Guest Editor's Introduction: AUKUS among Democracies
| Published date | 01 September 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/00207020231198134 |
| Author | Srdjan Vucetic |
| Date | 01 September 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Introduction |
Guest Editor’s Introduction:
AUKUS among Democracies
Officially dubbed an “enhanced security partnership,”AUKUS is a trilateral agreement
between Australia, the UK, and the US. It was born as breaking news on 15 September
2021 (16 September in Australia), with US President Joe Biden and then UK and
Australian leaders, Boris Johnson and Scott Morrison, making a surprise announce-
ment in a joint video conference.
1
Even the best-connected security experts were
stunned. The chattering classes in the three countries welcomed the news, routinely
filling in the part the joint statement purposefully left implicit—the need to check
China’s growing power in the Indo-Pacific. But some expressed skepticism and, as
in the case of Australia’s former prime minister Paul Keating, a certain resentment.
Elsewhere in the region, feelings were more mixed. The government in Beijing
immediately articulated its distress and hostility, as did, with varying degrees of
speed and clarity, Beijing’s strategic partners, Russia, Cambodia, Myanmar, and
North Korea. The Indonesian and Malaysian governments raised concerns about the
pact’s effects on nuclear non-proliferation and the region’s overall security environ-
ment. Among US allies and partners, some studiously said nothing, while others enthu-
siastically endorsed the pact. Fears of missing out were voiced, too, namely in Canada,
where a few political and military figures publicly wondered if AUKUS could (and
should) become “CAUKUS.”Yet it was the French president Emmanuel Macron
who stole the global media spotlight by ordering the swift withdrawal of French
ambassadors from Washington and Canberra. The reason behind this dramatic and
unprecedented move was one of the pact’s main moving parts: Australia’s decision
to cancel an existing multibillion dollar contract with France for the construction of
twelve conventional Barracuda submarines, such that the Royal Australian Navy
(RAN) could acquire a fleet of “up to eight”nuclear-powered “AUKUS submarines.”
2
1. Joseph Biden, Boris Johnson, and Scott Morrison, “Jointleaders statement on AUKUS,”The White House, 15
September2021, https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/09/15/joint-leaders-
statement-on-aukus/(accessed 11 August 2023).
2. Célia Belin, “AUKUS: un coup de semonce pour les relations franco-américaines,”Le Rubicon, 9 décembre
2021, https://lerubicon.org/aukus-un-coup-de-semonce-pour-les-relations-franco-americaines/(accessed
11 August 2023); Eglantine Staunton and Benjamin Day, “Australia-France relations after AUKUS:
Macron, Morrison and trust in International Relations,”Australian Journal of International Affairs 77, no.
1 (2023): 11–18.
Introduction
International Journal
2023, Vol. 78(3) 293–306
© The Author(s) 2023
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/00207020231198134
journals.sagepub.com/home/ijx
To continue reading
Request your trial