Programs & Projects
Australia's Security and the Rules-Based Order
The 2016 Defence White Paper describes a rules-based global order as a “fundamental strategic interest”.
This project, supported by the Department of Defence’s Strategic Policy Grants Program, aims to lead a national debate on the rules-based order and its implications for Australian security and defence. It will connect the legal, political, and historical debates about the nature of the global order with the practical realities of Australia’s strategic environment. It will address how the order can evolve to meet new technological challenges and modes of warfare, including grey zone operations.
Cover image: Official U.S. Navy / Flickr
Experts
Latest publications
News and media
Podcasts
Rules Based Audio (Episode 1): In Conversation with John Ikenberry
In an increasingly contested world, basic questions about how the world works, and how it should work, are being asked anew. In Rules Based Audio we will be posing those questions…
Defending the liberal international order
Book review: G. John Ikenberry A World Safe for Democracy: Liberal Internationalism and the Crises of Global Order (Yale University Press, 2020)
Big ideas about how the world…
Policy Briefs
Australia's South China Sea Challenges
Canberra needs to work with Southeast Asia to address looming South China Sea challenges from China and the US
Commentary
Australians need clarity on war or peace
A formal annual threat assessment from the government is better than the shapeless war talk voters are getting at the moment. Originally published in The Australian Financial…
Commentary
Quad’s great leap forward leaves free trade behind
Originally published in The Australian.
The US and the Rules-Based Order: Testing the plan
US President Joe Biden this month issued an Interim National Security Guidance which will, in his words, “convey my vision for how America will engage the world”. He has directed…
How far would Australia go in defence of the rules-based order?
Last month, I alerted Interpreter readers to a new Lowy Institute debate feature on America and the Rules-based Order. In my comments about the debate, I said that Australia faced…
What are China’s leaders saying about the South China Sea?
When China began three days of military exercises in the South China Sea’s Gulf of Tonkin back in January, some observers speculated that Beijing was testing the new Biden…
How China is bending the rules in the South China Sea
Chinese exercises in the South China Sea last month, and the strong US response, show these disputed waters will not soon be calm. While the focus has largely been on military…
Commentary
Chaotic America means troubled world
The West pins its hopes on a rules-based liberal order. But that doesn’t work if the US standard-bearer is dysfunctional. Originally published in the Australian Financial Review…