Australia’s Strategic Dilemma: Middle Power Choices in the Trump Whirlwind
March 23, 2025, from 4:00 PM to 5:30 PM HST.
REGIONAL STRATEGIC AND POLITICAL STUDIES PROGRAMME
About the Hybrid Seminar
Since 1951, Australia has anchored its strategic policy in its alliance with the US. Over the past quarter-century, America has loomed ever larger in the country’s international policy, from the invocation of the ANZUS treaty in 2001, the deployment of Australian troops to Afghanistan and Iraq through to the AUKUS agreement. As a middle power with high levels of strategic anxiety, the ties to the US provided Australia with security guarantees, access to intelligence and equipment, and international influence for a bargain price. The US was also an advocate of a global liberal economic order which suited Australia’s economic interests.
Trump’s re-election and his scrambling of decades of US internationalist policy risks leaving Australia badly exposed. Trade agreements are evidently worthless, alliance commitments called into question, and chaotic ‘deal-making’ apparently valued in its own right. Crucially, the Trump administration appears neither to value nor understand the importance of a broadly liberal international order in which rules, not might, prevail.
This seminar will examine the challenges Australia faces given that it has bound itself to the US. It will assess the approach of the Albanese government to date and argue that Australia must become more self-reliant at home and develop a much more multi-dimensional approach to its strategic policy, including in its engagement with Southeast Asia.
About the Speaker
Dr Nick Bisley is Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences and Professor of International Relations at La Trobe University, Australia. He is the immediate past President of the Australasian Council of Deans of Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities and was elected as a Fellow of the Australian Institute of International Affairs in 2020. He has served as the Editor-in-Chief of the Australian Journal of International Affairs, has been a Senior Research Associate of the International Institute of Strategic Studies and a Visiting Fellow at the East-West Center in Washington D.C.
Registration
This is a hybrid event which will be held at ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute (ISEAS).
Attending the Event In-person at ISEAS
To join the event in-person at ISEAS, please register via the ISEAS mobile app, available on iOS and Android via the Apple or Play store. Search “ISEAS” to find or scan this QR code.
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Seating capacity is limited. Do register early to avoid disappointment.
Attending the Event Virtually via Webinar
To join the event virtually at the specified date and time using your internet devices, please register here to receive your unique login link for the webinar via the zoom platform.
If you have questions for the speaker, please key in your questions via the Q&A, stating your name and affiliation. The moderator will field them to the speakers during the Q&A session.