Strategic challenges for Australia in the Middle East region

Strategic challenges for Australia in the Middle East region PDF Author: Robert Fiedler
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3640783999
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 13

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Book Description
Essay from the year 2009 in the subject Politics - Region: Other States, grade: 1,4, Macquarie University, language: English, abstract: By stating that “that the protection of our continent starts well beyond our shores” the protection of our continent and citizens starts well beyond our shores has formed an essentially unbroken line in Australian strategic thinking” (Howard, 2006, p. 5), the former Australian Prime minister acknowledged the importance of distant events for Australia’s interests in an era of globalization. Globalization does not only provide positive effects, in fact, global terrorism, a growing shortage of energy resources, and a higher economic vulnerability to foreign developments are also effects of globalization. The Middle East will remain a key region in the next decades for either of the mentioned negative effects and therefore, Australia’s strategic interests in the Middle East will increase. Given a broader Australian security agenda, determined by “a global power balance, favourable to our interests and to those of our allies; secure sea and air lanes as sinews of peace and prosperity; and a framework of international norms conducive to individual freedom, economic development and liberal democracy” (Howard, 2006, p. 5), events in the Middle East do matter. Therefore, this paper will analyze key strategic challenges Australia will face in the Middle East region. Since these threats are possible threats for Australia’s security interests, this paper will also outline possible options of actions Canberra might have in order to protect its interests in the Middle East and on its broader security agenda.

Strategic challenges for Australia in the Middle East region

Strategic challenges for Australia in the Middle East region PDF Author: Robert Fiedler
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3640783999
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 13

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Book Description
Essay from the year 2009 in the subject Politics - Region: Other States, grade: 1,4, Macquarie University, language: English, abstract: By stating that “that the protection of our continent starts well beyond our shores” the protection of our continent and citizens starts well beyond our shores has formed an essentially unbroken line in Australian strategic thinking” (Howard, 2006, p. 5), the former Australian Prime minister acknowledged the importance of distant events for Australia’s interests in an era of globalization. Globalization does not only provide positive effects, in fact, global terrorism, a growing shortage of energy resources, and a higher economic vulnerability to foreign developments are also effects of globalization. The Middle East will remain a key region in the next decades for either of the mentioned negative effects and therefore, Australia’s strategic interests in the Middle East will increase. Given a broader Australian security agenda, determined by “a global power balance, favourable to our interests and to those of our allies; secure sea and air lanes as sinews of peace and prosperity; and a framework of international norms conducive to individual freedom, economic development and liberal democracy” (Howard, 2006, p. 5), events in the Middle East do matter. Therefore, this paper will analyze key strategic challenges Australia will face in the Middle East region. Since these threats are possible threats for Australia’s security interests, this paper will also outline possible options of actions Canberra might have in order to protect its interests in the Middle East and on its broader security agenda.

Australia and the Arab World

Australia and the Arab World PDF Author: The Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research
Publisher: Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research
ISBN: 9948142101
Category : Antiques & Collectibles
Languages : en
Pages : 39

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Book Description
The physical remoteness of the Australian continent is no longer a barrier to the development of important strategic and trade links with friendly states in the Middle East. Australia’s increasingly prominent role in world peacekeeping and humanitarian operations, many of which have involved the Middle East, has also added a new dynamism to the development of areas of cooperation that reflect the changing relationship between Canberra and Arab governments as issues of energy supply, national security and growing opportunities for trade and tourism gain momentum. In order to provide an in-depth overview of the history of this relationship, as well as an exploration of current political developments and the economic opportunities to be gained from Australia–Middle East relations, the Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research (ECSSR) held a Symposium under the title “Australia and the Arab World,” on December 17–18, 2008 in Abu Dhabi, hosting a group of distinguished experts from various academic, political and business backgrounds. This book comprises a valuable collection of the papers presented at the Symposium. It identifies how relations between Australia and the Arab world have developed; where mutual interests meet and diverge; the growing industry in cultural exchange through education and tourism; the integration of Muslims into Australian society and their contribution to its multiculturalism; the new security apparatus developing both strategically and militarily between Australia, New Zealand and various Arab states; and Australia’s historical involvement and approach to the contentious issue of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Australia’s Strategic Involvement in the Middle East

Australia’s Strategic Involvement in the Middle East PDF Author: David Horner
Publisher: Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research
ISBN: 9948006658
Category : Antiques & Collectibles
Languages : en
Pages : 12

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Book Description
It perhaps not realized that Australia has a very long history of strategic interest and engagement in the Middle East. It is a record of sustained involvement and considerable commitment. Australia comes as a friend and peacemaker, and with no local ambitions. Australia has much to offer the Gulf states in the field of military cooperation. Coupled with Australia's growing trade with the region, it seems likely that Australia's strategic interest and engagement with the region will expand over the following years.

