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Australia’s Strategic
Culture and Defence /
National Security
Policymaking
ALEX BURNS ([email protected])
SPS GRADUATE SYMPOSIUM, 29TH OCTOBER 2013
PHD CANDIDATE, SCHOOL OF POLITICS & SOCIAL INQUIRY
MONASH UNIVERSITY
Strategic Culture: Jack Snyder
Formulated in 1977 by Jack Snyder for a RAND monograph on
Ford and Carter administration détente and the Soviet Union
“Individuals are socialized into a distinctly Soviet mode of
thinking . . . a set of general beliefs, attitudes and behavioral
patterns . . . that places them on the level of “culture” rather
than mere “policy” . . .” [emphasis added] (Snyder 1977: v)
“Culture is perpetuated not only by individuals but also by
organizations.” (Snyder 1977: 9).
“Strategic subculture: . . . a subsection of the broader strategic
community . . . Reasonably distinct beliefs and attitudes.”
(Snyder 1977: 10).
Australia’s Strategic Culture
Settler nation founded from British colonies: anxiety versus engagement
Hawke and Keating governments: “comprehensive engagement” and “regional security”
via APEC, ASEAN, United National Development Programme, and human security
Howard and Abbott governments: Australia-United States Alliance; asylum seekers as
wedge politics (Republican Party strategist Karl Rove)
Alliance structure with Great Britain (World War I and II; atomic weapons testing)
Alliance structure with United States (Korean War, Vietnam War, Gulf War, Afghanistan
counterinsurgency, Iraq War, and signals intelligence bases)
Realist tradition of Australian foreign and security policy (Michael Wesley)
Recent Scholarship on Australia’s
Strategic Culture
Alan Bloomfield, 2011 PhD Dissertation: “Australia's Strategic Culture. An investigation of
the Concept of Strategic Culture and its Application to the Australian Case” (Queens
University, Canada)
Jeffrey Lantis & Andrew S. Charlton, 2011
Alan Bloomfield & Kim Richard Nossal, 2008
Michael Evans, 2005 (‘defender-regionalists’ versus ‘reformer-globalists’)
Key Aspects:
Geography, geographic region, and comparative country analysis
Historical and cultural identity
Alliance structure with Great Britain and the United States
Continuity versus Change
National Security Silos
“My message to the national security community is: if you see a silo,
dig it up.”
- Prime Minister Julia Gillard, launch of Strong and Secure: A Strategy
for Australia’s National Security (23rd January 2013)
What silos potentially exist in Australian defence and national
security policymaking?
What do current priorities reveal about how relevant Australian
policy is developed and framed?
Could a national strategic culture or specific strategic cultures be
what then-Prime Minister Gillard was hinting at?
Possible Explanations for Silos
Initial explanation: Inter-agency coordination in Australian Government
Other possibilities:
Threat escalation and institutional capture dynamics
Budgetary and legislative barriers
Public contestability and understanding of defence and national security
planning documents
Training of next generation analysts and strategic thinkers
Australia’s ‘Keepers’ of Strategic
Culture
Patrick Porter (Military Orientalism, 2009): “Who are the ‘keepers’ of strategic culture?
Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet (executive power)
Department of Defence (defence and politico-military affairs)
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (diplomatic and consular activities)
Think-tanks: Lowy Institute and Australian Strategic Policy Institute
New strategists: National Security College and Strategic and Defence Studies Centre,
Australian National University
Norm entrepreneurs: Paul Dibb; Alan Dupont; Andrew O’Neil; and Hugh White
Australia’s White Paper Cycle
Defines ‘over the horizon’ threats and joint military force structure
Gillard Government: Defence White Paper 2013 (3rd May 2013)
1986 Dibb Review and 1987 White Paper: ‘Defence of Australia’ paradigm of selfreliance
Reflects the longer-term nature of defence procurement processes
Path dependency in drafting: incremental and evolutionary ideas that build on
previous publications
Actual threat scenarios are treated as classified information
Australia-United States Alliance usually foregrounded in each White Paper
Risk of security contractor lock-in for new defence systems and programs
National Security Strategy
United States Model: Goldwater-Nichols Act (1986) requests regular
National Security Strategy documents from each Administration
Exemplars: Terry Deibel (US War College); Colin S. Gray (Reading
University, UK), Jeffrey Lantis (Wooster College, US)
Howard Government: institutional reforms; Counter-Terrorism White
Paper (2004) reflected Bush Administration conceptualisation
First Rudd Government: National Security Statement (2008);
promised National Security Strategy and National Security Budget
Gillard Government: Australia in the Asian Century (2012) and
National Security Strategy (2013)
National Security Silos, Revisited
Westminster System: balance of executive, legislative and judicial powers
Silos can be analytic, cognitive, cultural, or influenced by long-term culturally
transmitted factors (strategic culture and strategic subcultures)
Defence white papers were in the past treated as de facto national security statements
Limited public contestability: some academic and public consultation
Possible institutional capture by specific governmental departments
Problems in developing national security budgets in a whole-of-government approach
Still an on-going debate about a unified national security system
Questions?