Table Of ContentFear of Security
Australia’sInvasionAnxiety
AnthonyBurke
Security has rarely been such a dominant and controversial pre-
occupation of Australian politics. In this authoritative book,
AnthonyBurkearguesthatsecurityhasdominatedanddistorted
Australia’s foreign policy and national life, from Cook’s first voy-
agetotheTampacrisis,9/11andIraq.WhetherintheGreatWar,
Vietnamorthetreatmentofasylumseekers,AnthonyBurkeshows
that Australia’s security has been bought with the insecurity and
suffering of others. Against this corrosive tradition, he offers a
new – cosmopolitan and non-coercive – model of national exis-
tenceandresponsibility.
Atonceadeephistoricalsurveyandanargumentwithitssociety,
Fear of Security is a landmark account of how Australia relates to
itself, its region and the world. Turning powerful academic and
politicalorthodoxiesontheirheads,itisessentialreadingforthose
concernedwiththeburningquestionsthatfaceAustraliaandthe
Asia-Pacific.
Anthony Burke is the author of Beyond Security, Ethics and
Violence, and co-editor of Critical Security in the Asia-Pacific
andIntroductiontoInternationalRelations:AustralianPerspectives
(Cambridge University Press 2007). He has previously worked as
a researcher in the Australian Senate, and is currently Associate
ProfessorofinternationalpoliticsattheUniversityofNewSouth
Wales.
Fear of Security
Australia’sInvasionAnxiety
Anthony Burke
cambridge university press
Cambridge,NewYork,Melbourne,Madrid,CapeTown,Singapore,Sa˜oPaulo
CambridgeUniversityPress
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(cid:1)C AnthonyBurke2008
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FirstpublishedbyPlutoPressAustraliaLimited2001
FirstpublishedbyCambridgeUniversityPress2008
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AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
NationalLibraryofAustraliaCataloguinginPublicationdata
Burke,Anthony.
Fearofsecurity:Australia’sinvasionanxiety.
Bibliography.
Includesindex.
ISBN9780521714273(pbk.).
1.Security,International. 2.Nationalsecurity–Australia. 3.Internalsecurity–
Australia. 4.Australia–Foreignrelations. I.Title.
327.94
ISBN-13 978-0-521-71427-3
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ForJenny,SophiaandNikos
andinmemoryofKamalandMichele
Contents
Prefaceandacknowledgements viii
Abbreviations x
Introduction 1
1 SecuringtheAustraliansubject1788–1918 15
2 DreamsofPacificsecurity1919–45 51
3 ColdWaragainsttheOther1946–69 83
4 RealpolitikbeyondtheColdWar1970–95 126
5 Australia’sAsiancrisis1996–2000 169
6 Thewagesofterror2001–07 207
Conclusion:Acosmopolitanfuture 234
Notes 245
Index 285
vii
Preface and acknowledgements
Thisbookisasubstantiallyrevisedandupdatedversionofaproject
firstpublishedasInFearofSecurity:Australia’sInvasionAnxietyin
2001, immediately following the events of 9/11 and prior to that
year’s national election. I am very grateful to the publishers at
CambridgeUniversityPress,especiallySusanHanleyandPauline
deLaveaux,forgivingthebookanewlife,asIamtotheanonymous
readerswhorecommendeditspublication.Mygratitudealsogoes
toKenWarkandTonyMoorewhofirstputtheirfaithintheproject
backin1999.
ThechangesIhavemadeareintendedtobringthebookupto
date,toimproveuponitsargumentsandrespondtothepolitical
climate that followed its publication, and to make it more acces-
sibletoawidereadership.Anewchapterhasbeenaddedtocover
the period after 9/11, with a particular focus on Australia’s treat-
mentofasylumseekersanditsinvolvementinIraqandthewaron
terror.Anewconclusionhasalsobeenwrittenandtheintroduc-
tionrevisedsubstantially.Twotheoreticalchaptersintheoriginal
book – on security in international relations theory, and on the
development of the national security state in Western political
thought – have been omitted. A more developed version of that
latterchaptercanbefoundinmytheoreticalworkfocusedonthe
waronterror,BeyondSecurity,EthicsandViolence.Readerswitha
particularinterestinthetheoreticalideasofthisbookareencour-
agedtoconsultthatwork.
For their assistance while I was preparing the book my thanks
to Matt McDonald, Savitri Taylor, Patricia Hall-Ingrey, Katrina
Harrison, Di Taylor and the Cambridge readers who gave great
advice.Ithankallthosewhohaveaskedmetospeakpubliclysince
viii
Prefaceandacknowledgements ix
2001ontheissuesdealtwithhere–youractivism,publicspirited-
nessandconcernforjusticehasbeeninspiring.Andforallthegreat
talks, collaboration and exchange: Peter Mares, Klaus Neumann,
BobBurke,SuvendiPerera,JimGeorge,KatrinaLeeKoo,Christine
Sylvester, Chris Reus-Smit, Roland Bleiker, Hazel Lang, Richard
Devetak,LorraineElliott,GraemeCheeseman,PaulKeal,Minerva
Nasser-Eddine,PalAhluwalia,CarolJohnson,ChrisBeasley,Greg
McCarthy, Kath Gelber, Liz Thurbon, Sarah Maddison, Umut
Ozguc,MarcWilliams,RuthBalint,JieChen,MarianneHanson,
AlexBellamy,RichardShapcott,MarkBeeson,NickWheelerand
EdAspinall.
My wife Jenny has been a truly wonderful source of encour-
agementandsupport;withoutherthisbookwouldnotexist.Itis
dedicatedtoherandourchildrenwithmylove.
ThisbookisalsodedicatedtothememoryofKamalBamadhaj
and Michele Turner. Kamal was a tireless and inspired advocate
of freedom and dignity for those struggling against the Soeharto
regime. He was murdered, with hundreds of others, in the first
volleysofgunfireattheSantaCruzmassacreinDili,TimorLeste,
in 1991. Michele spent ten years compiling personal testimonies
fromEastTimoreseforhermoving1992book,Telling.Thedespair
thatovertookherin1995wasnodoubtdeepenedbyhershameat
Australia’sabandonmentofapeoplewhohadkepthergrandfather
aliveduringthePacificwar.Theywereboth‘mightyspirits’whom
weallmiss.
Description:Rarely has security been such a preoccupation of Australian politics, and rarely has it seemed so far from being achieved. This celebrated book argues that security has dominated and distorted Australia's foreign policy and national life, from Cook's first voyage to the Tampa crisis, 9/11 and Iraq.
