Australia and Southeast Asia: National Interests in the 1970s

Extract

Australian policies are usually formulated in terms of specific national interests related to Asia. These may be grouped in three categories, which I shall call security, economy, and identification. The three are separate, but point in much the same direction: in whichever of these categories an Australian views his country's future in Southeast Asia, he sees its interests as involving preservation and enlargement of Australia's present character. There is room for argument about details and interpretation, between the intellectual and the man in the street, and between one political party and another. At times these arguments are heated, especially when the question of security is being debated. But, basically, Australians want to go on being as they are in the place where they are. Although they recognize the actual and symbolic importance of Southeast Asia, their national interests demand that they be not submerged or impoverished by influences from that direction. Their position is, in essence, a defensive one, but capable of a good deal of initiative. While it is often expressed as a position involving only Southeast Asia – because that is the closest part of Asia, the one which Australians know best, and is often used as a synonym for Asia at large — the Australian position towards Asia as a whole is much the same.