1st Edition

Australian Security After 9/11 New and Old Agendas

By Derek McDougall, Peter Shearman Copyright 2006

    Debates on security became more intense following the unanticipated end of the Cold War conflict and took on added force after the terrorist attacks on the US on September 11, 2001. Generally viewed as a part of the wider 'West' despite its separation by enormous geographical distances from both Europe and the United States, Australia is a regional power in its own right. It has been an active and loyal member of the US-led coalitions of the willing, first in Afghanistan and then in Iraq. The terrorist attacks in Bali one year after the attacks in the United States brought home to Australia the direct nature of the new global terrorist threats to its own security. This volume brings together leading experts on international security and Australia's foreign and security policies in a critical examination of Australia's adaptations to the new security challenges. It is the first in-depth and comprehensive analysis of Australia's defence and security policies as well as the country's role in countering regional and global challenges to international security since the war on terrorism began.

    Contents: Setting the Scene: Global and Australian: The New Global Security Agenda, Gareth Evans; Old, new or both? Australia's security agendas at the start of the New Century, Hugh White; The American Empire: past, present and future, Michael Cox; Identity politics, new security agendas and the anglosphere, Peter Shearman; The 'New Security Environment' in the Asia-Pacific: an Australian perspective, Nick Bisley. Perspectives on Australian (and Australasian) Policy: Evolving Australian security interests in the Asia-Pacific: policy coherence or disjunction?, William Tow; Australia and the 'War on Terrorism': a preliminary assessment, Derek McDougall; Everything new is old again? Australia-Japan relations, new security and 'The New Dispensation', Richard Leaver; Australia and Indonesia: living in different strategic worlds, Richard Chauvel; Australasian security policy: old agenda divergence, new agenda convergence?, Robert Ayson; Oceania and the New Security Agenda, John Henderson; Why Prime Ministers go too far: the case of John Howard, James Walter; Index.

    Biography

    Derek McDougall and Peter Shearman are both Associate Professors at the University of Melbourne, Australia.