Australia Is Located in Asia but Has Never Been Part of Asia - Essay Example

Australia is located in Asia but has never been part of Asia. Critically assess the validity of this statement in relation to Australia since the 1970s? Name: Lecturer: Course: Date: Introduction Asia has not generally been considered in much of Australian foreign policy agenda. However, its significance to Australia as has been guaranteed by its geographical proximity to Australia has to some extent meant that Australia’s location is within Asia. In which case, whether policymakers in Australia like it or not, there is little choice but to reconcile with the fact that there is a hovering mass of Asia on the Australian north. In any case, inevitable geographical reality still looms as Australia has generally considered itself not to be part of Asia. This essay argues that although Australia is located in Asia, it has never been part of Asia. To understand how this has been the case, the thesis statement of this essay is based on the premise that there is a need to examine the noteworthy changes relating to how Australia’s policy-makers have approached the issue of engaging with Asia since the 1970s. Australia’s preoccupation in creating imperial Britain has sent signals that although Australia is located in Asia, it has never been part of Asia. On historical perspective, a range of recurring themes have determined the decisions and actions of Australian policymakers through generations. Among the recurrent themes has been to create imperial Britain. Towards this end, some scholars have tried to analyse the conception that “Australia is a long way from home” and that it has often been conscious of its isolation from Asia and potentially vulnerable to Asian foreign policies. Beeson (2001) used this perspective to argue that Australian policymakers have often been faced by the sense of being strangers residing in a strange land and surrounded by individuals from Asia who they knew little about and who were likely to be hostile. According to Beeson (2001), it is based on this background that Australian policymakers have been reluctant to consider Australia to be part of Asia. Indeed, analysis of the contemporary policy reveals a trace of such influences of uncertainties and insecurity. The sense of isolation and lack of desire for autonomy and inauguration of policies resulting from influences of Australia “powerful friends” such as United States and Britain has played a key role in isolating Australia from Asia. Despite its independence in 1901, Australia has been reluctant to establish diplomatic relations with Asia even through to the 1970s. Rather, it depended on Britain to arbitrate its foreign affairs before the First World War. Further, it also clearly sought Britain’s confirmation before discharge from South East Asia, at the mercy of Japan during the Second World War. This broke the colonial mindset that had hitherto existed in Australia (Pietsch & Aarons 2011). Despite this, the overall effect of shifting geopolitical balance in Asia was to change strategic dependence, since Britain was replaced by the United States as Australia’s strategic planners. In both cases however, both the United States and Britain sought to isolate Australia from Asian policies through the decades into 1970s. In Contemporary Australia, the terrorist attacks in New York in 2001 and subsequent chaos in Iraq also contributed to alignment of Australian towards the United States than Asia. This occurred when Australia supported the Iraq War through support of US missile defence system. In which case, among the factors that has made great impact on the effective and direction of Australia’s policy-making has been the enthusiasm through which the country has pursued its policies to suggest that Australia is indeed not part of Asia since the 1970s (Pietsch & Aarons 2011). Australia’s relation with Asia has also been contradictory. This has been in the form of Asia posing strategic threat while at the same time presenting economic opportunity. Both have been factors of influence with Australia’s relations with the region since the 1970s to this day. While Australia has been faced by the reality of becoming a might among Asian countries, military and economic threats from Japan has made Asia to dissociate itself from the continent while seeking policies that are hostile to regionalising with Asia (Beeson 2001; Terada 2006). Asian countries resisted attempts to allow Australia to be part of Asia, leading to non-acceptance in regional blocs. In the 1990s, there was a general dissent in Asian countries that Australia should not be considered a part of Asia due to its long relations with the United States and Britain. For instance, former Prime Minister of Australia became vocal about Asia’s position and reiterated that Australia should not be included in the East Asia Economic Caucus (EAEC). Consequently, Australia was excluded from the Asia-Europe summit in 1996 as well as