An Interview with Peter Jennings, Executive Director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI)

31 Oct 2013

This month, we speak with Peter Jennings, who is the Executive Director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI). As he first explains it, the Institute has a core mission, which is to provide the Australian government with fresh thinking on its defense and strategic policy options, and a secondary obligation, which is to shape and inform public discussions on the options being considered. Will ASPI’s recently launched International Cyber Policy Centre also fulfill this dual charter? According to Mr. Jennings, the answer is a resounding ‘yes’. The Centre will function as a dialogue-promoting forum for the Australian government, the country’s business community, and the general public to grapple with a wide array of cyber-related issues and problems. After further elaborating on the Centre and its purposes, Mr. Jennings closes the interview by reviewing Australia’s changing strategic position in the Asia-Pacific region, and by speculating on what impact the newly installed government in Canberra will have on the country’s security and defense policies.

ASPI’s aim is twofold – first, to provide the Australian government with fresh ideas on how to shape its strategic policy and defense options, and then to drive public discussions about possible ways ahead. Why is the latter so important to ASPI’s mission and how does ASPI engage in dialogue with the public?

We aim to drive public debate on defence and security issues because we believe that providing a vigorous marketplace for ideas will yield the best policy outcomes for Australia. There are some great minds in Australia on these issues, not just in the Defence Department and not just in ASPI. To make sure we tap into them, we’ve really boosted our accessible content—that includes making sure our work is freely available online, building our profile on social media, and setting up our new blog, external pageThe Strategist, which has already attracted almost half a million views on our site. Combined with our presence in ‘old media’, we are leading from the front on the defence and security dialogue, and we look forward to the public’s growing participation in it.

ASPI recently launched its International Cyber Policy Centre (ICPC). Why did you establish it and what are its key aims?

Good strategic policy is all about keeping ourselves safe, both in Australia and the wider international community. In recent years cybersecurity threats have outpaced the analyses that have been performed to cope with them. It’s a real gap in global security thinking, not only because of the damage that could be done by cyberattacks themselves, but because of the way that cyber threats can aggravate tensions in other areas. We set up the external pageInternational Cyber Policy Centre to help bridge this gap. The Centre’s work will focus on 1) identifying cyber-related risks to Australians and others, 2) providing valuable, practicable policy solutions to help lower these risks, and 3) educating different publics and governments about our results. Thus far, we’ve had a great response to the ICPC, not only by the government and private sector here in Australia, but also in our region.

How has Australia’s strategic environment changed in recent years? What, in your opinion, are the main opportunities and challenges facing your country in the near future?

In the last few years, the world’s grand strategic focus has shifted from the Middle East to Asia. It’s been propelled by Asia’s growing economic power, which is linked to decades of regional-level peace, and by the refocusing of American foreign and security policy to the Asia-Pacific region. Being at the centre of this global shift has provided fantastic opportunities for Australia. Our strong economic ties with China, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, for example, have helped us keep our economy healthy and growing even during the global financial crisis. In turn, The US’s realignment towards Asia has enabled us to deepen our already close relationship with this key ally, but not at the expense of cultivating stronger ties with the other countries I just mentioned. So, Australia has a big and important challenge on its hand –i.e., influencing and adapting to Asia’s ‘Big Economies’ while also considering the interests of a very big extra-regional actor. In the first case, I might add, I can see us recasting our future relations with increasingly powerful partners such as Indonesia.

In September, Australians voted for a new prime minister and a new conservative government. What are the implications of these changes for Australia’s defence and security policy?

Tony Abbott, the head of the new Coalition government here in Australia, has used 'More Jakarta Less Geneva' as his catch phrase on foreign policy. We’ll have to wait and see what that means in practice, but it looks as though he intends to put the focus back on Australia’s immediate neighbourhood. Mr Abbott, for example, has been more measured in his support for Western military intervention in Syria than his predecessor, Kevin Rudd, and that probably reflects a deeper scepticism about participating in deployments far from home. The new PM will also visit partners in Asia, including Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, and China before he goes to Washington or London. That too is a reflection on the increased importance Australia is now placing on bilateral relationships in the region. In the case of defence, the big question is whether Canberra’s new political coalition will make good on their promise to push Australian defence spending back up to 2% of GDP within 10 years.