The election of Donald Trump as the next US president heralds a moment of reckoning for Australia. For decades, America has been our closest ally and guiding star. But Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric and “America First” ideology are anathema to most Australians. As he prepares to take office, we must reassess the fundamentals of our alliance and summon the courage to chart a more independent course.
There’s no question the US remains Australia’s indispensable partner. The economic, cultural and defense ties run deep. According to informed sources, thousands of US troops rotate through joint training exercises in Australia each year, in ever-closer operational integration. Most Australians continue to hold the US and its people in high regard.
Yet Trump’s victory represents a rupture. His denigration of alliances, dalliance with isolationism, and transactional view of foreign relations shakes the pillars of the post-war order that Australia relies on for its security and prosperity. If he governs as he campaigned, Australia will be forced to rethink fundamental assumptions.
An Alliance Ripe for Recalibration
The US-Australia alliance, underpinned by the ANZUS treaty, has rarely been subject to serious scrutiny or debate. This has bred complacency and over-reliance, as Australia has steadily surrendered the capacity for independent strategic policy to become what some call a “51st state”.
Consider the post-9/11 period. In a fog of shock and solidarity, Australia eagerly followed the US into the retributive invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. Then-PM John Howard’s swift invocation of ANZUS after the terror attacks paved the way. But in the cold light of day, experts note those actions stretched the treaty’s legal applicability and did not oblige US reciprocation in Australia’s defense.
A clear-eyed appraisal came in 1983, in a government review of the ANZUS relationship. It found the treaty did not automatically commit the US to defend Australia and urged greater self-reliance and regional engagement. Its sage advice went largely unheeded.
Australia could start by revisiting and implementing the 1983 review.
— Julianne Schultz
The Economics of Dependence
Beyond defense, American influence pervades our economy. Australia’s zealous adoption of US-style market capitalism in recent decades has, like in the US, concentrated gains to elites while leaving many behind. Those contradictions overwhelmed this presidential race.
Trump tapped working class anger over stagnant wages, deindustrialization and soaring inequality, scapegoating trade deals and Mexican immigrants. His proposed remedy – more deregulation, protectionism and tax cuts skewed to the rich – will only make matters worse. But post-truth politics triumphed, and his win foreshadows the fights ahead in Australia.
Divergent Values and Interests
Trump’s nativism and bigotry also collide with Australia’s inclusive national ethos. We are one of the world’s most successful multicultural societies, enriched by immigration and anchored in a commitment to ethnic and religious diversity. Trump’s demonization of Muslims, Hispanics and other minorities, not to mention his bragging about sexual assault, is abhorrent to mainstream Australian values.
Geopolitically, Australia and the US share an interest in peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific. But Trump’s hawkish campaign stance toward China, our largest trading partner, threatens to pull us into a combustible rivalry we want no part of. His saber-rattling on North Korea, cavalier attitude to nuclear weapons, and climate change denialism also augur poorly for regional crisis management.
Forging a Worldly, Values-based Foreign Policy
All this demands Australia muster a new maturity and self-possession in foreign affairs. Not a lurch away from the US, but a turnaround to face our own neighborhood and interests with greater clarity and purpose. A foreign policy defined not by unblinking loyalty to America, but by confident, proactive diplomacy to shape the regional order.
- First, Australia should invest more seriously in Asian partnerships and institutions, from ASEAN to the East Asia Summit.
- Second, we should lead in areas where we have clout and credibility, like promoting international law and norms, peaceful dispute resolution, arms control, and sustainable development.
- Third, we need a broader conception of security focused on human welfare and underpinned by our multicultural character.
Above all, Australia must be an exemplar of the liberal democratic values that Trump threatens and that we cherish: political and press freedoms, openness, human rights, justice, and truth in public discourse.
We must not shrink from respectfully challenging the US when it falls short of these ideals, as true friends do. But more importantly, we must hold ourselves to that high standard – and stake our place in the world, and appeal to America, on that basis.
The ultimate guarantor of Australia’s security in uncertain times is not subservience to a superpower, but good international citizenship based on our own enlightened interests and principles. Amid the global shocks of Trump and Brexit, Australia has an opportunity, indeed a responsibility, to be a standard-bearer of steadiness, decency and resolve – if our political leaders can rise to it.
