As we approach the November midterm elections, Joe Biden's presidency, the control of Congress and the future course of America's democracy are all at a crossroads. What is the outlook for both parties in the midterms, and what is at stake for President Biden and the balance of his first term? What are the prospects for a Republican-controlled Congress and what will be their agenda? What could all this mean for the 2024 presidential and congressional elections? What should Australians look for ...
May 11, 2022•59 min•Ep. 123
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and brazen aggression represent the worst military aggression in Europe for decades. It is also the most blatant breach of international law and state sovereignty on the European continent in a generation, which has, in turn, highlighted the importance of NATO’s core task of defence and deterrence. The aftermaths of the 24 February invasion will have irrevocable consequences for transatlantic security and priorities. Yet, even before this, there were multiple growing...
Apr 06, 2022•58 min•Ep. 122
In addition to fomenting sweeping international condemnation, Russia’s recent invasion of Ukraine appears to have convinced key US allies in Europe to increase defence spending to levels that US presidents of all political persuasions have requested for decades. For its part, Australia committed lethal aid to Ukraine and embraced economic sanctions against Russia while Prime Minister Morrison said “nothing is off the table” for future Australian support. But what are the broader implications of ...
Apr 06, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 121
The US Constitution mandates the president “shall from time to time give Congress information of the State of the Union”, which has now become an annual address from the sitting president. This is an opportunity for the president to make their case – celebrating successes so far and setting the policy trajectory for the year ahead. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi invited President Biden to give his first State of the Union Address on 1 March 2022. Facing dwindling poll numbers and an acrimoniously di...
Mar 01, 2022•57 min•Ep. 120
Challenges the United States faces with China and Russia are frequently, and adamantly, argued to either constitute a new Cold War or not. Leading historian and former Pentagon advisor, Hal Brands, takes a different approach altogether in his new book, The Twilight Struggle: What the Cold War Teaches Us about Great Power Rivalry Today. He posits that regardless of the accuracy of Cold War comparisons, the United States should look to the history of the Cold War for lessons in how to succeed in g...
Feb 14, 2022•59 min•Ep. 119
On the one-year anniversary of President Biden’s inauguration, experts from the United States Studies Centre (USSC) will give their take on what to expect in US politics and policy in 2022. President Biden’s supporters posit that, in passing the American Rescue Plan Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, he has already accomplished more first-year legislative wins than any president in generations. Yet amid questions of competence following the chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal, inflat...
Jan 24, 2022•1 hr•Ep. 118
After a year beset by a pandemic, civil unrest, and political turmoil, the January 6 attack on the US Capitol began 2021 with the first major attack on American soil since the falling of the twin towers some 20 years before. What are the sources of US political dissolution and division and the resulting implications for Australia? What is the connection between the lives of individual Americans and the dysfunction that characterises Washington? What explains the seismic shifts in the politics an...
Dec 21, 2021•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 117
Martin Indyk has written a landmark book, Master of the Game: Henry Kissinger and the Art of Middle East Diplomacy, on the Mideast diplomacy of Henry Kissinger, Secretary of State to presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. Indyk’s exceptional and forensic study of diplomatic records along with personal discussions with Kissinger on those events – all informed further by Indyk’s unique insights from his own decades of involvement in the search for peace in the Middle East under presidents Bill ...
Dec 14, 2021•1 hr•Ep. 116
Technological advancements that are being exploited for military and security purposes present both new opportunities for militaries around the world, as well as new threats that can emanate from both state and non-state actors. Emerging and disruptive technologies (EDT) are also a key facet of the NATO 2030 initiative and an integral part of the discussions leading to NATO’s new Strategic Concept. The alliance has recently taken decisive steps to retain its technological edge by enabling invest...
Dec 09, 2021•58 min•Ep. 115
For the past 30 years, Australia has supported inclusive regional security and economic multilateral institutions as a way of entrenching the United States’ role in Asia. With US-China competition intensifying, institutions such as the East Asia Summit (EAS) and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) are coming under new pressure. Yet even as new narrower groupings such as the Quad take form, the region's established multilateral institutions will remain key forums in the competition for regio...
