Contemporary Australian Mythologies: Community, Security, Otherness, Territoriality

Abstract

In the first decade of the 21st century, the Australian Defense White Papers reflect the evolution of the force relationship in the Asian and the Pacific regions, and notably the rise of China as a major player. Between the end of the 1990s and the end of the 2000s, Australian actions are recorded on the priorities set by a definition of security that rests largely on a true “mythology” of the Australian identity and on protection against regional otherness. “Ontological security” becomes a reference element of the relationship of Australia with its Asian and Pacific neighborhood, on behalf of the necessary protection of the Australian national space. The actions of Australia, as “policeman” of the Pacific, as a main ally in the fight against terrorism, or as seeking regional cooperation in the management of refugees, are guided by identity imperatives, built from the American alliance or from a so-called special responsibility in the region, both in order to maintain a distance with the alleged risks of the neighbourhood. This article seeks to highlight this contemporary development, linked to international developments and the experience of other Western actions; and to put in place an instrument of analysis of security derived from the Australian identity and from their leaders perceptions about their environment. From the developments of the theory of international relations on security and from studies on identity and the relationship between the same and the other, we seek to present Australian priorities in the region as a result of the “alternative rationalities” carried by the leaders.