Our market size, proximity and people-to-people links mean we should be one of the primary engines of a sphere of integration – rather than a sphere of influence, write HerveLemahieu and SusannahCPatton.
Power is a concept that can make Australians squeamish. Politicians and foreign policy bureaucrats would rather talk about Australia maximising its influence than exerting its power.
What makes Australia so successful in the region’s only data-driven ranking of power? Above all, Australia avoids many of the pitfalls experienced by the region’s major powers. Alone among top-10 countries, and despite a drop in regional influence during nearly two years of strict border closures, Australia’s comprehensive power has also emerged relatively unscathed from the pandemic.Our resilience owes much to our resource wealth and active participation in the rules-based trading system. Commodity-led exports have helped to insulate Australia’s bottom line.
As a wealthy and growing society on a naturally secure island continent, we have the resources to sustain a technologically advanced military capable of operating beyond our shores. Meeting that lofty challenge begins with an honest appraisal of our changing strategic landscape and a finer appreciation of the versatility of Australian power.Australia has long been transfixed by China’s potential to displace our ally the United States as the region’s top power. Yet, the biggest surprise of the index is not that the age of uncontested US primacy is over – it most certainly is – but of China’s halting progress to become America’s equal.
That is because, when neither the United States nor China can establish undisputed primacy in our region, smaller countries can still wield a powerful asymmetric advantage.
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