White, Hugh ‘Strategic Interests in Australian Defence Policy: Some Historical and

Methodological Reflections’ Security Challenges, 4 (2), 2008, pp. 63-79.

 Hugh White describes in in this paper an approach to identifying long-term

Australian security interests amongst the rise of China and its concurrent paving of a
major systemic change in the Asia-Pacific region.
 He argues that since the early 1990s, Australia’s approach to identifying its strategic
interests was defined regarding factors in the international system that had a
significant effect on the seriousness or likelihood of an armed attack on Australia.
 The purpose of this paper is to describe how Australia’s approach to conceptualising
its strategic interests was developed in the 1990s and applied in the 2000 White
Paper. It also discusses the applicability of this approach in Australia’s future defence
policies.
 White explains that answering the question “what do we want our armed forces to
be able to do?” allows for easier definition of strategic objectives (policy goals that
are desired and achieved via use of armed forces).
o He argues that answering the above question and hence defining strategic
objectives is particularly hard for Australia, due to its peculiar strategic
environment and risk conventional military attack.
o From a realist perspective, he argues that although there is no clear,
immediate or present threat of conventional attack, Australia is still not
immutably secure.
o Australia’s security from conventional attack is not as well-founded as that of
Canada or Belgium, which have more grounded roots in international
relations and diplomacy. However, if the international order in Asia remains
to be the same as it has been for the past few decades, Australia can remain
stable.
 The British approach in understanding strategic interests, characterised by Lord
Palmerston’s argument that allies and adversaries can change, but interests will
endure, captured the attention of Australian defence policy makers in the early
1990s. This approach can be seen embedded in policy outlines in Defence 2000,
which prioritised key interests such as ability to defend from direct attack and
stability of the immediate neighbourhood among other enduring interests.
 The paper ends by clarifying that Australian defence planners in 2000 believed that
an interests-driven approach to defence policy provided a better framework for
decision-making about long-term capability choices than other frameworks. White
posits at the end that the work for future defence policymakers was to either
contribute to refining understanding of enduring Australian strategic interests, or
propose better frameworks to understanding the desired capabilities and purpose of
Australia’s armed forces.
Commonwealth of Australia, 2016 Defence White Paper, Canberra: Department of
Defence, 2016 Chapter 3, 67-82.

o Divided into nine chapters, the 2016 Defence White Paper gives, in its own
statement, the most rigorous and comprehensive outline of Australia’s commitment
and strategy to protect and secure the nation and its current and future generations
spanning the next 20 years.
o A major aspect of the document is an outline of the Government’s strategy to
continue to strengthen Australia-US ties, as well as other regional and international
alliances and partnerships to overcome mutual security concerns such as the rise of
the threat of terrorism.
o Another important aspect of the Paper is its matching of strategy and vision to
national resources. This is the first Defence White Paper to include a fully costed
budget. The 2016 White Paper goals were made to be funded by an increase of the
defence budget to 2% of Australian GDP by 2020-21. This provides an
unprecedented investment in Australia’s defence abilities of approximately $195
billion AUD over the next ten years.
o In regards to the changing international environment around Australia, the 2016
Defence White Paper presents opportunities that it may take advantage from as well
as challenges that the nation needs to be wary of and prepare for.
o Opportunities include the chance for prosperity and development due to
rising incomes and living standards across the Indo-Pacific, generating
subsequent increases in demands for goods and services, as well as the
chance to increase Australian economy and security.
o The desire to strengthen alliances and partnerships with other states is
rooted from history and empirical evidence that partnerships can increase
prosperity and security. Australia’s current reliance and propensity for open
access to partners and the rules-based order have been underpinned by the
last 70 years of US presence and provision of security to Australia.
o In regards to challenges in Australia’s outlook to 2035, Australia recognises
that despite no more than remote chances that military attack on Australia
will occur, Australian security and strategic planning remains of utmost
importance.
 Challenges such as the rise of China and relative decline of the US,
instability in South Pacific states, as well as the threat of terrorism
domestically and internationally render security planning to be the
Government’s highest priority.
o Australia posits three interests in its defence strategy: (1) a secure and resilient
Australia, (2), a secure nearer region, including maritime South East Asia and the
South Pacific, and (3) a stable Indo-Pacific region and rules-based global order in
support of Australia’s interests in security, prosperity and strengthening alliances.