For a progressive realism: Australian foreign policy in the 21st century

ABSTRACT

What ideas and concepts might be used to reinvigorate a progressive approach to Australian foreign policy? In contrast to the clarity of the international vision provided by right-wing movements, there is uncertainty about the contours of a progressive approach to contemporary Australian foreign policy. This article outlines the basis of a ‘progressive realism’ that can challenge right-wing accounts. Progressive realism combines a ‘realistic’ diagnosis of the key dynamics that underpin contemporary world politics with a ‘progressive’ focus on the redistribution of existing power configurations. Taken together, these two building blocks provide the foundations for a left-of-centre foreign policy agenda. We apply progressive realism to four policy areas: pandemic politics, aid and infrastructure in the Pacific, climate change, and a crisis in the Taiwan Strait. This analysis, in turn, highlights the challenges and opportunities for progressive political actors in crafting foreign policy both within and beyond Australia.

KEYWORDS:

• Australia
• foreign policy
• realism
• progressive
• climate change
• China
• Taiwan
• Covid-19
• Pacific islands
• regionalism

Acknowledgments

The original idea for this paper was prompted by a seminar at ANU organised by Sarah Logan and Andrea Haese, with Mark Sawers providing the key provocation: what, exactly, would a progressive foreign policy for Australia look like in the 21^st century? Many thanks to Sarah, Andrea and Mark for getting us started; clearly, the responsibility for our answer to this question lies solely with the authors. The six of us convened two meetings to discuss our initial ideas; this sense of collaborative co-production has been sustained throughout the writing process. Huge thanks are owed to Ian Hall and Sara Davies at AJIA, as well as two anonymous reviewers, for an impeccable peer review process: rigorous, constructive and deliberative in equal measure. If this is any indication of the quality of commentary that the paper will evoke, we very much look forward to the discussions to come.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 We adopt a broad rubric for these groups: ‘the global right’. The global right is not a single movement with a uniform policy program—it ranges from Narendra Modi’s linking of virulent Hindu nationalism and globalism to Jair Bolsonaro’s racialised view of Brazilian nationalism, which is attached to a liberalising economic agenda. However, it is a recognisable movement inasmuch as it is held together by a shared diagnosis of contemporary ills and a broadly common set of ideas about what to do about them. This analysis is enabled by a supportive infrastructure of political parties, social movements, big capital, inter-personal networks, think-tanks and media organizations. In this sense of inhabiting a shared, if somewhat lumpy, ecology, the global right is comparable in character to liberal, progressive and environmental international movements. A useful guide to the global right can be found in Drolet and Williams (2021). For a discussion of the ‘thick conservatism’ that underpins the movement, see De Sá Guimarães and Dutra De Oliveira E Silva (2021).

2 We use the term ‘progressive’ as a synonym for ‘left’ and ‘centre-left’ in order to capture a wide range of leftist movements: democratic socialists, social democrats, green activists, labour groups, and some varieties of liberalism. Although there is much that differentiates these movements, what ties them together is a commitment to a more egalitarian, democratic and ecologically sustainable world order.

3 The landmark formulation in International Relations is the ‘realistic utopia’ envisioned by E.H. Carr (2001/1939). For a sympathetic reading, see Lawson (2008); for a critique see Gabay (2020). For an appraisal of Carr’s formulation to contemporary world politics, see Cunliffe (2020).

4 As a term, ‘progressive realism’ has achieved some cache within liberal parts of the US commentariat, e.g. Nye (2006), Wright (2020). Our aim in this paper is to develop the concept beyond this context and excavate its core features.

5 Although Carr is not easily characterised as a Realist, it is worth noting that there is a strain within the tradition that tends towards progressive outcomes, if not always by way of progressive means. On this, see Bell (2018).

6 China’s information sharing, especially with the WHO, was problematic. Yet Chinese clinicians rapidly identified, reported and tested clusters of the novel coronavirus, resulting in its complete sequencing by 2 January 2020. This stands in stark contrast to previous pandemics, which have often been identified months after their initial outbreaks.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Nick Bisley

Nick Bisley is Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences and Professor of International Relations at La Trobe University. He works on Asia's international relations, great power politics and Australian foreign and defence policy. Nick is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of International Affairs and the Secretary of the Council of Australasian Deans of Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities. He is also a member of the advisory board of China Matters and a member of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia-Pacific. Nick is the author of: Issues in 21st Century World Politics, 3rd Edition (Palgrave, 2017), Great Powers in the Changing International Order (Lynne Rienner, 2012), and Building Asia's Security (IISS/Routledge, 2009, Adelphi No. 408).

Robyn Eckersley

Robyn Eckersley is Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor in Political Science at the University of Melbourne and a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia. Her recent books include: Special Responsibilities: Global Problems and American Power (2012, co-author); Globalization and the Environment (2013) (co-authored with Peter Christoff); and The Oxford Handbook of International Political Theory (2018) (co-edited with Chris Brown). In 2019 she received a Distinguished Scholar Award from the Environmental Studies Section of the International Studies Association.

Shahar Hameiri

Shahar Hameiri is Professor of International Politics and Director of Research in the School of Political Science and International Studies, University of Queensland. His latest book, co-authored with Lee Jones, is Fractured China: How State Transformation is Shaping China's Rise (Cambridge, 2021). His earlier co-authored books include: Governing Borderless Threats: Non-Traditional Security and the Politics of State Transformation (Cambridge, 2015), and International Intervention and Local Politics (Cambridge, 2017). He is also the co-editor, with Toby Carroll and Lee Jones, of The Political Economy of Southeast Asia (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020). He tweets @ShaharHameiri.

Jessica Kirk

Jessica Kirk is Fellow in the Centre for Governance and Public Policy at Griffith University. Her research examines the politics of disease outbreaks and pandemics, with a particular focus on emergency response, ideas of security, and the role of expertise. Her work has appeared in International Studies Quarterly and Global Studies Quarterly. She received her PhD from the University of Queensland in 2020.

George Lawson

George Lawson is Professor of International Relations at the Australian National University. His most recent books are: On Revolutions (with Colin Beck, Mlada Bukovansky, Erica Chenoweth, Sharon Nepstad and Daniel Ritter) (Oxford, 2022); Anatomies of Revolution (Cambridge, 2019); and The Global Transformation (with Barry Buzan) (Cambridge, 2015). His work has won the Francesco Guicciardini Prize and the Joseph Fletcher Prize, both from the International Studies Association, and the Hedley Bull Prize from the European Consortium of Political Research.

Benjamin Zala

Benjamin Zala is Fellow in the Department of International Relations at the Australian National University, having previously held positions at Harvard University, the University of Leicester, the Oxford Research Group, and Chatham House. His work focuses on the politics of the great powers and the management of nuclear weapons. He has published in a wide range of journals, including the Review of International Studies, Journal of Global Security Studies, Third World Quarterly and the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. He is the editor of National Perspectives on a Multipolar Order (Manchester, 2021).