When the guardrails are down: Australia and the US

What choices does Australia have in determining its own future, independent of the United States was one of the questions addressed by Dr Emma Shortis, Director of the Australia Institute’s International & Security Affairs Program, in the November Talking Authors online series.   Dr Shortis is author of “After America: Australia and the New World Order” which draws on her long-standing research on America’s place in the world.

“In the first Trump Presidency, Australia got away without doing any serious analysis. In this second Trump term, when the guardrails are down, the speed of change has taken us all by surprise, “ said Dr Shortis.

The attitudes of many Australians are reliant on the image of the US under President Obama, when we all felt comfortable and at ease, explained Dr Shortis.  “How we talk about foreign policy in Australia is either all in with the US with grovelling to the US or the next day we will be living under Chinese dictatorship.  It is this simplistic view that is so hard to counter,” she said.

The recording of this fascinating and informative discussion is available on the APSF website.

This Eighty year old needs courage

The United Nations is facing one of the most turbulent periods in its history according to Jordan Ryan, a former United Nations Assistant Secretary-General with deep experience in peacebuilding, human rights, and development.

Jordan Ryan and Melbourne University Professor Erika Feller AO were keynote presenters at the webinar on the UN at 80 co-hosted by APSF with United Nations Association of Australia (UNAA) and the Initiative for Peacebuilding, University of Melbourne. Leanne Smith, Chief Executive of the Australian Human Rights Commission moderated the webinar.

“Even though the UN Charter is 80 years old, the ideals of human dignity, sovereign equality and global cooperation remains our best hope for survival” according to Ryan.

“We need the UN’s normative and rules base advocacy, its monitoring and its accountability mechanisms as much as we need its emergency relief work” said Professor Feller.

The UN needs a clearer vision of its fundamental purpose as a conflict resolution body, and it has to find the courage to make itself relevant again according to Professor Feller.

The recording of the webinar is available on the APSF website.

The contagious Gen Z revolutions

Gen Z protests have occurred around the world and they reflect common concerns according to a recent article by Katrin Bennhold in the New York Times(19Oct25). These protest movements have unfolded in Indonesia, the Philippines, Kenya and Peru. Protesters have toppled governments in Nepal and Madagascar.

Flying above each of the protests was a common flag: a grinning skull and bones wearing a straw hat.  The flag comes from a long-running Japanese manga and anime series called “One Piece,” which follows a scrappy crew of pirates as they take on a corrupt and repressive government. The franchise, recently relaunched as a live-action series on Netflix, has been dubbed in more than a dozen languages and has amassed a huge following, with more than 500 million copies of the print version published, according to Pranav Baskar writing in the New York Times.

One Nepali protester explained “The pirate, it’s like a way to say we are not going to put up with injustice and corruption anymore”.

The “One Piece” flag is being used by protesters who are thousands of kilometers apart. But they are linked by their generation’s shared culture, fusing popular narratives and anti-establishment politics into a force that has brought down at least two governments — and counting, concludes Pranav Baskar.

Parliamentary Committee inquiry into ‘the role of Australia’s international development program in preventing conflict

The Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade (JSCFADT  has commenced an inquiry into the role of Australia’s international development program in preventing conflict.

The terms of Reference for the inquiry include the role of Australia’s international development program in building resilience in fragile states, including by strengthening community and civic participation, governance, security reform and human capital.  The impact of international development in the maintenance of peace and prevention of conflict, including for early identification and mitigation of conflict is also on the agenda.

APSF will make a submission to the Inquiry.  If you would like to contribute, please let us know via Russell Rollason (Secretary) Email: russellrollason@gmail.com.au

Deadline for submissions is 20 January 2026.  For more information.

Our limited debate over China

In his review of Turbulence: Australian Foreign Policy in the Trump Era, a new book by Clinton Fernandes, Mark Beeson makes the following observations about Australia’s attitude towards China.

“For many Australians and for the Trump administration, China remains the principal object of concern. Fernandes uses the debate over “freedom of navigation” to illustrate how misguided and limited discussion of the “China threat” actually is.

As the world’s largest trading nation, China is even more reliant on safe passage for its exports than Australia. As Fernades points out, “the last thing China wants is a war in the western Pacific Ocean, which would disrupt nearly all its sea-born supplies”.

In practice, complaints about freedom of navigation are driven by the desire to spy on China’s strategic assets without being harassed:

The silence over what ‘freedom of navigation’ really involves protects the government from democratic accountability, and from debate as to how Australia’s intelligence agencies and military should be used. These are questions of politics, not military strategy.”

Clinton Fernandes is Professor of International and Political Studies at the University of NSW, Canberra.  Professor Mark Beeson is Adjunct professor, Australia-China Relations Institute, University of Technology Sydney.  The review of Turbulence was published in The Conversation on 1 December 2025.

Seasons Greetings to all our supporters and friends, from the APSF Board.  Thanks for your interest and support in 2025. We are planning a blockbuster year for 2026 so we hope you will continue your active support!