Australian defence policy sits at a crossroads. For over 70 years Australia's strategic position had been anchored by the US led international order that has been in place since 1945. But in '2017 Australians had to acknowledge that the global order that had shaped the world since the end of World War II was not challenged or changing but over'. In this new era, beset with rapid strategic and technological change underpinned by increasing US-China contestation in the Indo-Pacific, what does the future hold for the region and Australia's strategic approach?
Like its companion volumes, Australia's Defence: Towards a New Era? (2014) and Australia's American Alliance (2016), this book brings together leading experts to examine the future of Australian defence policy in a contested Asia. This thought provoking and challenging volume imagines the future of Australian strategy after American primacy, plotting possible, probable and preferable strategic futures for a country that faces unprecedented strategic challenges.
About the Editors
Peter J. Dean is Professor and Pro Vice Chancellor (Education) at the University of Western Australia and a Senior Fellow at the Perth US Asia Centre. He specialises in the ANZUS Alliance, and Australian military operations and strategic policy. Peter has been a Fulbright Fellow and Endeavour Research Scholar as well as a non-resident fellow with the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington D.C. and Senior Fellow at the Australia, New Zealand and Pacific Studies at Georgetown University. He is on the editorial boards of the Australian Army Journal and Global War Studies.
Peter is an author of eight books on Australian defence policy and military history, including The Architect of Victory (2010), (with Brendan Taylor and Stephan Fruehling) Australia’s American Alliance (2016) and MacArthur’s Coalition: United States and Australian Military Operations in the Southwest Pacific Area (2018).
Brendan Taylor is Associate Professor of Strategic Studies at the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University. He was Head of the Centre from 2011-2016. He is a specialist on great power strategic relations in the Asia-Pacific, East Asian ‘flashpoints’, and Asian security architecture. His publications have featured in such leading journals as The Washington Quarterly, International Affairs, Survival, Asian Security, Asia Policy, Review of International Studies and the Pacific Review.
Brendan is the author of Sanctions as Grand Strategy, which was published in the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) Adelphi series. He is also the editor (with William Tow) of Bilateralism, Multilateralism and Asia-Pacific Security (Routledge, 2013); and (with Peter Dean and Stephan Fruehling) of Australia’s American Alliance (MUP, 2016). His book, The Four Flashpoints: How Asia Goes to War, was published by Black Inc. in August 2018.
Stephan Frühling is the Associate Dean Education in the College of Asia and Pacific at the Australian National University, and Associate Professor at the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre. His work focuses on Australian defence policy, nuclear weapons, and US alliances. Stephan was a member of the Australian Government’s External Panel of Experts on the 2016 Defence White Paper, and is the author of Defence Planning and Uncertainty (2014) and A History of Australian Defence Policy Since 1945 (2009).
