australia contemplates its strategic and economic options

Few countries have more conflicted foreign policy options than Australia. Australian policymakers have traditionally looked to the United States to underwrite their security and have gone to great lengths to demonstrate their loyalty to the bilateral strategic alliance. Recently, however, Australia’s economic security has become increasingly dependent on China, a country with which the US enjoys an increasingly competitive relationship. The US’s recent strategic ‘pivot’ toward the East Asian region has highlighted underlying tensions in Sino-American ties and presented Australian policymakers with difficult, potentially incompatible options. The Australian case has a wider relevance in this context as it is a dilemma that confronts a number of states in East Asia as they try to balance competing economic and strategic imperatives. This paper provides an analysis of the factors that are shaping Australian policy and makes the case for a more independent stance. At a time when China is rising and the US is seemingly in decline, negotiating a path through a rapidly evolving regional order will require a reassessment of established priorities that take account of a new balance of material and ideational forces. The Australian experience suggests that while there are no easy options, recognising the nature of the challenges that confront ‘middle powers’ at a time of geopolitical change is an important part of the process.

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