Australian foreign policy towards China needs to focus on long-term strategic thinking.
Australia’s foreign policy has been a mix of positives and negatives under the Liberal-National Coalition government, as was true of the previous Labor government. Former prime ministers Gough Whitlam and Bob Hawke recognised the need for Australia to think strategically about future regional developments, and John Howard’s thinking gradually moved in that direction. Such long-term strategic thinking, centred on Australia’s geographic realities and its evolving regional relationships, is more urgently needed today.
Asia’s regional dynamics are changing. While the US is a Pacific power, it’s an outsider in Asia. To …read more