ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how Australia has addressed the issues that have been raised by the new security agenda in recent years, and its relationship with what we must by contrast call the ‘old’ security agenda. It examines this theme primarily through the lens of Canberra’s official statements of policy, and its concrete decisions about the military capabilities needed in the Australian Defence Force. For Australia, the new security agenda was reflected in concrete challenges in its immediate neighbourhood. But in Australian thinking and policy, this localized new security agenda was balanced and tempered by the wider strategic dynamics of the Asia-Pacific region, which carried pungent elements of the old security agenda. Australia’s own experiences in dealing with new security challenges in its own region reinforce the conclusion that heavy conventional land forces are not the main priority in addressing new non-state security challenges.
