Studies On The Evolvement Of The US-Australia Alliance Relations After The Establishment Of SEATO

Among the US-led alliances in the Asia Pacific the US-Australia alliance has most common grounds.After aligning with the United States Australia took part in every major war which America launched in Asia.It may be rated as American closest ally in the region.The middle power is seen as the "South Anchor" of American strategy in the Asia Pacific.After the Obama administration has been carrying out the Asia-Pacific rebalance startegy,Australia becomes more important.With the rise of China and the rapid development of Sino-Australian bilateral trade,China has become Australian biggest trading partner.But the development of Sino-Australian political relations does not go better.In this background research on Australian policy in the United States of America is very meaningful for China to make its round-boundary strategy.The research goal of the dissertation is to summarise the characteristics of the US-Australia alliance relations.evaluate the US-Australia alliance’s influence on Australian defence and foreign policy and analyse the factors which have influence on the future trend of the US-Australia alliance by going deep into the evolvement processes of the US-Australia alliance relations after the establishment of SEATO. The research method of the dissertation is to analyse,compare,integrate and induce the literature on the topic of the dissertation which includes official data and reports,the speeches and statements of American and Australian leaders and academic papers and works of domestic and international numerous scholars and so on.The dissertation restores the historical facts,finds the laws,interprets the phenomena and finally draws its own conclusion by analysing and understanding these texts.Additionally,the dissertation also uses the knowledge of many disciplines such as history,economics and international politics to do interdisciplinary research.The innovation of the dissertation is to expound the three fundamental concepts which are alliance,the view of alliance and bandwagoning by integrating different schools of alliance theories including classical realist,neorealist,institutional liberalist and constructivist alliance theories and meanwhile try to use the major variables such as the perception of threat,ideology,power,geopolitical characteristic,interest,institution and identity to research the establishment,continuation and development of an alliance and assess the value of an alliance by analysing costs and benefits.The second chapter constitutes the theoretical framework of the dissertation too.The third chapter dates back to the origin for Australian involvement in the Vietnam War.After the Cold War began,Australia positively carried out the forward defence strategy.So it joined the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization which was built by the United States of America and hoped to contain China on the Indo-China Peninsula which was far from the Australian continent.For the US-Australia alliance,SEATO was a compliment to the Australia,New Zealand,United States SecurityTreaty(ANZUS) and made the US-Australia alliance relations have double insurance. The fourth chapter refers to the reason for which Australia sent its troops to South Vietnam and the process of Australian involvement in the Vietnam War and the influence of the failure of the Vietnam War on the US-Australia alliance relations. An important reason for which Australia followed America to take part in the Vietnam War was its forward defence strategy.Australian government thought that it could ensure an American military presence in Southeast Asia by supporting American policy in Vietnam and it was beneficial for Australian security.Additionally,because of the nervous bilateral relationship between Australia and Indonesia caused by the Federation of Malaysia and Lrlan Barat,in order to let America protect itself in the future possible Australia-Indonesia conflicts Australia took part in the Vietnam War.That can be seen as a kind of insurance policy.With the American failure in Vietnam,Australia had to start to rethink and revise its increasingly rigid policy in America.The fifth chapter analyses the adjustment of the US-Australia alliance relations in the Cold War transition period.Australia tried to carry out an independent foreign policy when Whitlam was in power and made the US-Australia alliance relations become flexible to some extent.But this was only a kind of independence within the scope of the US-Australia alliance.The US-Australia alliance relations were reinforced again when Fraser was in power.especially after the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979.The chapter also researches the disintegration of the United States-New Zealand alliance in the mid-1980s.The US-Australia alliance relations were not influenced by it.The sixth chapter researches the evolvement of the US-Australia alliance relations after the Cold War.Because of the disappearance of common threat,the US-Australia alliance once drifted after the end of the Cold War.Australia positively engaged with Asia and boosted regional cooperation on security when Keating was in power.But after Howard had become Australian Prime Minister,he enhanced the US-Australia alliance relations and made it focus on the regional security issues outside Australia.After the 9/11 terrorist attacks happened,Australia positively took part in America’s war on terrorism,so the US-Australia alliance relations entered a new honeymoon period.The US-Australia alliance relations are further reinforced after the Obama administration has been carrying out the pivot to Asia strategy.Australia has been carrying out balanced diplomacy between China and America after the Cold War.The Keating government’s attempts were once reversed at the earlier stage of the Howard government,but Australian balanced foreign policy was gradually more obvious at the later stage of the Howard government.But after American pivot to Asia the space for Australia to carry out balanced foreign policy is being limited. The seventh chapter is the conclution.It summarises the two major characteristics of the US-Australia alliance.They are the power asymmetry and the status inequality that exists between America and Australia.Because of the existence of the US-Australia alliance,it’s rather difficult for Australia to carry out really independent diplomacy and defence strategy.The most important reason for which Australia follows America is to guarantee its own security and existence.The subsidiary reason is to gain additional interests.Australia,America,China and ASEAN can influence the future trends of the US-Australia alliance.