Last Updated:2020-11-09
Australia's former ambassador to China provides insight on Australia's future position in global affairs.
Disruption has blown the old world apart. The rise of China, Trump's America First policies, division within Europe and successful defiance by authoritarian states are affecting the shape of the emerging new order.
Human rights, rule of law, free media and longstanding global institutions all seem set to be weakened. Autocracies are exercising greater control over world affairs.
Australia will need to engage heightened levels of diplomacy to forge relations with countries of opposing principles. It will need to be agile in pursuing a realistic foreign policy agenda. China's Grand Strategy and Australia's Future in the New Global Order contains answers for how Australia must position itself for this possibly dystopian future.
Geoff Raby was Australia’s ambassador to China (2007–11), ambassador to APEC (2003–5), and ambassador to the World Trade Organization (1998–2001). He is chairman of VisAsia at the Art Gallery of NSW and chairman of the Australia–China Institute of Arts and Culture at the University of Western Australia. Raby was awarded the Order of Australia in 2019 for services to Australia–China relations and to international trade.
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