Quarterly Essay Australia: ‘Without America’

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• Trivia:   List of challenges 2018
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• Trivia:  Read Australian writers:   Hugh White

Read:  Quarterly Essay, vol. 68;  White, Hugh,  28 November 2017  (Australian)

1. This is worth the time it took to read….2 hrs!
2. Essay: , ‘Without America: Australia in the New Asia’
3. Hugh White is Professor of Strategic Studies
4. ….at the Australian National University.
5. Stop assuming that USA is going to dominate Asia forever
6. Stop  assuming that USA will keep Australia safe.
7. China is now so strong and ambitious that USA under Trump..so weak
8. that USA will cease to be a  significant player in Asia.
9. Australia must prepare itself for this transformation.

1. I loved White’s explanation of two world powers put their rivals to the test!
2. “classic power-political salami-slicing”
3. “…each slice of the salami might be insignificant,
4. Washington looks weak if it can’t or won’t stop China taking
5. …one slice after another, and China by contrast looks strong and resolved…”
6. OUCH!

1. “Rex Tillerson has proved to be the worst secretary of state in living memory,
2. ….and the overpraised General James Mattis in Defense
3. ….has failed to bring coherence to the administration’s strategy.”
4. WHAT?

1. Who would have thought that Indonesia will be a
2. ..VERY POWERFUL country, second only to China?
3. Thank you, Hugh White for opening my eyes….about China and Indonesia!!
4. I think TRUMP should put this essay
5. ‘Without America’ in his bedside night table….
6. …his TBR!!

1. Conclusion:
2. 40 years ago Australia managed
3. …a ‘post-alliance’ transition with Britain.
4. Now Australia’s task in the next few years will be
5. …doing the same with America!
6. China’s rise is a fact and isn’t going away.
7. This will require Australia to rethink a lot of things,
8. to make some hard choices, and perhaps
9. to pay some heavy costs.
10. Excellent… #MustRead essay!