Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Tables, Figures and Boxes
- Contributors
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- 1 Middle Power Dreaming: Australian Foreign Policy during the Rudd–Gillard Governments
- 2 The Howard–Downer Legacy: Global Deputy, Regional Sheriff
- 3 Back from the Brink: Australia and the Global Economy 2006–10
- 4 Australia–America 2006–2010: Waiting for Obama
- 5 Australia and China: The Challenges to Forging a ‘True Friendship’
- 6 Australia and Japan: Mobilising the Bilateral Relationship
- 7 Australia and Europe
- 8 Australia’s Strategic and Commercial Engagement with South Asia under Kevin Rudd: The Paradoxes
- 9 Australia, the Pacific Islands and Timor-Leste
- 10 Progress and Limits in Regional Cooperation: Australia and Southeast Asia
- 11 Australian Foreign Policy towards Africa
- 12 Plus Ça Change? The Coalition, Labor and the Challenges of Environmental Foreign Policy
- 13 The Australia 2020 Summit as an Experiment in Foreign Policy-making
- 14 Defence and Security
- 15 Australia’s Foreign Policy Machinery
- 16 Regional, Alliance and Global Priorities of the Rudd–Gillard Governments
- References
- Index
4 - Australia–America 2006–2010: Waiting for Obama
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 May 2024
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Tables, Figures and Boxes
- Contributors
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- 1 Middle Power Dreaming: Australian Foreign Policy during the Rudd–Gillard Governments
- 2 The Howard–Downer Legacy: Global Deputy, Regional Sheriff
- 3 Back from the Brink: Australia and the Global Economy 2006–10
- 4 Australia–America 2006–2010: Waiting for Obama
- 5 Australia and China: The Challenges to Forging a ‘True Friendship’
- 6 Australia and Japan: Mobilising the Bilateral Relationship
- 7 Australia and Europe
- 8 Australia’s Strategic and Commercial Engagement with South Asia under Kevin Rudd: The Paradoxes
- 9 Australia, the Pacific Islands and Timor-Leste
- 10 Progress and Limits in Regional Cooperation: Australia and Southeast Asia
- 11 Australian Foreign Policy towards Africa
- 12 Plus Ça Change? The Coalition, Labor and the Challenges of Environmental Foreign Policy
- 13 The Australia 2020 Summit as an Experiment in Foreign Policy-making
- 14 Defence and Security
- 15 Australia’s Foreign Policy Machinery
- 16 Regional, Alliance and Global Priorities of the Rudd–Gillard Governments
- References
- Index
Summary
The closeness of the John Howard and George W Bush administrations is a commonplace of commentary on that era; one uncritical account even describes the relationship between the two countries and leaders as a ‘partnership’, although Howard only appeared three times in the former president’s memoirs, published in 2010. Prime Minister Howard’s invocation of the ANZUS (Australia New Zealand United States) Treaty in 2001, his determination to participate in the Iraq invasion and occupation, and his scepticism on anthropogenic climate change were all of a piece with the mood that prevailed in Washington. In February 2007, US Vice-President Dick Cheney visited Australia expressly to record Washington’s gratitude for Australia’s consistent role in the ‘global war on terror’. So close was Howard’s identification with Bush that his judgment of what bounds should be observed in commentary on domestic US politics was compromised. Thus in February 2007 he took the unprecedented step of criticising presidential candidate Barack Obama’s strategy on Iraq by claiming it served the interests of al Qaeda.
Keywords
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- Australia in World Affairs 2006–2010Middle Power Dreaming, pp. 46 - 61Publisher: Cambridge University PressFirst published in: 2024