Australia and the Middle East

Australia and the Middle East PDF Author: Fethi Mansouri
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0857710672
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 270

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Book Description
What is the history behind Australia's relations with the Muslim world, and the Middle East in particular, which led Australia to be described as a frontline of the so-called 'War on Terror'? Australia's encounters with the Middle East have historically been defined through the British Empire, the Commonwealth and, more recently, through its close strategic ties with the US. This book traces the nature of the Australia-Middle East relationship, from an insular 'White Australia' ideology through to the ongoing global impact of September 11 and the decision to send troops to Iraq and Afghanistan. Comprehensive analysis of these complex ties provides an essential basis for understanding past encounters, evaluating present policies and developing a framework for future interactions. Australia and the Middle East draws together the various dimensions and themes of this relationship – from trade and migration, to increasing strategic interest and military involvement in the region.

Reimagining U.S. Strategy in the Middle East

Reimagining U.S. Strategy in the Middle East PDF Author: Dalia Dassa Kaye
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781977406620
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 190

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Book Description
"U.S. policy toward the Middle East has relied heavily on military instruments of power and has focused on regional threats--particularly the Iranian threat--with the goal of keeping partners on "our side." These long-standing policies have largely fallen short of meeting core U.S. interests and adapting to new regional realities and strategic imperatives. RAND researchers offer an alternative framework, suggesting that the U.S. strategic priority must center on reducing regional conflict and the drivers of conflict. This revised strategic approach puts a greater focus on addressing conflict and socioeconomic challenges that are creating unsustainable pressures on the region's states and immense suffering among its people. Researchers analyze how the tools of U.S. policy--political, security, economic, diplomatic, and informational instruments--would need to adjust to more effectively address such challenges in ways that are mindful of limited resources at home. Researchers also examine how the United States deals with both partners and adversaries in and outside the region and consider how to better leverage policies to the benefit of U.S. interests and the region. The researchers recommend specific actions organized into the following three pillars: (1) shifting resources from the current heavy reliance on military tools to a more balanced approach that prioritizes economic investments, governance, diplomacy, and programs focused on people; (2) favoring a long-term time horizon to reduce regional conflict and support growth and development, even at the cost of short-term risks; and (3) working multilaterally with global and regional partners to address key challenges." -- from the publisher.

The Future of the United States-Australia Alliance

The Future of the United States-Australia Alliance PDF Author: Scott D. McDonald
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000326691
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description
The United States-Australia alliance has been an important component of the US-led system of alliances that has underpinned regional security in the Indo-Pacific since 1945. However, recent geostrategic developments, in particular the rise of the People’s Republic of China, have posed significant challenges to this US-led regional order. In turn, the growing strategic competition between these two great powers has generated challenges to the longstanding US-Australia alliance. Both the US and Australia are confronting a changing strategic environment, and, as a result, the alliance needs to respond to the challenges that they face. The US needs to understand the challenges and risks to this vital relationship, which is growing in importance, and take steps to manage it. On its part, Australia must clearly identify its core common interests with the US and start exploring what more it needs to do to attain its stated policy preferences. This book consists of chapters exploring US and Australian perspectives of the Indo-Pacific, the evolution of Australia-US strategic and defence cooperation, and the future of the relationship. Written by a joint US-Australia team, the volume is aimed at academics, analysts, students, and the security and business communities.

Bolstering Resilience in the Indo-Pacific: Policy Options for AUSMIN After COVID-19

Bolstering Resilience in the Indo-Pacific: Policy Options for AUSMIN After COVID-19 PDF Author: Ashley Townshend
Publisher: United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney
ISBN: 1742104975
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 32

