Australia in the Asian Century: Australian Government’s White Paper, Strong and Secure: A Strategy for Australia’s National Security

As Asia rises and the centre of gravity of strategic affairs shifts to the Asia Pacific, the Australian government is getting ready to exploit new opportunities and gear up to face new risks to its security. Until the beginning of this century, Australia’s approach was to insulate itself from Asia and have minimal interaction with it. Asia was seen as a poor, troublesome and problematic region. Australia was firmly anchored in the Western alliance system. However, the rise of China, India and several other Asian powers, and the relative decline of the West, particularly after 9/11, has forced Australia to rethink its approach towards Asia.