Australia and the World: Examining Foreign Policy and Global Relations

This assignment provides a comprehensive analysis of Australia's foreign policy and its relationships with various countries and regions. It examines Australia's alliances, particularly its relationship with powerful protectors, and its engagement with regional architecture in Asia. The analysis delves into perceptions of Australia in Asia, focusing on issues such as racism, selfishness, and moralistic hypocrisy. Furthermore, the assignment explores the complexities of Australia's relationships with China, Indonesia, and Japan, highlighting both opportunities and challenges. It also addresses Australia's role in the Pacific region, including the RAMSI intervention and its impact on regional stability. The paper concludes by emphasizing the potential for the Pacific region to serve as a security screen for Australia, advocating for continued engagement and support.

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Part A
1. D) Australia's foreign policy is based on ensuring we have an alliance with a powerful
protector with similar cultural heritage and we pay very little attention in developing any
regional architecture with Asia.
2. D) Australia has made significant progress on all the four strategies of the 1989
Garnaut report.
3. Asians view Australia as a country that is rich just because of dumb luck. A state that
is racist because, in case of any racial matters, there is an uproar by the local citizens. A country
that is selfish especially in international aid and a nation that is moralistic and hypocritical. This
is because they point out other people's behavior forgetting they do not have a clean slate.
4. Some tensions exist in some parts of China, and they are undisputed.
China is more likely to face climate change that may affect its food, energy, and infrastructure.
China has a high population of the elderly which poses a threat to the economy.
China's culture may be a challenge as not many Australian's are familiar with it.
5. The relations between India and Australia have strengthened ever since the Indian
government made the new economic reforms. Also, India formed the Indian Australian in 1995
to enhance the relationship. There was also the formation of the Australia India-New Horizons
solely to promote culture in both countries. India's economic conditions have changed making
Australia pursue the strategy of building a bilateral relationship (Paramati et al., 2018). Australia
and Asia' relationship has grown stronger with growth in the trade sectors in both countries. The
cultures have also improved as more students are learning Asian language and cultures in

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Australia as well as vice versa. Australia has also become the food supplier to Asia thus ensuring
food security in the country.
Part B
1. A) Australia has not been concerned that any threat to Australia would come through
the Indonesian archipelago.
2. A) Indonesia today is not a democracy and does not possess a strong civil society, free
press and does not have fair and direct elections.
3. The two countries have had territorial disagreements, e.g., over East Timor in 1999
that caused tension in both the countries. In 2013, there were accusations that Australian's tapped
the phone of the Indonesian President then which created more tension between the two
countries as well as lack of trust. To strengthen their military relationships, in 2006, the two
countries signed the Lombok Treaty. This was cooperation between the two nations to govern
their security.
Both countries have also joined to help in terrorism financing. This happened in 2015
when they co-hosted the counter-terrorism summit and came up with a risk assessment for
terrorism financing in South East Asia.
4. Some of the challenges that the Australian-Indonesian relationship faces are: The two
countries have a historical past of misunderstandings which, makes it difficult for them to work
together. This also causes the two countries not to be able to trust each other in working together.
Also, Australian's have a negative view of Indonesian's and view them as extremely religious.
This stereotype is a barrier to the formation of good relations (Hamid & Kirkpatrick, 2016).

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The Australian's also have other stereotypes of the Indonesian people that contribute to
the disputes and misunderstandings. The media coverage of Australia in Indonesia is minimal
and, therefore, the Indonesians do not have a broad knowledge of the country other than a place
for jobs and vacations.
Part C
1. True
2. False
3. True
4. False
5. The Australian-Japan security relationship has experienced growth, but despite this,
there are challenges that this relationship faces, that hinders the further growth of the security ties
between this two countries. There exists tension between Japan and China and this affects
Australia's relation with Japan. This is known as the China gap that exists between Australia and
Japan (Jacobs, 2017).
This gap is caused by the difference in China and Japan and the different perceptions that
they have of each other. Also, there exists the Japan capability gap that is a barrier to the security
ties with Australia. This gap is caused by the constraints that Japan experiences such as
constitutional. Also, there is opposition by the political parties in Japan to the defense forces of
the country to engage in collective defense. These limits are a barrier to strengthening the
bilateral ties between Australia and Japan (Heazle and Tatsumi, 2017). For the security ties to be

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strengthened, these gaps need to be diminished and the countries to focus on the common
interests that they have.
Part D
1. A) Australia's economic relationship with China will change in the future, and while
resource exports will remain important, due to Australia's international competitiveness in
services the export market in services will become increasingly important.
2. A) China is highly unlikely to threaten Australian territory with military force.
3. Some of the challenges of the Australia-China relationship are: the two countries have
a history of misunderstanding which affects their current relationship. China views Australia as a
disloyal and hypocritical country and therefore do not want to engage with them (Johnson,
2017). Australia is not well adverse to the Chinese culture, and this is a barrier to the
relationship. Australia is said to be racist by the Chinese, especially after the White policy.
4. This can be done through the formation of an immigration policy that is not racial, and
that has liberal internationalism. Also, Australia can offer scholarships to students in China to
come and study abroad. Australia can decide to import and export goods to China. For instance
exporting iron ore to China as well as food and importing agricultural products (Smith, 2015).
PART E
1. While there are some similarities between Australia and New Zealand, there are also
some differences, particularly around the recognition of the indigenous people in New Zealand
and Australia.
2. Australia still maintains a policy of non-interference in the Pacific Island states.

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3. The arc of instability is used to describe the security challenges that the Pacific faces
because it is a weak nation and may fall into corrupt power. This may pose a threat to Australia.
4. RAMSI was formed to help the Pacific states become more stable economically so that
they would not pose a threat to Australia regarding security. It changed the focus of Australia to
assist the neighboring countries to be stable rather than just allying with them (Putt, Dinnen,
Keen & Batley, 2017).
5. Successes include: It helped in intervening the 2003 crisis in the Solomon Islands
bringing safety to the land. It was successful in solving the issues of terrorism in Pacific Forum
Island countries. It has helped build the economy of the Pacific states.
Weakness: international law has been a conflict causing problems to the state building. I
Solomon Islands, there was a lot of corruption and lawlessness which RAMIS could not address.
There is also a lot of regional conflict in the Pacific countries (Wallman & Archer, 2015).
6. The Pacific region is an arc of opportunity as it has the potential of being a strong state
that can provide Australia with security screen

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References
Hamid, M. O., & Kirkpatrick, A. (2016). Foreign language policies in Asia and Australia in the
Asian century. Language Problems and Language Planning, 40(1), 26-46.
Heazle, M & Tatsumi, Y. (2017). Explaining Australia-Japan security cooperation and its
prospects: ‘the interests that bind?' The Pacific Review 31(1), 38-56
Jacobs, E. M. (2017). Special relations, strategic locations: Prospects for the Japan-Australia
security relationship. Policy: A Journal of Public Policy and Ideas, 33(2), 24.
Johnson, C. (2017). The Australia-China Security Relationship: Enhancing Bilateral Cooperation
through Defence Diplomacy.
Paramati, S. R., Zakari, A., Jalle, M., Kale, S., & Begari, P. (2018). The dynamic impact of
bilateral trade linkages on stock market correlations of Australia and China. Applied Economics
Letters, 25(3), 141-145.
Putt, J., Dinnen, S., Keen, M., & Batley, J. (2017). The RAMSI Legacy for Pacific Policing.
Smith, W. (2015). Building engagement with China. Public Administration Today, (42), 35.
Wallman, J. F., & Archer, M. S. (2015). Australia and New Zealand. Forensic Entomology:
International Dimensions and Frontiers, 53.

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