Australia’s Strategic Culture and Defence / National Security Policymaking

1. Australia’s Strategic Culture and Defence / National Security Policymaking Alex Burns (alex@alexburns.net) SPS Graduate Symposium, 29th October 2013 PhD Candidate, School of Politics & Social Inquiry Monash University

2. 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).

3. 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)

4. 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

5. 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?

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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 self-reliance • 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

9. 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)

10. 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

11. Questions?