Australia’s engagement with East Asia: Evolution of a re-orientation in foreign policy

Abstract

The outbreak and warfare activities of World War II unintendedly forced Australia to re-orient their security and defense thinking. Having realized that the British security environment and that of their own were far diverged from each other, Australia began to re-orient their priority in foreign policy from European issues to East Asian ones. For the Bristish, East Asia is the Far East but in Australia’s new perspective it is the Near North; thus, the security matters in East Asia are closely linked with Australian national interests. Australian independent diplomacy has been shaped during the course following their re-orienting foreign and security thinking to East Asia. This paper examines the re-orienting of Australia’s strategic thinking from Europecentered problems to Asia-centered ones as well as changing orientation towards ‘Asia’ and ‘Asian engagement’. It also argues that since it had formed, Australia’s Asia-oriented foreign policy, despite minor constraints, has been continuously developed until today.