Australia: The Anchor of the Pacific

Australia is the indispensable ally of the United States on the western reaches of the Pacific Rim. The two nations have a greater commonality of interests, with less capacity for unnecessary entanglements than any other regional treaty partners.

From its origins as a British colony, later as commonwealth of the United Kingdom, and more recently as a fully independent state, Australia has played a modest role in global politics, but a disproportionally large one in its region.

While a grand significance would seem appropriate to its size and location, Australia's influence is far greater than its population and resources might seem possible.

After all, even though Australia is approximately the size of the continental United States, its population is only 23 million, slightly smaller than that of Texas.

Some of this outsized power has historically come from a strong partnership with allies, including the U.K. and United States, but even more from the judicious application of diplomatic, economic and military capabilities.

The U.S.-Australian alliance had its origins during the two world wars, ratified by the ANZUS Treaty of 1951 [which also includes the much smaller New Zealand].

While its strength has varied somewhat depending on the inclinations of respective U.S. and Australian administrations, a shared perspective on the Cold War forged a strong relationship.

This collaboration has continued through multiple peacekeeping operations, as well as combat deployments in Somalia, Afghanistan and Iraq.

Australians have a relatively small military -- only 80,000, including active duty and ready reserves -- but have a deserved reputation for regional deployability, efficiency and technological innovation.

Because of the trusted competence of their forces, Australian commanders are often provided with U.S. intelligence data reserved for only a handful of allied nations, including the UK and Canada.

Australia is also a regular partner with the U.S. in military technology, able to contribute creative ideas, especially in the areas of air and naval developments.

Far from being merely a recipient or buyer of U.S. military hardware, the Australian military and its industrial partners often develop improvements that benefit not just their capabilities, but those of the U.S. armed forces.

The U.S. and Australia share not only military history, a general political alignment, and the cultural ties that originate from our legacy as former British colonies, but also increasingly convergent interests in the Asian-Pacific region.

Both share close economic ties with China, but more ambivalence about an increasingly aggressive Chinese strategy toward territorial acquisition and regional influence.

The U.S. and Australia, as nations with sophisticated and generally open markets, have long supported freer global trade, not only through bilateral trade agreements, but through strengthening mechanisms such as the World Trade Organization.

Australia also has demonstrated a willingness and impressive capability to lead complex military initiatives, such as peacekeeping activities in East Timor and the Solomon Islands.

While these were relatively small operations on a global scale, they demonstrated the ability of the Australia Defence Force to manage multinational and joint operations, something only a handful of other states -- the U.S., U.K. and France -- have successfully attempted in recent years.

The courage of the Australians to take on these significant challenges away from their shores is even more remarkable given the proximity to Indonesia. This Muslim-majority state, a massive archipelago looming just to the north, has 10 times the population, and more than 10 times the internal instability, as Australia itself.

The long-standing alignment between the U.S. and Australia now seems on its way toward even more strengthening, with the 2011 agreement between the two nations to base up to 2,500 U.S. Marines in northern Australia, as a hedge against rising Chinese ambitions.

This tangible sign of the U.S. commitment to the Pacific Rim, even in a time of decreasing military budgets, was immediately denounced by China as a serious provocation.

This decision, however, was an appropriate response to China's growing global military ambitions, which include plans for its own foreign bases and continued double digit increases in military spending, which have been a feature of Beijing's budgets for many years.

Growing ties between Washington and Canberra, and the lack of tensions between the two states, point out by contrast the greater difficulties in relations with other regional allies.

The U.S. has significant military forces stationed in Japan and South Korea, but these two Asian nations are barely on speaking terms with each other and retain long-standing grudges that predate World War II.

Both also have ongoing territorial disputes with China, as well as sharing the necessity of keeping a watchful eye on the rogue state of North Korea.

Other states, such as the Philippines and Thailand, each of which are officially identified as "major non-NATO ally," have internal instability or other challenges that prevent them from being more than states friendly to the U.S.

Australia is therefore the only nation on the Asian side of the Pacific Rim that remains not only a firm U.S. ally, but one capable of taking on a leadership role in the region.

The U.S. should intensify the growing solidity of this relationship, recognizing that, absent Australia, Asia and the broader world would be a far less accommodating place for the United States of America.

Wayne Bowen, a U.S. Army veteran, received his Ph.D. in history from Northwestern University. He resides in Cape Girardeau.