In the latest of our Foreign Policy Rethink series, Peter Varghese outlines how alliance, region and multilateralism must be recalibrated for a more contested and uncertain global order.

Australian foreign policy for the last eight decades has rested on three pillars: alliance, region and multilateralism. Each of those pillars now requires substantial renovation but not their demolition.

We need to recalibrate our expectations of what the alliance delivers. We need a more transactional and a less sacramental view of its benefits. Ditching the alliance would be an act of self harm. It gives us access to technology and intelligence and it still acts as a deterrent which any would-be aggressor would at the very least need to factor into its calculations.

First, we must abandon the fiction that it is a guarantee of our security. It never was and it is an Australian delusion which has never been shared by the US on the few occasions we have tested it. ANZUS is not a substitute for defence self reliance. Australia cannot be self sufficient on defence but we can and should invest in the capability to defend our continent without relying on the combat assistance of the US or anyone else. Without that capability our sovereignty is academic.

Second, we should reverse the drift to forward defence which has been a feature of the last three decades, and of which AUKUS is an unarticulated example. We must overcome the view, deeply ingrained in the psyche of Australians, that we are incapable of defending ourselves. The alliance can help with self defence but that does not mean we should double down on it.

Third, we must abandon the judgement that the maintenance of US primacy, for all the benefits it has brought us, is a vital Australian interest. It is not and to think otherwise is to handcuff ourselves to policies that might make sense in Washington but which may not serve our distinctive........

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