Australia's foreign policy is not simply about containing China

It's about how a middle power can support the conditions for regional prosperity and peace through the balancing of deterrence, diplomacy and development.

- Rory Medcalf

It is always tempting to resort to broad-brush simplification when trying to make sense of what nations and their governments do.

But this easiest of paths is hardly helpful for middle powers such as Singapore or Australia in navigating a connected world of multipolarity and complex challenges.

Recent commentary in these pages, by my prominent Australian National University colleague Hugh White, gives the impression that there is just one point to all of Canberra's external policies: supporting American "primacy" to obstruct China.

To recap, he argues that fairly much of all the recent activity and achievements of Australian diplomacy - including the building of multi-purpose partnerships with non-aligned neighbours in South-east Asia and the Pacific - have been to this end. The more sensible alternative, it is suggested, would be to get used to China's power and dominance. Just adapt and avoid the pain of pushing back.

But Australian statecraft is more than a bipolar game of primacy.

There is merit in a comprehensive and evidence-based appraisal of what Australia is actually doing to make its way in the connected and contested Indo-Pacific region so many nations share.

Instead, the Australian story gives a sense of what creative diplomacy can do in helping ensure a region of stability, predictability, resilience and respect for the sovereign rights of nations large and small alike.

In other words, how a middle power can support the conditions for prosperity and peace.

DIPLOMACY OF STABILITY

Since its election in May 2022, the Labor government of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, with Foreign Minister Penny Wong at the helm of its statecraft, has pursued a sophisticated foreign policy underpinned by the concept of "strategic equilibrium". This seeks to balance deterrence, diplomacy and development.