If the bleaker, bolder and more bellicose outlook on security in our region triggers instant pangs of anxiety and alarm among Australians, there is probably a perverse benefit to the discomfort.
It saves time.
The thinking that shapes this starkly more assertive defence plan is based upon one foundational belief: that sooner or later, everybody will reach the same conclusion about hazards to this island, and sooner is preferable to later.
A bit like fighting an infection, time is as precious as money when a nation is trying to repel an undesirable advance.
A level of permission from individuals goes a long method too, which is why Scott Morrison’s blunt language about the abrupt disappearance of the “benign security environment” is computed to jolt the general public into accepting the military escalation the PM’s buying and it is spending for.
At $270 billion over a years, the money is considerable, however dollars alone do not discuss what’s occurred in defence, diplomatic and nationwide security thinking given that the last Defence White Paper was bied far by Malcolm Turnbull in 2016.
In four years– but really closer to 2– the people who hear, see and translate the words and actions of Australia’s friends and prospective enemies have gone through a revolution in their understanding of China’s objectives in specific and the irascibility of Trump’s America.
That change is magnified again in Morrison’s delivery of the most recent upgrade.
The better metaphor for those dealing with Australia’s foreign policy are the frontier boundary riders, erec