ABSTRACT
This chapter asserts that Australia has been successful in pursuing a middle ground between ‘Asian engagement’ and its traditional dependency on the United States (US) and other ‘great and powerful friends’ outside the region ever. John Howard opted to directly link such an accession with its US alliance commitment – that it could undermine the value of Australia’s US security affiliation. With its release of a White Paper on foreign policy in August 1997, the new government spelled out what it regarded as its predecessor’s excessive reliance on regional engagement strategy. For China, this entails ‘understanding’ Australia’s aim to sustain its close security alliance with the US while gradually building up a ‘pro-China’ constituency of political and economic interests in Australia. The chapter concludes by gauging the prospects for Australia’s success in sustaining an effective balance between its traditionalist and internationalist policy orientations in the Asia-Pacific.
