SECURITY COMMUNITIES IN THE ASIA-PACIFIC: ANALYSIS OF AUSTRALIAN SECURITY POLICY DIRECTION 2009-2015

The Asia-Pacific region is currently under strategic changes, as China is rising in political, military and economic terms, and the United States has launched a rebalancing policy to the region. Australia, who shares a security treaty with the United States but has China as its largest trade partner, is greatly impacted by these changes. This case study analyzes Australian security policy with United States and China from 2009 to 2015 through the constructivist theory of security communities. The study asks has Australia moved closer to building a security community within Asia, as it attempted in the 1980’s and 1990’s. It continues the work of Higgott and Nossal (1998), who argued that Australia did not manage to create security ties with the region due to lack of shared values and “we-ness ” with the region. Through content analysis of Australian security policy documents and statements, this study shows that Australian security policy is greatly impacted by the tightly coupled security community it shares with the U.S. Australia has created two images of Asia: in the realm of economic policy, it is ready to embrace the region and benefit from the integration. In the area of security policy, however, Australia still relies on the allianc