Challenges for Australian foreign and security policy after the May 2022 federal election

This post-election edition of The Looking Glass examines some of the challenges facing the Albanese government, and raises some tentative options about its likely agenda and how it might pursuing it. Also included are some of the authors' suggestions about how to make Australian strategic policy more agile and responsive in a fluid and complex contemporary threat environment.

Five main findings are made: 1. Labor is likely to continue to invest in economic, military-security and institutional mechanisms to mediate the troubled Sino-Australian relationship, with an emphasis on navigating rather than attempting to reset it. 2. Australia's general policy settings with respect to great power competition in the Indo-Pacific are unlikely to shift considerably, especially in relation to the US alliance. 3. An Albanese government will remain committed to security agreements, such as AUKUS, but will likely place more emphasis on diplomacy and 'nodal defence' efforts with allies and like-minded states. 4. Challenges such as foreign influence, cyber security and responding to political warfare are likely to receive more holistic attention under the new Labor government. 5. In the South Pacific, the Albanese government has already signalled that it will enhance diplomacy, aid and a new focus on climate change.

Authors