April 21, 2017
Mike Pence and rebooting the Australia-US alliance
When Vice President Mike Pence lands in Australia, the last stop on his Asia-Pacific tour, he'll witness a country debating its close ties with the United States. Worries about China's rise and US engagement, coupled with reverberations from the 2016 presidential election, have left many Australians wondering how tightly to embrace their American ally.
In this there is peril but also opportunity. Pence's visit to Australia – the first by a senior Trump administration official since inauguration – should help renew an alliance that has paid great dividends for both sides. But renewal won't happen automatically. As Secretary of Defence James Mattis recently said, "No relationship stays the same. It gets better or it diminishes." It's now up to American and Australian leaders to see that their critical relationship gets better.
There's work to do. Today, though support for the alliance remains strong in the abstract, there are worrying signs of dissension. In a poll taken last year, nearly 40 per cent of those who support the alliance nevertheless believed that Australia should distance itself from a Trump administration. Former Prime Minister Paul Keating has said that the alliance should be scrapped, and several prominent politicians have joined the call. Behind such sentiments are a recognition of Australia's important economic relationship with China and worries that, when it comes to Asia, the United States will be ambivalent, absent, or simply apathetic.
Read the full article at the Australian Financial Review.
More from CNAS
-
Why Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran are teaming up
Probably the most surprising thing about the war in Ukraine is that Russia is getting a ton of help. North Korea and Iran are sending it millions of rounds of ammunition and l...
By Andrea Kendall-Taylor
-
How to Revamp Chinese Students’ American Education
The PRC today operates the largest and most sophisticated propaganda apparatus in human history....
By Bill Drexel & Grace Gao
-
U.S. military must reinforce Guam's crumbling infrastructure
In Guam, one is quickly struck by the juxtaposition of crystal-clear waters with crumbling infrastructure and abandoned cars strewn across the small Pacific island. Following ...
By Taren Sylvester & Evan Wright
-
Understanding China-Philippines' dangerous South China Sea face-offs
The situation in the South China Sea is more worrying than that in the Taiwan Strait, says Indo Pacific security expert Lisa Curtis, former top US official and now Senior Fell...
By Lisa Curtis