Friends and Allies

When it became clear that Australia’s Labor Party had won yesterday’s election, one of the first things apparent prime minister-elect Kevin Rudd did was declare that he would withdraw most Australian troops from Iraq. But first he reassured George Bush that Labor would not leave “our American mates in the lurch.” A withdrawal will occur over time, not precipitously. Some troops will stay, and Australian warships will remain in the Persian Gulf. Australia will continue to maintain troops in Afghanistan and may even increase the number. Before any thing happens Mr. Rudd will travel to Washington to discuss his plans. He wants US officials and politicians to understand that the American alliance remains central to Australian security strategy. In fact our traditional alliances around the world look pretty solid. They should. For a number of our partners we have been the only substantive and reliable ally since WWII. Japan is a case in point. Recent elections forced a step backward when a law was not renewed allowing Japanese naval vessels to refuel American ships in the Indian Ocean. But that is more a sign of Japanese dependence on the US than of stress in the relationship. Japan’s constitutional self defense provision restricts military operations to just that, self defense. “Collective” defense is not allowed. The provision can be overridden but it takes a special law every time. The inherent pacifism has been very popular in Japan but with North Korea lobbing missiles over Japanese territory and China making incursions into Japanese waters the pressure is on to strengthen the military relationship with the US, not loosen it. New Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda was in Washington two weeks ago calling America Japan’s “one and only ally.” He also promised to renew the refueling act. And so it goes. French President Nicholas Sarkozy was at the White House earlier this month expressly to highlight warmer ties that had cooled under his predecessor. He then went down Pennsylvania Avenue and spoke to Congress for the same purpose. German Chancellor Angela Merkel spent that weekend at George Bush’s ranch outside Crawford, Texas. Turkey’s Recep Tayyen Erdogan was just here too. He has shown remarkable restraint as Kurdish nationalists stage raids into Turkey from Iraq. In no small measure he wants to avoid making things even more difficult for Americans. It’s been a busy month for allies. Not that any of them are about to fall in line with the US on every issue and we have our differences with all of them. The war in Iraq is one reason Australia has a new prime minister. Japan is a somewhat reluctant participant in six party talks with North Korea partly because of fears that the issue of civilian kidnappings by North Korea will be swept under the rug. France has always been a prickly pear for an ally and that isn’t likely to change. Things got really ugly with both France and Germany during the dust up over Iraq. Still, as the conventional wisdom has it, we do need allies. What many of the cognoscenti seem to miss however is that our allies need us even more. There just isn’t anybody else they can rely on in time of trouble. As the world becomes ever more integrated the importance of secure trade routes and oil supplies becomes more critical. Nuclear proliferation is a greater danger. A global pandemic is a looming threat. Any serious effort to deal with a warming climate will require a level of international cooperation we’ve never seen before and with some not so traditional allies. None of these issues can be effectively addressed without American participation and even leadership. Our tradition of military to military contact, joint exercises, and relationship building will be a tremendous asset as we deal with an emerging new order. The good news is we aren’t the only ones who recognize the importance. We have a lot of friends. We’re going to need some new ones. So is everybody else.