United States security strategy is changing and how its allies deal with this change raises multiple issues Australia must now consider.
At the recent KPMG/AFR defence and national security roundtable, Alan Dupont, professor of international security at the University of New South Wales, strongly defined the new security challenge for Australia and the US.
“I don’t think there’s too much serious debate whether it still continues to be in Australia’s interest to be invested in the US alliance – for all the reasons we’ve discussed for the last 50 years, and that’s supported by the polls,” Professor Dupont said.
“But the issue is really how we adapt to the changing US strategic question; and the fact that the US is moving from being what we used to call a security provider to a security enhancer.
Professor Dupont says the US is no longer going to be the global cog where “you call up when there’s a crisis and along they come and we just go in on the coat-tails and derive the benefits.