赛尔号刷米币器:21st-century Australia-US alliance targeting ...

来源：百度文库 编辑：九乡新闻网 时间：2024/04/28 14:13:31

21st-century Australia-US alliance targeting China


111.jpg (56.74 KB)
2011-4-27 08:53
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (C) walks with Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard as they inspect an honour guard during an official welcoming ceremony in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing April 26, 2011


Julia Gillard's speech to the US congress several weeks ago celebratesd the six-decade history of Australia's geopolitical alliance with the US, built on the two countries' deep stock of shared values and interests and manifested by their fighting side by side in every significant international conflict, from World War II to Afghanistan.


But Gillard and Barack Obama know that the challenges facing the alliance in the next few decades will be different from those it was originally designed to meet.


For the first 40 years of the alliance, the Soviet Union was a profound political and military threat to the US, Australia and other democracies, but its economy was irrelevant to the capitalist world.


Today, the West remains sceptical about China's political and military ambitions but China's growing global economic weight has been a defining feature of the past two decades.


Australians should prepare for a 40 per cent increase in defence spending to combat the rise of an increasingly militaristic China, says a report from the Kokoda Foundation think tank.


Kokoda founder Ross Babbage, who was on the advisory panel for the latest defence white paper, said China was expected to extend its military reach to play a much stronger role in Australia's immediate surrounds over the next 20 years.


Dr Babbage said the increasing military power of China was the greatest security challenge faced by Australia since World War II.


If the 20th-century Australia-US alliance was born of the need to contain the Soviet Union, one central focus of the 21st-century alliance will surely be China. The key challenge is to maximise the benefits for all of China's rise while working to ensure that China becomes a responsible global stakeholder and to insure against the risk that it does not.

56.jpg (115.59 KB)
2011-4-27 08:53
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (R) shakes hands with Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard during a welcome ceremony in Beijing, capital of China, April 26, 2011


What to do about climate change is an obvious example. Obama and Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd proposed emissions trading schemes for their countries on the presumption that national action would go hand in hand with international action. The failure of the Copenhagen summit to secure a global deal at the end of 2009 sounded the death knell for Obama's and Rudd's proposals and clouds the debate over Gillard's carbon tax.


But the brave new realities of emerging Asia in a globalised world do not render the Australia-US alliance outmoded or its foundation of shared values and interests irrelevant. In fact, there is every reason to believe that the alliance will be at least as important to both countries in the next half century as it has been in the past, with more issues on the table and more avenues for the two nations to collaborate in addressing them.


In terms of security, look for Australia and the US to intensify their support for open regionalism in the Asia-Pacific, promoting freer trade and investment and furthering the cause of political openness. This was a central message in the extended trips by Obama and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to Asia and Australia last November. Obama in particular extended the language of shared values and interests to US relations with India and Indonesia. Both talked about renewed American commitment to the Asia-Pacific and to building institutions in the region.


These initiatives were well received in Australia and across the region because of worries about unwarranted and unwelcome Chinese assertiveness in 2010.


There are serious impediments to moving the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation forum beyond its status as a useful talking shop. Rudd's notion of an Asia-Pacific community proved too ambitious. Obama had little choice but to join the East Asian Summit after the benign neglect of Association of South-East Asian Nations-led institutionalism in the Bush era.


Expect more attention in Australia and the US to be devoted to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, an emerging grouping of free traders on both sides of the Pacific that it is hoped will soon draw in Japan and South Korea, and perhaps ultimately even include China.


While the geopolitics of the Asia-Pacific must be a central focus of Australia-US relations, there is also great value for both countries in confronting common problems at home by sharing experiences and expertise.




SMH/The Australian
21st-century Australia-US alliance targeting ... 21st century breakdown 21st Century Romance 爱在微博时代 Second decade of 21st century provides import... Challenges to meat safety in the 21st century US long range strike bomber targeting China? A US-EU alliance to weaken China, possible? -... US-EU alliance to play China card in future d... Song of the Century End Of A Century 18th Century Meissen India's generous military deal targeting who?... China Education Alliance Announces Release of... 别克车型Century 3.1 V6 别克Century 3.1L V6 國家簡介-澳大利亞(Introduction to Australia)-2010 China, Australia cooperate to clean Poyang La... Resurgence of Yellow Peril fear in Australia ... Australia to discuss nominating candidate for... 澳元不惧中国紧缩 Australia and China Australia maintains interest rate at 4.75% Boao Forum for Asia lands on Australia Australia is wasting resources in Afghanistan... Suspect in bomb scare extradited to Australia