The Existential Threat to Aukus: Choking on US Red Tape

“It’s bureaucracy and different bureaucracies and multiple ones,” said Stacie Pettyjohn, a senior fellow and defence programme director at the Centre for a New American Security.

“It’s just a deeply entrenched way of operating. If Aukus fails, there is a good chance that the United States can no longer defend the liberal international order, and that it can be overtaken by challengers.”

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“But a lot of that has been for political show and less for the capability that they bring,” Pettyjohn said. “Here we actually need combined capabilities. And we need to be able to do it together before a balloon goes up and some sort of crisis or war breaks out.

“Because we’re not going to be able to recoup and cobble together when you face an adversary as capable as China.”

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