Book Review: How to Defend Australia
How to Defend Australia
Written by: Hugh White
La Trobe University Press, 2019,
ISBN 9781760640996, 336pp
Reviewed by: Dr Albert Palazzo
There are occasions when the sum of a book’s parts is more profound than its individual thoughts. Hugh White, an emeritus professor at the Australian National University and one of Australia’s premier strategic thinkers, has done the nation a service in writing this book. If anyone can move the Australian Government and people to seriously rethink the fundamentals of the nation’s security, it is White. In How to Defend Australia, he outlines with clarity and matter-of-factness the challenge the changing strategic environment is creating for Australian security. Hopefully, those in positions of power to effect change will read and act on his book.
White’s thesis is simple. The growing power of China relative to the United States is calling into question the ability of the US to maintain its influence in Asia. As a result, the US security guarantee that Australia has enjoyed since the Second World War may not be as reliable as it has been in the past. White believes that if a crisis comes, Australia will find itself without its protector: a repeat of the flawed Singapore strategy of nearly 80 years ago.
White has made this argument before in a series of publications dating from the release of Power Shift in 2010, and his logic is unassailable. Short of something truly catastrophic intervening, the Chinese economy will dwarf America’s and, as military power follows economic power, the ability of the US to intervene in the western Pacific will only become more difficult, costly and risky. At what point will the American people decide that ‘the juice is not worth the squeeze’ and cede dominance in east Asia to the traditional power of east Asia? America’s tipping point is not known, but as long as trends continue on current trajectories it seems likely that it will be reached.
As perceptive as White’s thinking might be, he shows little desire to go beyond the ideas that first formed his thoughts during the era of the Defence of Australia Policy. White’s proposed solution is based on the maritime defence of the continent, with a focus on air and sea assets and a minimal role for land forces. The trivialisation of the land power denies not just the history of Australia but also the history of war. His willingness to discuss nuclear weapons is also troubling because, like most security thinkers, he treats these weapons in the abstract, whereas their acquisition must come with the acceptance that any use means accepting the potential for not just the end of Australia but also the end of humanity.
Another shortcoming of the book is its sole reliance on traditional ‘realpolitik’ thinking. Anything outside a state-versus-state dynamic is ignored. In an era of heightened climate threat, the lack of any awareness that the interaction between states is also affected by human dependence on the natural world makes White’s thinking seem tired. Is it still possible to avoid considering climate change in any discussion of Australia’s future national security needs? Apparently so, but the result will be a failure to consider a host of other possible security threats to Australia against which the nation must prepare.
How to Defend Australia is an important book, if not without flaws. Soldiers, defence thinkers and policymakers must read it and debate its recommendations. Australia is facing an era of significant change; most importantly it will have to manage the reality that a fortunate period of cheap security is at an end. As White insists, Australia must embrace a new philosophy on how it provides for its defence if its people are to continue to enjoy the fruits of a sovereign nation. Much is at stake, and How to Defend Australia provides a critical starting point for setting a path for what promises to be a tumultuous age.
