Australia and international military conflict

1919 North Russia - 45th Battalion (Australian Company) Royal Fusiliers

Global strategy and intelligence consultancy, Stratfor has produced a recent brief on Australia analysing the historically large number of international military conflicts in which Austalia has been engaged - its worth noting Stratfor is a US based company but does have Australian clients including major media outlets and defence. Not all the conflicts Australia has been involved-in are mentioned (such as the Malaysian Emergency) nor is the timeframe fully encompassing as Australian's military history extends back to the Sudan in 1885 and arguably the Crimea War. Stratfor's perspective is that ideology does not explain the phenomena but rather its a question of having an ally which is a major martime power and can keep the sea lanes open to Australia. Perhaps but, in fact, Australia's involvement not only in wars but military peacekeeping operations points to a 'world view' where Australia seeks to influence global affairs and 'bat above its weight' as an international citizen. Australia still does participate in wars as a partner of a much more powerful maritime power (Great Britain and now the United States), but equally it has evolved a foreign policy to choose its own conflicts, for good or for worse. An abridged version of Stratfor's analysis follows:

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Australia is one of the wealthiest countries in the world, ranked in the top 10 in gross domestic product per capita. It is one of the most isolated major countries in the world; it occupies an entire united continent, is difficult to invade and rarely is threatened. Normally, we would not expect a relatively well-off and isolated country to have been involved in many wars. This has not been the case for Australia and, more interesting, it has persistently not been the case, even under a variety of governments. Ideology does not explain the phenomenon in this instance.

Since 1900, Australia has engaged in several wars and other military or security interventions (including the Boer War, World War I, World War II and the wars in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq) lasting about 40 years total. Put another way, Australia has been at war for more than one-third of the time since the Commonwealth of Australia was established in 1901. In only one of these wars, World War II, was its national security directly threatened, and even then a great deal of its fighting was done in places such as Greece and North Africa rather than in direct defense of Australia. This leaves us to wonder why a country as wealthy and seemingly secure as Australia would have participated in so many conflicts.

The Australian strategy therefore involves alignment with the leading maritime power, first Britain and then the United States, and participation in their wars. We began by asking why a country as wealthy and secure as Australia would be involved in so many wars. The answer is that its wealth is not as secure as it seems. 

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