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The Asialink Essays

Australia's international relations are increasingly located in Asia rather than the rest of the World.

What are the challenges ahead?
What are the opportunities for business, for greater cultural exchange, for Australia's role in the region?

In The Asialink Essays series, launched in April 2009, leading commentators explore key issues in Australia's engagement with Asia. Editors and Contributors.

Towards an Asia Pacific Community [pdf, 356kb, 4 pages]

"The choice is
whether we seek actively to shape
the future of our wider region ...
by building the regional architecture we need for the future ... or whether instead we will adopt a passive approach – where we simply wait and see what evolves.” The Hon Kevin Rudd, Prime Minister of Australia, May 2009.

Distinguished Australian diplomat and special envoy, Richard Woolcott AC, outlines the aims of Prime Minister Rudd's Asia Pacific community concept ahead of an international conference in Sydney in December 2009.

Don’t wait for Copenhagen: implications of the international climate change impasse for Australia and APEC [pdf, 344kb, 6 pages]

Stephen Howes, ANU Professor of Economics and key contributor to the Garnaut Climate Change Review, says an effective response to climate change requires a mix of unilateral and multilateral action - and individual countries must demonstrate good faith. Just as APEC has promoted unilateral trade liberalisation, it should encourage its member countries to compete with each other to reduce emissions and develop new technologies. Waiting for Copenhagen would do nothing to discourage free-riding countries.

Asia Pacific Community: Reinventing the Wheel [pdf, 172kb, 8 pages]

Australia's former head of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), Colin Heseltine, discusses Prime Minister Rudd's new Asia Pacific Community idea. With all the untidiness and built-in efficiencies of the current system of regional dialogue, there is still a system in place. More importantly, he says, much more workable solutions exist besides the fraught, and very likely doomed, option of starting all over again.

Media Coverage: "Rudd's Asia community bid 'lacks detail', John Kerin, The Australian Financial Review, [pdf, 304kb, 1 page], Tuesday 6 October 2009

Asian Democracy and Australia: No Gold Pass to a trouble-free future [pdf, 260kb, 11 pages]

In the latest Asialink Essay, released as Australia’s Ambassador to China returns to Canberra for high-level talks on the vital China-Australia relationship, Greg Sheridan, foreign editor for The Australian, says democracy in Asia is not a gold pass to a trouble free future for Australia. Both democracy and dictatorship in Asia throw up challenges, and Australia must relate intelligently in both cases. But one lesson is clear, he says, from the recent Rubiya Kadeer episode: that consideration for Asian relationships will not compromise Australia’s own democratic and pluralist culture.

Media Coverage: "Asian democracy and Australia", Greg Sheridan, The Australian, Saturday 22 August 2009

TALKING TOUGH: Defence White Paper 2009 [pdf, 380kb, 6 pages]

Ross Cottrill, currently a Visiting Fellow at the Asia-Pacific College of Diplomacy, ANU, unpacks, with reference to China, the latest Defence White Paper, Defending Australia in the Asia Pacific Century: Force 2030. He notes that “In the case of the messages conveyed by the latest Defence White Paper, there have been complaints from China, and a leading specialist on China has suggested that the paper may have contributed to recent Chinese aggressive behaviour regarding the resources industry.” It may not be a new idea to speak softly to one’s neighbours, he suggests, but it’s good policy.

Media Coverage: "Spruiking a China threat is foolish", Ross Cottrill, The Australian Financial Review, Tuesday 21 July 2009, Opinion, p.63. [pdf, 288kb]

INDIA: Beyond the Sea Wall - Chronic neglect and Australia-India relations [pdf, 276kb, 7 pages]

Hamish McDonald, Asia Pacific Editor, Sydney Morning Herald, looks for an end to "neglect" in Australia-India relations and finds the usual reversion to cricket metaphors - talk of “dropped catches” in the games of diplomacy and trade - and an evident lack of understanding within Australian institutions of the vast changes taking place in India. What seemed an entirely positive trend – the rapid growth of Indian student numbers – was shown to have an underside when a spate of assaults and robberies against Indian students set off a media frenzy in India in May 2009. Rather than equipping ourselves to embark across the seas of ignorance, he says, we’ve recently been burning our boats.

Media Coverage: "Australia is handling India badly", Graham Cooke, ON LINE opinion, Monday 10 August 2009
"India's rise demands more than just watching Bollywood films", Kama Maclean, The Age (online), Monday 7 September 2009

NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT: Asia and Australia at the centre [pdf, 268kb, 7 pages]

Ron Huisken, senior fellow with the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, ANU, writes for the Asialink Essay Series, published also in the Australian Financial Review, May 22, 2009. North East Asia, he says, is quantitatively trivial in the nuclear puzzle but it highlights the obstacles to nuclear non-proliferation. Getting to zero will really be an exploration into whether there is an alternative to the nuclear abyss as the foundation for a stable world order.

Media Coverage: "Disarmament's dirty word", Ron Huisken, The Australian Financial Review, Friday 22 May 2009, p.4, Review. [pdf, 400kb]

INDONESIA: The Past is Past [pdf, 304kb, 7 pages]

Howard Dick, Professor in Management at The University of Melbourne and Conjoint Professor in Business and Law at The University of Newcastle, looks at Australia-Indonesia relations. He explores how Australia-Indonesia relations are not what they used to be. He outlines the “challenges and opportunities of a more prosperous, democratic and sophisticated neighbour” and the importance of not “squandering our intellectual expertise”.

Media Coverage: "Are we taking Indonesia seriously?", Howard Dick, The Australian Financial Review, Friday 1 May 2009, p.3, Review. [pdf, 340kb]
CHINA: Never Mind the Panic [pdf, 116kb, 8 pages]

Rowan Callick, Asia-Pacific Editor for The Australian and former China correspondent, looks at Australia-China relations and calls for "informed national debate about where this vital relationship is heading". It is too important to "leave to panicked shareholders and financial institutions."

Asialink, The University of Melbourne

The Asialink Essays