State of the United States: How should the United States and Australia bolster collective deterrence and defence?

State of the United States: How should the United States and Australia bolster collective deterrence and defence?

When

10.00am–11.00am

8 April 2021

Type

Webinar

Details

Washington DC time: Wednesday, 7 April, 8.00-9.00pm EDT

It is now well accepted in Canberra and Washington that the Australia-US alliance needs to be operationalised in new ways to meet Indo-Pacific strategic challenges. Against a backdrop of intensifying Chinese assertiveness and the United States’ declining capacity to uphold a favourable balance of power by itself, our shared interests in deterrence and defence require greater coordination, alignment and collective action. This cooperation must also be carefully dovetailed with regional needs and security preferences to ensure a broadly collective approach to strengthening stability, sovereignty and resilience across the Indo-Pacific. 

How should Australia work with the Biden administration to transform the alliance for collective deterrence and defence? Is there a shared understanding between Canberra, Washington and other regional capitals over the ends, ways and means of Indo-Pacific strategy? What does bolstering resilience look like in the maritime domain where China’s grey zone activities are steadily expanding? How can Canberra and Washington make faster progress towards the kind of defence industrial base cooperation that is needed to empower the alliance for future strategic challenges?

To discuss these issues, the USSC hosted a webinar discussion with United States Studies Centre Director of Foreign Policy and Defence Ashley Townshend, Research Fellow Brendan Thomas-Noone and Australian Strategic Policy Institute Senior Analyst Dr Huong Le Thu in conversation with United States Studies Centre Director of Communications and Stakeholder Engagement Mari Koeck. Ashley Townshend and Brendan Thomas-Noone are authors of featured chapters from State of the United States: An evolving alliance agenda:

Featuring

  • Ashley Townshend
    Ashley Townshend
    Non-Resident Senior Fellow, United States Studies Centre

    Ashley Townshend is a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the United States Studies Centre and Senior Fellow for Indo-Pacific Security at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He is the founding co-chair of the annual US-Australia Indo-Pacific Deterrence Dialogue and was the Director of Foreign Policy and Defence at the United States Studies Centre from June 2017 to June 2022.

  • Brendan Thomas-Noone
    Brendan Thomas-Noone

    Brendan was formerly a Research Fellow in the Foreign Policy and Defence Program at the United States Studies Centre.

  • Dr Huong Le Thu
    Senior Analyst, Australian Strategic Policy Institute

    Dr Huong Le Thu is a senior analyst in the Defence and Strategy Program at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. She leads projects on Southeast Asia, including on regional alignment politics, Southeast Asian perceptions of great power competition, defence diplomacy, regional dispute management particularly in the South China Sea, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) regionalism, and Australia’s engagement with the near region.

  • Mari Koeck
    Mari Koeck
    Director of Engagement and Impact, United States Studies Centre

    Mari Koeck is Director of Communications and Stakeholder Engagement at the United States Studies Centre. She leads our engagement and impact team, with an emphasis on agile, multichannel strategies. Her career spans state and federal government in the United States and Australia as well as non-government organisations.

The Foreign Policy and Defence Program receives funding support from the following partners