The AUKUS Global Alliance Is Not Just About Submarines
Commentary
The “post-China” global strategic architecture will gain clarity during 2023.
AUKUS, the Australia-United Kingdom-United States security pact, will be articulated further during March 2023. And AUKUS is not just about providing nuclear propulsion technology for the next Australian submarine, as significant a project as that might be.
Even politicians in the three countries—along with their counterparts elsewhere—could be forgiven for thinking that AUKUS is “all about submarines.” Indeed, it was Australia’s submarine procurement crisis of recent years that began the process of creating AUKUS, potentially the most significant strategic alliance of the post-Cold War era.
Once commenced, AUKUS was clearly about creating the potentially most significant global security alliance of the 21st century, giving cohesive military and strategic capabilities in all of the world’s oceans and polar regions. But Australia’s next submarine will be the focus of the announcement on AUKUS by the three heads of state of AUKUS nations—U.S. President Joe Biden, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak—when they meet in Washington in March….