Australia

Australia’s comprehensive strategic approach towards the Indo-Pacific region and a renewed interest in the Indian Ocean has served to rekindle its relationship with India. Australia’s recently released 2016 Defence White Paper (DWP 2016) demonstrates that a growing convergence in strategic approaches can be discerned as Australia looks West and India begins to ‘Act East’.

• Udai Bhanu Singh
• April 2016
• Journal of Defence Studies

On 3 May 2013, Australia’s former Prime Minister Julia Gillard released the Defence White Paper (DWP) 2013, making it the sixth White Paper on defence in the history of Australia, and the third since 2000. The last Defence White Paper, entitled Defending Australia in the Asia Pacific Century: Force 2030, was released in 2009 when Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was serving his first term.

• Rahul Mishra
• November 2013
• Strategic Analysis

Concerned about Pakistan’s nuclear and missile programmes, Australia has blocked the shipment of dual-use equipment to Pakistan on at least three occasions during the past two years.

• Ch. Viyyanna Sastry
• December 14, 2011
• IDSA Comments

A ‘Labor government with Independent-Green characteristics’ will have an impact on the government’s style of functioning and might lead to changes in the very core of Australia’s domestic and foreign policy orientations.

• Rahul Mishra
• August 25, 2010
• IDSA Comments

To distance herself from the adverse fallout of the unpopular policy decisions taken by Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard has decided to seek a fresh mandate from the electorate.

• Rahul Mishra
• July 29, 2010
• IDSA Comments

While there is no denying the fact that Rudd’s ideas on foreign policy were well-intentioned, one cannot possibly overlook the fact that it all fell apart in the course of practice.

• Rahul Mishra
• July 02, 2010
• IDSA Comments

The rapid speed of globalization and increasing economic interdependence has had a direct impact on defence policies and countries are constantly seen fine-tuning their priorities. Walden Bello argues in his book Dilemmas of Domination that the declining US hegemony would prompt US allies in Asia to alter their defence planning and strategies vis-à-vis emerging powers like China.

• Pankaj K Jha
• November 2009
• Strategic Analysis

In early August, India’s Minister for External Affairs S. M. Krishna visited Australia as part of his trip to attend the Pacific Island Forum meeting, held in Cairns. India is a dialogue partner to the Pacific Island Forum, comprising the countries of the South-west Pacific region, including Australia and New Zealand. Most of Mr. Krishna’s time during this trip went in visiting Melbourne and Sydney, where a number of Indian students had been attacked in recent months.

• Rahul Mishra
• August 17, 2009
• IDSA Comments

Australia is not a racist country. The state has some of the toughest laws against racial discrimination. Though there is a history of discrimination against its aboriginal population today the country is sensitive to matters concerning race and ethnicity.

• Namrata Goswami
• June 22, 2009
• IDSA Comments

Labour Party Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd, has been in office for nearly one and a half years after his unexpected victory over John Howard in late 2007. For almost three decades after World War II, Australia systematically repudiated the idea of being identified as an Asian country, until the resource boom in the early 1970s that catapulted Australia as one of the major resource exporters to resource-importing countries such as Japan and now China. Since then, Australia’s external orientation has undergone a profound change.

• Pranamita Baruah , Rajaram Panda
• April 01, 2009
• IDSA Comments