Securing Australia: From Alliances to Agreements = Securing Australia: From Alliances to Agreements

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Security alliances have always played a central role in the maintenance of regional and international security and have therefore served as a major instrument of Australia`s national security. The strong emphasis on security alliances and pacts in Australian defense planning can be attributed to the belief that Australia needs to team up with major powers to secure its place in the Asia-Pacific. In the post-Cold War era, since there is no clearly identifiable common threat, the "threat oriented" alliances forged during the Cold War may well be an anachronism. This paper therefore argues that the Cold War era threat oriented military alliances must transform themselves into "order oriented" alliances to meet the security challenges of the next century. The objective should be to make these order-oriented security arrangements the basis of an Asia-Pacific security community founded on shared interests, shared values and shared responsibility. This security community would maintain stability and tranquility in a multipolar setting and would not allow the domination of the region by any single state. This paper provides a conceptual framework for the new type of post-Cold War flexible, purpose-specific, loose, order-oriented security arrangements which are likely to be more widespread in the foreseeable future. Over the last few years, Australia has taken a lead in establishing order-oriented new type of flexible, purpose-specific, loose, order oriented security arrangements with regional countries. Such security arrangements, characterized by adaptability, flexibility and ambiguity, are likely to prove more adaptable and therefore will be more widespread in the foreseeable future. The conclusion of new order oriented security arrangements such as the security agreement with Indonesia, strategic partnership with Japan and political-military dialogues with Korea, China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Thailand and India constitute an integral part of Australia`s "regional defense" strategy. Regional defense is a variant of forward defense just as "defense of Australia" was a variant of "fortress Australia." As in the past, Australian defense policy in the 21st century is likely to be a mixture of the two strategies-self-reliance and forward defense. This mixture will remain the basis of Australia`s regional defense strategy based on a ring of order-oriented security arrangements and political military dialogues with regional countries.