Duty down under.(NATIONAL SECURITY)

Dan Blumenthal, "Strengthening the U.S.-Australian Alliance: Progress and Pitfalls," AEI Asian Outlook, April-May 2005 (aei.org)

Australia's John Howard is often depicted as the third partner in the informal "Anglosphere" alliance, alongside George W. Bush and Tony Blair. Howard's pro-American stance was a conscious rejection of his predecessors' approach, which focused on building up Australia's Asian identity. His stance received little encouragement from the Clinton administration, but following Howard's invocation of the ANZUS (Australia-New Zealand-United States) treaty on 9/11, Australia found itself a trusted participant in the war on terror.

AEI scholar Dan Blumenthal argues that Howard's pro-American policies have strengthened Australia's influence in Asia rather than weakened it. Since 9/11, "Australia has signed free trade agreements (FTAs) with Singapore and Thailand and is working on another with Malaysia; was invited to the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) trade summit to discuss an FTA with those nations; and assumed a leadership role in responding to the recent tsunami catastrophe in Southeast Asia."

Australia has also moved to increase the interoperability of its defense forces with the American military. An ambitious procurement ...