Counter Terrorism

[Name of the Institute]

Counter Terrorism

Rudd's Strategy to Australian National Security

Rudd's crowded agenda

Vaulting ambition has characterised every aspect of Kevin Rudd's public life and no more so than in the area of foreign affairs. The extent of his aspirations for Australia's international future were articulated exhaustively in countless pre-2007 election speeches and in the loquacious foreign affairs section of Labor's 2007 election platform. To many observers, Labor's plans had a manifest plausibility because unlike other prime ministers, save for Menzies in 1949 and perhaps Whitlam in 1972, Rudd had experience of and thus presumed expertise in foreign policy.

Given what was to become the prime ministerial record, there is a plausible argument that this expertise was vastly over-rated, but this is probably, even now, a minority view. Before the 2007 election, the prevailing wisdom was that here would be a prime minister who more than any other in recent times had the knowledge to deal effectively with the international exigencies of his office.

In fact the Rudd agenda was unfocused, undisciplined and far too ambitious for a first-term government, especially one running with full sail into the head winds of the worst global financial crisis in over a generation. Within days of taking office the direction he intended to take Australia was made clear. He was in Bali, triumphantly accepting global acclaim for Australia having affixed its signature to the Kyoto Protocol. From that point on Rudd's foreign affairs activism barely drew breath as he criss-crossed the world constantly expanding the policy agenda. This continued to be the practice until early this year when public disquiet about prime ministerial absences finally curtailed his globetrotting instincts. But not before Rudd had spent more time absent from Australia than any of his predecessors going back to Whitlam.

The ambitious agenda also became an increasingly incoherent one. Although not without some almost plausible conceptual foundations—some ideas about middle powers and a few policy objectives recast as “pillars” (Asia among them)—Rudd's foreign policy seemed to be under constant risk of spinning out of control as issues came and went from the agenda.

As a result, within a year of taking office Australia was, among other things, helping to reinforce the foundations of the failing global financial system, pursuing a seat on the United Nations Security Council, committed to refashioning the regional strategic architecture in the Asia-Pacific, crafting anew an international persona as a “middle power”—something the Coalition in government achieved in effect, minus the rhetoric—saving the planet from climate change, relaxing refugee policy and easing Australia's strong border security arrangements, seeking a deeper engagement with both Africa and Europe, and underwriting efforts to strengthen the international nuclear non-proliferation regime.

Nor was this eclectic array of initiatives the limit of the Rudd activism: determined to make significant changes quickly, the government also began the preparation of a new Defence White Paper, commissioned a review of the proposal for a Department of Homeland Security (an idea subsequently abandoned), commenced work on the first national security statement and foreshadowed a new ...