NO. 328 - AUSTRALIA AS A RISING MIDDLE POWER

This is the central point; almost every strategic and economic question facing Australia in the coming decades will be refracted through the geopolitical competition of the United States and China.”5 The central strategic problem is Beijing’s determination to revise the established rules-based international order, and to weaken the United States’ strategic primacy within that order, in order to pr. [...] Article III of the treaty prominently requires each party to consult “whenever in the opinion of any of them the territorial integrity, political independence, or security of any of the Parties is threatened in the Pacific”.27 Article IV goes on to state that an armed attack in the Pacific area on any of the Parties (to the Treaty) would be “dangerous to its own peace and safety and declares that. [...] That protection provides a stable and reliable sense of assurance and has over the years removed the need for Australia to consider more significant and expensive defence options.31 The 2016 Defence White Paper reinforced the importance of ANZUS, and the US extended nuclear deterrence and noted that “Australia’s security is underpinned by the ANZUS Treaty, United States extended deterrence and acc. [...] Access to the most advanced technology and equipment from the United States and maintaining interoperability with the United States is central to maintaining the ADF’s potency.”32 It then goes on to highlight the importance of the “five eyes” intelligence sharing community, and the joint defence facility called Pine Gap. [...] A failure of the “China Dream” of a rejuvenated China that is “a rich country, with a strong army” — which overturns the perceived century of humiliation that emerged from the beginning of the 19th century Opium Wars in 1839 until the coming to power of Mao’s Communist’s and the formation of the 61 Stephanie Segal, Dylan Gerstel, “The Global Economic Impacts of COVID-19”, CSIS, Washington DC, Marc.