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| Image: Flickr User - U.S. Embassy Kabul Afghanistan |
By Elliot Brennan
Is Australia moving out of the “slipstream” of power?
In a telling lecture at the Lowy Institute for International Policy this month, Peter Varghese, Secretary of Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, spoke about his country’s place in Asia. Successive governments have tried to define how Canberra should engage with the changing region. All have fallen short. Last week, Varghese cut through the politician-speak that clouds too much of Australian foreign policy and set out Canberra’s strategic view.
Australia, he noted, has traditionally existed in the “slipstream” of power (think relations with the U.K. and the U.S.), both when operating in the region and internationally. In recent years, new power relations in the Indo-Pacific are forcing a period of adjustment. As Varghese noted, any “grand bargain” between the two great powers in the region is unlikely. Instead, Varghese noted that the process of adjusting to shifting power balances in a multi-polar Asia will be “incremental and organic.”
Reaching consensus in regional and international frameworks is increasingly difficult due to the diverging interests of actors. As Varghese notes we need to break the idea that we can’t agree until we agree on everything. Explaining further that we need to “break through this idea that one or two or three countries are able to effectively veto the adoption of an international instrument.”
Read the full story at The Diplomat