China-Australia Relations

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Event Report

The Indo-Pacific region is becoming a complex international system ripe in defensive alliances and conflictual relations. Prof. Jane Golley, the Australian National University Director and professor of Economics and Public Policy, shares her thoughts about the fractured dependency of Australia in China’s soft power.

The Australia and China conflicts are the centerpiece in the balance of power equation. Australia serves as the American forward economic and military bulwark in South East Asia. This pushes forward the argument of Prof. Golley. Australia cannot decouple itself from China due to economic dependency. She argues for a new worldview alternative to the realist’s strategic view on international affairs. She calls it “the Geo-economics” world order. Edward Luttwak defines it as the ‘logic of conflict through methods of commerce’. Historical examples can be traced to Japan perceived as a threat to US economic primacy, and criticised for state involvement in pursuit of industrial dominance. Other strategists like Blackwill & Harris have identified geoeconomics as “War by Other Means”. The use of economic instruments can help to promote and defend national interests, and to produce beneficial geopolitical results; and the effects of another nation’s economic actions on a country’s geopolitical goals. It is basically an inverse security dilemma. The event has been a refreshing insight to conventional canon of strategy from its military centric narratives.

Prepared by Quiaoit, Amadeus O, Intern at NIICE