As we look at the foreign policy white paper published in late 2017, it echoes some of the remarks in the 2016 defence white paper about the importance of the rules-based global order. Indeed, the …
The Strategist on: "Foreign policy white paper"
Australia’s 2017 white paper on foreign policy is necessarily a sweeping ranking of priorities and partners. Not unexpectedly, the paper renews our commitment to our major partner, the United States, while foreshadowing a nuanced relationship …
Reaching beyond the usual language of partnership with the South Pacific, Australia is offering economic and security integration. The integration policy is a new ideal: not just neighbours, but joined. It’s a complex task for …
The 2017 foreign policy white paper declares that a ‘strong European Union (EU) remains vital to Australia’s interests and will be an increasingly important partner in protecting and promoting a rules-based international order’. But Europe …
The 2017 foreign policy white paper is a well-crafted document that covers the key elements of Australia’s foreign-policy outlook. In addition—unlike its predecessors—it sets out Australia’s strategic priorities. It skilfully melds the geoeconomic and geostrategic …
Foreign policy white papers are strange creatures. As the past 14 years amply demonstrate, they’re not necessary for the conduct of effective foreign policy. They are expensive and they expend diplomatic capital by signalling policy …
In The crack-up, F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote: ‘The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.’ By …
Australia’s latest foreign policy white paper is—like the geostrategic region it purports to describe—complex and challenging. White papers usually are, because they are the product of many hands. But in this case there are other …
In geoeconomics and trade as much as in the security realm, Australia fears the international rules of the game are being battered and eroded. In musing on the future of the Indo-Pacific, Australia’s new foreign …
Australia’s foreign policy must advance our values and our national interests. It must do so clear-eyed and pragmatic, in a time when the pace and scale of change is unprecedented in all of human history. …
The cover of the Turnbull government’s 2017 foreign policy white paper shows Australia large and at the centre of our universe—but still dwarfed by the imposing vastness of Asia stretching right over it. Europe, at …
Australia’s foreign policy white paper is a contrast study, both dark and light. Bright vistas of international opportunity are described beneath storm clouds of ‘political alienation and economic nationalism’. Here are both dreams and nightmares: …