The Return of Great Powers: Russia, China, and the Next World War

by Jim Sciutto

Australian leaders had previously calculated their future was equally as a citizen of Asia as of the West—and they had tweaked their country’s trade and defense policies accordingly. Yes, China was authoritarian, but there was no questioning its growing economic and military power in the region. Better to get along. But Beijing had overplayed its hand, interfering in Australian politics and, when displeased with Australian trade and foreign policy, applying economic pressure by reducing purchases of Australian exports. By entering AUKUS, Australia threw its lot in fully with the US and the West—and the US and the West gained a powerful new means of projecting power in the region with a weapon, the fearsome nuclear submarine, that is seen as more and more likely to determine the outcome of any future military conflict among the great powers. By late September 2022, as The Wall Street Journal first reported,[49] the Biden administration was considering a plan to speed up the delivery of nuclear submarines to Australia in response to growing Chinese military aggression in the region.