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Book Description
The 30th round of the Australia-United States Ministerial Consultations (AUSMIN) will soon take place amid immense global disruption and unprecedented domestic pressures accelerated by the spread of SARS-CoV-2 (also known as coronavirus or COVID-19). Our Indo-Pacific neighbourhood should be at the top of the agenda. It is hard to imagine a more urgent time for the Australia-United States alliance to provide strong and collaborative regional leadership — and to bolster the resilience of the Indo-Pacific across all of its dimensions: from health security and economic development to the balance of military power and strategic resilience. It is equally hard to imagine a more difficult environment for our alliance to concentrate its energies on regional policy. With the United States enduring a pandemic-fuelled health crisis, nationwide social unrest, escalating national debt and a general election in November, and with Australia still tentatively emerging from the first wave of the pandemic, both countries have pressing and politically-charged distractions at home. Nonetheless, our shared national interests in fostering a healthy, stable and resilient Indo-Pacific region cannot be postponed and must be wholeheartedly embraced at AUSMIN 2020. Three principles should guide this year’s deliberations. First, helping our Indo-Pacific neighbours to sustainably recover from the pandemic is the most urgent priority and is in all of our interests. With more than 600,000 cases of COVID-19 throughout the region — coupled with a rapidly deteriorating health, economic and developmental outlook that will see regional growth fall to near zero per cent while 24 million people remain in poverty — the scale of the crisis in our region vastly outstrips our current capacity to respond. This places a premium on the need to invest more alliance resources into human security challenges, both at present and preventatively, and to pursue innovative, high-quality solutions to developmental challenges, including through better industry partnerships. As our economic and security interests hinge on the health of stable, resilient and sovereign regional nations, supporting their post-pandemic recovery will assist our own. Second, strengthening the alliance’s contribution to deterring aggression and coercive statecraft in the Indo-Pacific must proceed in spite of the pandemic. In recent years, the strategic landscape has been rapidly deteriorating due to the United States’ declining capacity to uphold a favourable balance of power and China’s increasingly assertive use of coercive statecraft backed by its growing conventional military power. The pandemic is only exacerbating these trends. New economic burdens are limiting the capacity of regional nations to counterbalance Chinese power: putting downward pressure on defence budgets, placing the imperatives of domestic recovery ahead of geopolitical concerns and leaving some more vulnerable to Beijing’s strategic largesse than before. In the United States, the tumultuous health, economic and socio-political consequences of the pandemic are sharpening preferences for self-strengthening at home and will quicken the decline of resources for defence. Beijing, by contrast, is taking advantage of regional distractions to advance its expansive geopolitical agenda from Hong Kong and the Sino-Indian border to Northeast Asia, the South China Sea and the Pacific. This situation calls for the alliance to invest more heavily in supporting its regional partners through collective defence initiatives and to urgently prioritise the Indo-Pacific relative to outdated security concerns in the Middle East. Finally, signalling Australian and American policy preferences for how our respective Indo-Pacific strategies should evolve over the coming years is critical for domestic and regional audiences. This will entail a focus on differences as well as shared interests within the alliance. Although the United States and Australia have many common objectives in strengthening a stable, prosperous and rules-governed regional order, they have quietly diverged in recent years on multilateralism, global institutions, international trade, regional diplomacy and other issues. Differences over China policy are perhaps the most sensitive. Whereas Washington has adopted an increasingly strident public tone in casting China as an ideological threat, Canberra seeks a less politicised approach and has publicly supported engagement alongside a firming of China policy settings. These distinctions do not undermine our alliance solidarity. Indeed, as Australia’s internationalist outlook is more in keeping with regional preferences in Southeast Asia and the Pacific, Canberra should lean into it during and after AUSMIN 2020 — using current points of difference with Washington as markers for how Australia would like to work with the United States in the future, and how it will continue to work with the region until then. With this forward-looking agenda in mind, the United States Studies Centre has assembled a list of ten policy recommendations for the upcoming AUSMIN meeting. Drawing on the expertise of our researchers, including from their published and ongoing research projects, these recommendations combine analytical judgements with new policy thinking in an effort to stimulate bilateral discussion around a mix of achievable and moon-shot initiatives. This collection does not purport to be a comprehensive agenda but aims to provide a useful contribution to the policy planning process around bolstering the resilience of our Indo-Pacific region at this critical juncture.

Sustainable States

Sustainable States PDF Author: Jon B Alterman
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781538140376
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 90

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Book Description
Dr. Jon Alterman, Natasha Hall, and Will Todman examine the power, water, and sanitation sectors in Jordan, Lebanon, and Tunisia and explore how environmentally sustainable public utilities could help bridge the trust deficit between citizens and their governments.

Transformation Or Stagnation?

Transformation Or Stagnation? PDF Author: Alan Dupont
Publisher: Strategic and Defence Studies Centre
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 78

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Book Description


Challenges of Growth and Globalization in the Middle East and North Africa

Challenges of Growth and Globalization in the Middle East and North Africa PDF Author: Mr.Hamid R Davoodi
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 9781589062290
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 44

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Book Description
The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is an economically diverse region. Despite undertaking economic reforms in many countries, and having considerable success in avoiding crises and achieving macroeconomic stability, the region’s economic performance in the past 30 years has been below potential. This paper takes stock of the region’s relatively weak performance, explores the reasons for this out come, and proposes an agenda for urgent reforms.