Australia is being tested, and exposed, by global conflicts sparked in no small part by Donald Trump’s second US presidency.
That was the sentiment expressed at a sovereignty and security forum in Canberra today, hosted by UNSW Professor of War Studies David Kilcullen and former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
The forum was held at the university’s ACT campus, a top defence education and research institution; it is involved in defining defence research, policy and practice and works with government, Australian Defence Force and industry.
Prof. Kilcullen says Trump’s presidency is serving as a ‘wake-up’ call to Australia; it is exposing vulnerabilities that are now being tested by international conflicts sparked by Trump, among others.
“Donald Trump is a global chaos agent but from a strategic standpoint, he doesn’t really matter,” the professor says.
“The acute issues raised by the Trump presidency are symptoms of a chronic problem that Australians must address.”
CONCERNS FOR AUSTRALIA
He goes on: “We live in a dangerous neighbourhood, in an increasingly unstable global system, a very long way from friends and allies.
“We’re a maritime trading nation with global economic interests, separated by vast distances from critical markets and sources of supply, relying on fragile international systems such as energy flows, transport systems and globalised just-in-time manufacturing.”
Prof. Kilcullen says that ‘resilience’ and ‘sovereign’ need to drive Australian security going forward.
“If we want greater … respect from allies and adversaries, and greater resilience to shocks like the ones we’re currently experiencing, we must build the resilience resources and sovereign self-reliance to stand on our own,” he says.
“Time is running out fast. This is not a moment for business as usual.”
(Media is reporting a new Australian Strategic Policy Institute claim that the US is becoming the dominant military force in Northern Australia; click here for that media article.)
Turnbull warns the country is facing a far more dangerous and uncertain world but the national response has been marked more by silence than serious debate.
“A year into the second Trump Administration, it is very plain the US is under very different management. Might makes right is not just the sub text; it is the headline,” he says.
“The recent (US) National Defence Strategy dismisses the ‘international rules based order’ as a ‘cloud-castle abstraction’.”
The document was heavily criticised by NATO countries when it was first released: click here to read the document.
“So far we have seen little or no reaction from Canberra and very little public debate about the implications for Australia,” Turnbull says.
“This discreet silence carries with it grave risks that the Australian people are neither aware, or prepared for, the dangers of our disrupted world. Hope is not a strategy.”
Australia recently signed a new defence partnership with the European Union to allow for greater co-operation outside US ties.
ABOUT KILCULLEN
Prof. David Kilcullen is Professor of War Studies at UNSW Canberra.
He spent 25 years working for the Australian and US governments as a soldier, diplomat and intelligence analyst.
In 2021 he was honoured by the US Congress for helping rescue more than 2300 Afghans during the fall of Kabul. Source: UNSW
