Stuart Harris, ‘Australia’s Regional Security Environment’, IR Working Paper 1994/3, Canberra: Department of International Relations, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University, May 1994.

In some respects, Australia’s security environment is now more benign than for a long time. Yet strategic uncertainty, particularly over the future role of major regional powers is an important regional influence and this has changed the security environment to which Australia has to respond. This paper looks at a series of questions relating to Australia’s security environment: What effectively is Australia’s region for security purposes? How do security issues in the region tie in with security issues at the global level? What, in practice, do we mean by security? In answering these and other questions, the paper looks at the political and strategic changes in the region since the end of the Cold War, relations among the major powers and Australia’s relations with China, Japan, and the US and India.