World politics is ultimately determined by landmark changes in state-centric power configurations and the contemporary international security environment is proving to be no exception. (2) Europe, the Middle East and Asia collectively form the vortex of geopolitical rivalry in our time and the United States, the hyper-power, whose strategic commitments dominate and whose resource needs bestride all three regions, is increasingly strained to project effective control over how these regions will shape the evolution of international security. This is particularly true as the forces of globalization become more complex and as the scope of security policy concerns broadens. In such an environment post-war US allies like Australia are challenged with how to determine whether their own national security interests and policies correspond with or diverge from American expectations and demands. In this context, Australia stands at a historical crossroads. For nearly eighty years after Federation in 1901, that country pursued an unmitigated strategy of alliance politics, relying initially upon its erstwhile colonial power, Great Britain, and since 1942 upon the United States for protection and, ultimately, for survival against real or potential regional predators. Over the last twenty to thirty years, however, Australia has pursued a more complex, dual track, strategy to guarantee its security and prosperity. The two main elements comprising this strategy are: (1) a comprehensive regional engagement with its Asian neighbours, designed to pursue community-building and avoid security dilemmas, complemented by (2) a continuation and, most recently, an intensification of its alliance with the United States? This approach was perhaps most graphically characterized by then Prime Minister John Howard in a wide-ranging speech delivered in August 2001 when he insisted that: ...it (is) not necessary [for Australia] to choose between our relationships with Asian countries, and those in Europe and North America--to choose between our history and our geography. (4) In retrospect, the formula of pursuing politico-strategic equilibrium --build(ing) and maintain(lug) links with all the major centres of global power and influence, while ensuring that [Australia's] key regional relationships were kept vibrant and strong can be viewed as successful? Over the past decade, Australia's economy grew steadily through its cultivation of an insatiable China market and preservation of viable trading and investment relationships with more traditional Asian economic partners (particularly Japan and South Korea). It simultaneously entered into a comprehensive free trade agreement with the United States, strengthened its access to US defence intelligence and weapons technology and intensified its diplomatic profile with US officials. (6) While Australia's military involvement in Iraq has been undoubtedly controversial, its casualties among defence personnel serving in that war-torn land have been remarkably light to date. The newly elected Rudd government pledged throughout the late 2007 federal election campaign that it would remove all Australian combat forces from that theatre. He was careful, however, to qualify this declaration with the caveat that the US would be fully consulted prior to withdrawing what is, in fact, a very modest number (around 550) of Australian combat forces. Nearly 1,000 Australian military personnel would remain stationed in Iraq, however, to carry out naval missions, help train the Iraqi army and to provide other forms of logistical support for remaining coalition (mostly US) forces deployed there. (7) Adopting a fundamentally balanced or symmetrical approach to geopolitics has therefore served Australia very well during the twenty-first century's first decade. Given the success it has had in adopting geopolitical symmetry as a core part of its overall security posture, it is puzzling that a countervailing policy trend emerged during the Howard government's last three to four years of office that signalled a return to Australia's unqualified strategic reliance on its great and powerful American friend. …