Australia This Is an Analysis

Australia

This is an analysis and evaluation of the foreign policies of Australia, a major member of the international organization. The report is part of the overall effort by research analysts under the National Interests and Foreign Policies group in advising member-countries of the international organization on how a new international system is developing. It covers Australia's foreign policy in the last 10 years, its projected direction in the next five years, and the reaction/s of other major member-countries and the international community to its foreign policy.

Brief Summary - Australia is the smallest continent in the world, isolated from the other continents and has a wide variety of landscapes. It was founded by the British in 1788 and first named it as Sydney. Its original inhabitants, called the Aborigines, were only a few hundred thousands before large groups of Europeans began arriving and settling there, particularly after the discovery of gold in the mid-19th century. After two centuries of discrimination and expropriation, the Aborigines were reduced as few as 60,000. Today, 99% of Australia's population is European or Asian, while the descendants of the indigenous Australians must contend with high unemployment rates, imprisonment and drug abuse charges.

As migration continues, the country has taken a tough position against un-authorized arrivals. Its economy has also been focused on Asia, being a foremost member of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum and aiming at forging free trade deals with China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations or ASEAN. It considers cutting away ties from the British monarchy and, in 1999, Australians voted against becoming a republic. These friendly Australians were estimated to be 20.2 million in 2004. Their chief industries are ores and metals, food and live animals, wool, fuels and transport machinery and equipment. According to 2003 World Bank statistics, Australia's GNI per capita was U.S. $21,650. Its head of State is Queen Elizabeth II, represented by Governor General Michael Jeffery, with Prime Minister John Howard. Australia's capital is Canberra.

Part 4 - Analysis 1. Australia's foreign policy consists of integral but related policies on defense and security, trade, international commitments and foreign aid. It formed an alliance with the United States and New Zealand, called ANZUS, as the cornerstone of its defense and security policy 50 years ago, and which it invoked after the September 11 bombings in the U.S. Its foreign aid has been decreasing in recent years, with only 1.2% of GDP and Papua New Guinea as its largest benefactor. Its foreign trade policy has also responded to globalization trends and challenges. Australia likewise signed a large number of international agreements and treaties, mostly under the United Nations, and participated in the discussion of environmental issues, such as the Kyoto Protocol.

Australian foreign defense policy has evolved into a more cooperative mode in recent years to allow regional empowerment. It has moved from a traditional reliance on great allies for regional stability and self-reliance for immediate security to more regional engagement approaches, such as in support of ASEAN in dealing with security issues at a multilateral level. Defense agreements reached a peak in 1997 but needed reappraisal as a consequence of the 1997-98 economic and political crises in some Southeast Asian nations. The new policy was characterized by changing relationships with China, Japan, Russia and Southeast Asia; recognizing the priority of economic over purely military concerns; shifting from European and American to a more Asia-centered stance; moving from bilateralism to a more multilateral approach, as in its relations with APEC and ASEAN and the ASEAN Regional Forum and the Asia-Europe Meetings; and greater self-reliance in the area of defense and security, while continuing to recognize the strong role of the U.S. In the Asia-Pacific zone.

The trends indicated a significant refocus of Australian foreign policy from bilateralism to multilateralism, from the West to Asia, and from high-diplomacy geo-politics to low-politics of economics and culture. Key features of this new foreign policy include efforts to retain strategic and diplomatic ties with the U.S.; major steps in deepening trade relations with East Asia; the use of multilateral organizations, such as APEC and ASEAN, in furthering foreign policy objectives; active involvement in the United Nations, such as in supporting operations in Somalia, Cambodia and East Timor; visible and vocal support of human rights and democratic reform; and support for new treaties and conventions, such as those for the control of land mines and chemical weapons; and for the continued control and testing of nuclear weapons. These features are categorized under the four pillars of Australia's foreign policy, which are a commitment to strengthening its engagement in the Asia-Pacific region; the improvement of its security and strategic environment wherein it pursues its interests; the enhancement of broader global links; and a humane and principled foreign policy focus.

These trends show that the Australian government has established its clear and realistic priorities in foreign policy, derived from the pursuit of its national interests. To bolster this position, the government has taken significant steps and measures to implement these goals. There have been real achievements in the fields of regional involvements, security policy, global cooperation, and human rights. Particular attention has been made on bilateral relations in view of observations and evidence that regional or global multilateral institutions will be more effective if the countries involved would first forge confident, strong bilateral links.

2. These and other indicators show that these policy directions will continue and shape Australia's foreign policy in the long-term, which is what its government has been doing.

3. A group of 43 former military and diplomatic officials considered Australia's foreign policy on Iraq and on terrorism deceptive and dangerous and warned that Prime Minister Howard's government had undermined democracy. They said it was wrong and dangerous for elected officials in the government to mislead the Australians who placed them there. They also stressed that mistrust in the government would lose the trust of others and undermine Australia's democratic structure, reputation and influence in the world. These statements were signed by Australians from all over the political to the defense and the foreign policy fields, including three former ambassadors to Baghdad. These were disseminated within months before an Australian federal election at the end of November.

Another significant response to Australia's new foreign policy under Prime Minister Howard was that of the international community towards the handling of the East Timor crisis, "a holocaust of Canberra's making" and considered Australia's biggest shame. In his now-infamous interview published in the September 28, 1999 edition of the Bulletin Magazine, Prime Minister Howard advanced "The Howard Doctrine" or his vision of Australia becoming the regional deputy to the U.S. As the global policeman. Denunciations from all over Asia and Australia itself poured in within days upon publication of the interview, so that Howard quickly denied having made the statement. Foreign policy strategist Hugh Smith commented that Howard was sending the wrong message to Asia at the moment or suffering from a delusion of grandeur because of his role in East Timor. Political analysts from Indonesia and Malaysia said that Howard's pronouncements gave Australia an arrogant and patronizing image, aspired for regional leadership without majority endorsement and harmed Australia's interests by antagonizing regional leaders.

Media critics have described Australia as a small boat tossed around a huge and unforgiving ocean with waves in all directions. Its real problem is that Australia's foreign policy was designed decades ago for an altogether different kind of journey and that its leaders and crew are using old maps and sailing without a destination. The crisis in East Timor exposed Australia as a relatively powerless country - and worse - in the eyes of its Southeast Asian neighbors as a small Western country that cannot act on its own without the explicit and public support of the U.S.