ABSTRACT
Australia may not be the most important ally of the United States, but few could claim to be closer or more unequivocal in their support. No other country has participated as regularly as Australia in the major conflicts that the United States has found itself involved in since it became a hegemonic power in the aftermath of World War II. In Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan and both wars with Iraq, Australia has played an important supporting role, albeit one of little material importance. Yet, the very fact that Australia’s participation in these conflicts was essentially symbolic tells us something important about the nature of contemporary American hegemony and the role played by valued allies such as Australia. It also sheds a revealing light on the motivations of such allies: although Australia’s circumstances are unique and the dynamics of the alliance relationship are contingent and historically determined, the Australian experience has a wider significance in the context of post-Cold War geopolitics. Indeed, surprisingly and somewhat paradoxically, even in an era in which ideological issues are routinely considered to have less purchase, and when a reconfigured international order might have been expected to confer a greater degree of autonomy on client states, the alliance with the United States remains the universally supported centrepiece of Australia’s foreign policies. The ideational construction of the bilateral relationship in Australia ensures that, despite the purported benefits of the relationship being less clear and more contentious, there is little chance of it being downgraded in the immediate future, despite the election of a new government in Australia and a commitment to withdraw its tokenistic presence in Iraq. Indeed, it is significant that Kevin Rudd, the Australian Labor Party (ALP) prime minister elected in November 2007, made a point in his post-election victory speech of reassuring the United States that his commitment to the alliance remained undiminished.1
