A Pacific identity could reconcile Australia’s Western culture with its geography

Evidence

Accepting their desire to break with Britain, instead of defining Australia as an Asian power, Australia’s leaders could define it as a Pacific country, as, indeed, Keating’s predecessor as prime minister, Robert Hawke, attempted to do. If Australia wishes to make itself a republic separated from the British crown, it could align itself with the first country in the world to do that, a country which like Australia is of British origin, is an immigrant country, is of continental size, speaks English, has been an ally in three wars, and has an overwhelmingly European, if also like Australia increasingly Asian, population. Culturally, the values of the July 4th 1776 Declaration of Independence accord far more with Australian values than do those of any Asian country. Economically, instead of attempting to batter its way into a group of societies from which it is culturally alien and who for that reason reject it, Australia’s leaders could propose expanding NAFTA into a North American-South Pacific (NASP) arrangement including the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Such a grouping would reconcile culture and economics and provide a solid and enduring identity for Australia that will not come from futile efforts to make Australia Asian. — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 417

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to later debates about AUKUS, the Quad, and Australia’s strategic hedging between Washington and Beijing.