campusreview. com. au
NEWS
Focused on defending home
Strategy expert says military should be tuned in to concerns close to Australia, rather than the Middle East.
By James Wells
An Australian National University defence policy expert is calling on Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to reconfigure national defence priorities closer to home.
Dr John Blaxland, senior fellow at ANU’ s Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, said what happens in the immediate region has greater consequences for Australia than developments over in the Middle East. He said the main two arguments for Australia’ s intervention in Iraq and Syria – combating terrorism and fulfilling Australia’ s obligations for its alliance with the US – are flawed, as they don’ t address the root causes of terrorism and don’ t serve the best interests of either nation.
Fostering strong relations and economic ties with South-east Asian nations is the best way to put Australia and the US in a strong security position, Blaxland said, and would help combat terrorism.
“ We need to rethink and recalibrate entirely our approach to dealing with the threat of terrorism, and the approach to the alliance,” Blaxland said.“ I’ m not saying the alliance [ with the US ] is bad, I’ m saying what we should do for the alliance is what’ s best for our neighbourhood. There are concerns about jihadist extremism throughout South-east Asia, particularly in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and southern Thailand. Who in the Australian security apparatus has a grip on what’ s happening there? I would argue not many, because much like in early primary school soccer, people playing are following the ball.”
Blaxland likened Western action against the Islamic State to chopping off just one head of the hydra, because it fails to address the root causes of Islamic extremism. Furthermore, many senior defence policymakers are enthusiastic about this course of action, as it’ s a good
way to advance their career, he said.
“ It’ s kind of cool to follow with the action, where it’ s hot, where you know the chances are you’ re going to get to brief the minister, have a speaking gig and get a bit of face time – maybe even get a deployment on an operation somewhere,” he said.“ It’ s very short-sighted thinking. We need to step back from the nitty-gritty, day-by-day thinking about what we can do to fight [ the Islamic State ] in Iraq and Syria and think,‘ Where are we going? Where have we been for fifteen years? Where has this got us?’“ But dealing with Middle East threats is little more than a distraction, Blaxland said, as it ignores destabilising threats to Australia’ s neighbours. Continuous deployments to the Middle East also mean Australian soldiers and commanders have little understanding of our neighbours and what it is like to operate in those areas, Blaxland argued. Through the last 15 years, Australia has been a casual observer to regional security, he said, and thus has lost its status as a leader in that area.
“ In 1999, we led a multinational coalition into East Timor … and we did so having spent years investing in regional security relationships,” Blaxland said.“ We had very strong relationships with Indonesia, and with all of the countries in the association of South-east Asian nations. Today, very few generals, very few senior officers, very few soldiers, have much experience at all in engaging in South-east Asia or the Pacific. Ask them how many speak Pashto, Urdu or Arabic and have spent multiple tours in the Middle East, and most will stick their hands up. Ask them if they’ ve spent any time in Indonesia or South-east Asia, the hands will stay down.” ■
9