Our Unstable Neighbourhood by Jonathan Pearlman

Author:Jonathan Pearlman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Schwartz Books Pty. Ltd.

With research assistance from Bianca Ysabelle Franco. Fieldwork for this piece was made possible by the grant “Strongmen of Asia: Democratic Bosses and How to Understand Them”, funded by the Research Council of Norway (Project Number: 314849).

AUSTRALIA’S CHOICE

Can it be a bridge to Asia?

Kishore Mahbubani

Australia’s strategic dilemma in the twenty-first century is simple: it can choose to be a bridge between the East and the West in the Asian Century – or the tip of the spear projecting Western power into Asia.

Different Australian governments have pursued each option in recent history. In the 1990s, when I served as the permanent secretary in the Singapore foreign ministry, we worked with Australian leaders, including Prime Minister Paul Keating, Foreign Minister Gareth Evans and Permanent Secretary Michael Costello, to draw Australia closer to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Indeed, we spoke ambitiously of creating a new community of twelve: the ten ASEAN states, Australia and New Zealand. More recently, Scott Morrison’s government has swung in the opposite direction, serving as the tip of US power in Asia and adopting foreign policy positions at great variance with the choices of the ten ASEAN states.

No ASEAN country has joined the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (the Quad), nor is any likely to do so. But ASEAN has not succumbed to appeasement; it has been treading a careful middle path, neither placating nor antagonising China, while working closely with other powers, including the United States. Australians should ask whether there is some geopolitical wisdom in the choices made by its ASEAN neighbours. And it should consider the consequences if it insists on serving as the spear of Western power in Asia.

After the May 2022 election, the Morrison government is out. With the Albanese government, a golden opportunity has emerged for Australia to undertake a strategic reset. It should grasp this opportunity with both hands.

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