being part of South Eastern Asian Nations (ASEAN) (Santa-Cruz, A 2005). The coming of the “White Australia” policy also defined the relationship with Asia from 1901 towards the early 1970s. Based on the policy, Australia was committed to preservation of its strategic integrity along with its distinctive Angle-Celtic culture. From as early as the 1880s towards the end of 1970s, Australia was proactive in making it official that it was orchestrating an exclusionist policy through racism, which became known as White Australia policy. Enacted in 1901 under Immigration Restriction Act, it actively isolated Australia from incorporating Asia friendly policies until 1973 (Pietsch & Aarons 2011). White Australia became an expression of interests that aligned with Australia’s desire for federation. It also encouraged exclusionist sentiments that received support from the political spectrum and policy makers who did not consider Australia to be part of Asia. Indeed, the enveloping fear of invasion from other races was clear between the 1880s and the 1970s, hence the idea of national policy that restricted immigrations to Australia catapulted the central aspiration to federate and make Australia independent from Asia (Renouf 1986). The persistent fear of Asia, specifically Indonesia, has depicted a wider trend of efforts to make Australia to be isolated from being part of Asia. This led to strengthened ties with the United States and Britain. Indeed, in 2004, findings from Australian Election Study indicated that some 70 percent of Australians believed that it was indeed very likely that Indonesia posed a major threat to Australian community (Cottle and Bolger n.d.). In the contemporary Australian society, racial rhetoric has limited government policies that are friendly towards engaging fully with Asia. A perfect example is one provided by law scholar Andrew Fraser in 2005, suggesting that white Australians could soon find themselves outflanked by Asian students who are bestowed with a temperament necessary for meticulous regime of coaching. Fraser pointed out that within the next three decades, Australia should expect an “Asian dominated ruling class”. Several scholars have criticised the statement for being a threat to social cohesion (Cottle and Bolger n.d.). Existing Australian governments have always sent unfortunate signals revealing that Australia is not part of Asia. Indeed, decisions on Australia’s status with regards to East Asia have been a recurrent hot topic among policymakers in Australia. A significant one is during Howard’s government when former Foreign Minister Alexander Downer stated that two forms of regionalism existed, one cultural and one practical, claiming that Australia was only willing to exercise a form of practical regionalism since long-lasting cultural differences with Asia implied that Australia was unavoidably prevented from creating stronger ties with Asia. This demonstrated that Howard government did not appreciate identity with East Asian regionalism (Pietsch & Aarons 2011). Public sentiments in Australia and the United States have pointed to the fact that Australia is not part of Asia. Consolidating closer economic, political and cultural ties with the United States and Britain has left Australia susceptible to criticisms that it is not and can never be a true and dedicated part of Asia, specifically East Asia. Despite of whether it is within the EAEC or the ASEAN+3, Australia has been criticized for aligning to a large extent to its culturally, traditionally and politically sympathetic allies such as the United States and Britain than its geographically strategic neighbours (Stubbs 2002). This has specifically been explained by some observers who have argued that the likely motivations to create a strong East Asian regionalization has been to make the region less susceptible to external forces and interventions by the United States such as in the East Asian crisis (Garret 2010). On the other hand, it can also be argued that Australia has been a part of Asia, even as it is located beneath the large mass of a continent (Butler & Donaldson 2013). Indeed, since the 1990s, succeeding Australian governments have had divergent perspectives on the extent to which Australia should be part of Asia. Among the views has been the level in which Australia should create closer ties with the Asian region in terms of political, economic and cultural issues. For instance, in the 1990s, Paul Keating, former Labour Prime Minister, centred Australian foreign policies to be Asia-friendly. In the previous regime former Prime Minister Bob Hawke created the foundation for enhanced economic ties culminating to the creating of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC). While the initial objectives of the integration were on economic integration, Prime Minster Keating promoted the significance of Australian identity to shift towards Asia. Indeed, Keating has often been vociferous about forming strategies for