Australia sees itself as the natural leader of the South Pacific. The preferred senior-partner synonyms these days are ‘partner of choice’ and ‘principal security partner’. Australian leadership ambition has a deep-seated strategic denial instinct, the …
Defence diplomacy, the peaceful use of defence resources to pursue foreign and strategic policy objectives, is generally viewed as positively contributing to Australia’s statecraft, especially in the Pacific Islands region. But although it is gaining …
Soon after she became foreign minister in May last year, Penny Wong went on a self-described listening tour of the Pacific. ‘I’m very happy to be here again, to listen … to the new government …
Australian Defence white papers have long identified the strategic import of ‘a secure South Pacific and Timor-Leste’. As renowned strategic thinker T.B. Millar once reflected, Papua New Guinea is an ‘an exposed and vulnerable front …
In the joint statement following Prime Minister Abbott and Prime Minister Abe’s meeting, titled ‘Special Strategic Partnership for the 21st Century’, one of the action items listed was tasking officials to develop a ‘coordinated strategy …
