ABSTRACT
The rapid economic transformation of much of Asia places Australia for the first time within, or at least closely adjacent to, the region of greatest global economic power. Australia’s overriding desire to integrate closely into the region has, on one level at least, been substantially achieved: in 1995, almost three-quarters of its total exports flowed to the Asia-Pacific region, and APEC anticipated a multilateral regional economy grouping which eclipsed in importance either the European Union (EU) or NAFTA.1 These developments intensify Australian government and business optimism that the so-called Pacific Century will be realized, integrating Australia further into the deepening prosperity of the region.2 Equally, it is anticipated that the Pacific Century will be built on more balanced and reciprocal systems of multilateral political interactions which mitigate conflict and emphasize the shared interests of the diverse members of the region. And in Canberra, at least, this vision persists even as its global political equivalent-the so-called New World Order-is undermined by brutal conflicts, especially in Europe and Africa; a demoralized and impotent UN; bitter trade rivalries, especially in the Asia-Pacific; difficulties in limiting the proliferation of nuclear weapons; escalating expenditure on armaments, especially in the Middle East and Asia; the persistence of authoritarian governments on both the ‘left’ and ‘right’ of politics; and widespread abuses of human rights. This chapter traces Australia’s often faltering efforts to adjust to the changing realities of the Asia-Pacific. It emphasizes the fundamental consequences for Australia of its uneven integration into the realignments-economic, political and cultural-which characterize the dynamic region on the eve of the much heralded Pacific Century. Australia’s changing aspirations and policies are located throughout wider contours of regional and global changes-changes which are increasingly understood as essentially economic, but which are deeply embedded in political and cultural processes.