Asia Australia and new “Asian Vision”. This further culminated to the creation of ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) in 1994, where Australia took an active role (Mendoza 2006). This meant that Australia had to some extent viewed itself as part of Australia. ARF had served to offer prospects of minimising uncertainty and developing confidence of Australia viewing itself as part of Asia after historically volatile ties. Despite this, further rifts were further realised that isolated Australia from Asia. For instance, from the perspective of Australian strategic planners and policymakers, this would mean further threats to Australia as Southeast Asia had began to acquire the capability to fund military modernisation (Santa-Cruz 2005). It could further be argued that Australia had felt it was part of Asia by involving itself in Asian affairs such as the Timor crisis. For instance, in a bid to consolidate Australian ties with Asia, John Howard suggested that Australia would play a critical role in ending the Timor Crisis by maintaining regional security. This meant that Australia would be ready to play an active role in attacking hostile forces that posed a threat to Asia Pacific. However, this was viewed on different perspectives. Some observers pointed out that the new policy adopted by the Howard government was friendly to the United States rather than Asia (Pietsch 2010). For instance, Australia has to be ready to act as America’s watchdog in Asia by ensuring regional stability and by acting on behalf of the United States. Indeed, despite attempts by Howard’s government to explain the issue at hand after criticisms from Asia, the general direction of the policy leaned towards the United States rather than Asia. This was demonstrated by increased expenditure on defence, which was consistent with the fact that the United States had previously encouraged Australia to increase its defence budget so as to take a major role as United States military ally in Asia (Pietsch 2010). Conclusion The precision and essence of the Australian foreign policy has depicted that to a greater extent, although Australia is located in Asia, it has never been part of Asia. Australia’s preoccupation in creating imperial Britain has sent signals that although Australia is located in Asia, it is a long way from home”. Additionally, the sense of isolation and lack of desire for autonomy and inauguration of policies resulting from influences of Australia “powerful friends” such as United States and Britain has played a key role in isolating Australia from Asia. Australia’s relation with Asia has also been contradictory. This has been in the form of Asia posing strategic threat while at the same time presenting economic opportunity. Asian countries have also resisted attempts to allow Australia to be part of Asia, leading to non-acceptance in regional blocs. The coming of the “White Australia” policy also defined the relationship with Asia from 1901 towards the early 1970s. The persistent fear of Asia, specifically Indonesia, has further depicted a wider trend of efforts to make Australia to be isolated from being part of Asia. Lastly, Existing Australian governments have always sent unfortunate signals revealing that Australia is not part of Asia. References Beeson, M 2001, Australia and Asia: The Years of Living Aimlessly, Southeast Asian Affairs 2001, Singapore: Institute for Southeast Asian Studies, 2001, pp44-55 Butler, R & Donaldson, A 2013, “Ten rooms: the real spaces of Asian-Australian artistic interaction,” Contemporary visual art+culture broadsheet, Vol.42 No. 3, pp.21-216 Bolger, D & Cottle, D n.d., Race and Australian Immigration Policy, viewed 20 Jan 2014, https://www.academia.edu/1224476/Race_and_Australian_Immigration_Policy Mendoza, O 2006, "Still Engaged? Australia’s Relationship With Asia Under Keating And Howard," Cross Sections, Vol. 1, pp.47-52 Renouf, A 1986, Malcolm Fraser and Australian foreign policy, Australian Professional Publications, Sydney Garret, G 2010, “Strategic choices: Australia, China and the US in Asia”, The Asialink Essays 2010 Vol. 2 No. 5, p2-6 Pietsch, 2010, ‘Australian imperialism and East Timor’ Marxist interventions, Vol. 2, 2010, pp. 7-38 Pietsch, J & Aarons, H 2011, Australian Engagement with Asia: Towards closer political, economic and cultural ties, Australia: Identity, Fear and Governance in the 21st Century, http://press.anu.edu.au/apps/bookworm/view/Australia%3A+Identity,+Fear+and+Governance+in+the+21st+Century/10171/ch03.html Santa-Cruz, A 2005, "Out of the Blue: The Pacific Rim as a Region", Portal Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies Vol. 2, No. 2, pp.1-6 Stubbs, R 2002, “Asean Plus Three?: Emerging East Asian Regionalism,” Asian Survey, 42:3, pp. 440–455. Terada, T 2006, "Thirty years of the Australia/Japan partnership in Asian regionalism: evolution and future directions", Australian Journal of International Affairs, Vol. 60, No. 4,pp. 536551, Read More