Dec 06, 2021•59 min•Ep. 114
With a Democratic president and Democratic control of the House of Representatives and Senate, the Democratic Party currently holds a rare government trifecta. Yet less than a year since grabbing power, President Biden is staring down the prospect of Democrats legislators derailing their president’s legislative agenda. What happened the last time Democrats controlled Congress and the White House under President Obama? How are the successes and failures from that period shaping the Biden administ...
Oct 29, 2021•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 113
The United States Studies Centre and Asia Society Australia co-hosted a panel discussion on America’s Indo-Pacific strategy under President Joe Biden. The Indo-Pacific is the new global centre of strategic rivalry. President Biden has sought to shore up alliances in the region and ease strained relationships caused by his predecessor. His administration has doubled down on regional partnerships such as the Quad to counter China’s growing assertiveness. The announcement of the AUKUS partnership w...
Oct 21, 2021•59 min•Ep. 112
Policy issues at the intersection of international security and international economics loom increasingly large for Australian and US policymakers. The alliance’s shift from economic engagement to rivalry towards China has reframed international and domestic economic policy settings in light of the security concerns presented by China’s growing power and influence. Unprecedented attention now turns toward geoeconomic statecraft, the use of economic policy instruments to further geopolitical, for...
Oct 21, 2021•59 min•Ep. 111
Amid sharpening strategic competition with China in the Indo-Pacific, the Biden administration has proposed the concept of ‘integrated deterrence’ as a cornerstone for US defence strategy. By collaborating more closely with US allies and partners, and by more effectively combining military and non-military instruments of national power, Washington hopes this new approach will deter Beijing’s use of coercion across a wide spectrum of competition. But what exactly does ‘integrated deterrence’ mean...
Oct 15, 2021•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 110
During the 2020 presidential campaign, then-candidate Joe Biden famously predicted that a loss by President Trump in the November 2020 election would force Republicans to have an “epiphany” and turn away from Trump. This prediction was not dissimilar from President Obama’s comments during the 2012 presidential election, in which Obama predicted “I believe that if we’re successful in this election, when we’re successful in this election, that the fever may break…because there’s a tradition in the...
Oct 07, 2021•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 109
Recent years have seen the unravelling of some of the landmark arms control treaties, compounded with growing strategic competition between major powers and increases in military spending. This inevitably places arms control high on the agenda, including in the framework of NATO 2030. In 2019, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said “arms control is in NATO’s DNA”. This talk discussed NATO’s approach to arms control, disarmament, and non-proliferation and the role for arms control in NATO’s...
Sep 28, 2021•58 min•Ep. 108
The United States Studies Centre hosted a virtual address and in-conversation event with Senator the Hon Penny Wong to launch the United States Studies Centre report “Correcting the course: How the Biden administration should compete for influence in the Indo-Pacific.” Senator Wong delivered her remarks on “Australia's contribution to American engagement in the Indo-Pacific” in the wake of this month’s announcement of the AUKUS pact, the 70th anniversary of the ANZUS Treaty and the Australia-US ...
Sep 23, 2021•1 hr•Ep. 107
The next Australia-United States Ministerial Consultation (AUSMIN) will take place later this month amidst sharpening strategic competition with China and rising concerns about the direction of Biden’s Indo-Pacific strategy. This meeting between foreign and defence ministers is a critical opportunity for the Australia-US alliance to embark on more ambitious efforts to uphold a stable, open and prosperous regional order. Competing for influence within the Indo-Pacific should be at the top of the ...
Sep 14, 2021•59 min•Ep. 106
This year marks 20 years since the September 11, 2001 terror attacks on the United States, the precursor to US-led military operations in Afghanistan, joined by Australia. For the two decades, counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency in theatres far from both the US and Australian mainlands was the dominant, operational focus of the Australia-US alliance. Now both Australia and the United States look to focus the Alliance much closer to Australia, the Australia-US alliance a key element in a net...
Sep 10, 2021•1 hr•Ep. 105
As Australia and the United States commemorate the 70th anniversary of their alliance, the alliance agenda is burgeoning, matching the pace and breath of geostrategic change in the Indo-Pacific, accompanied by constant innovation in ways nation states project power and influence. China’s economic coercion of Australia is a telling case in point, figuring prominently in recent remarks from US senior officials. But where and how does geoeconomic competition fit in the Australia-US alliance agenda?...
Sep 09, 2021•59 min•Ep. 104
September 1, 2021 marks 70 years since the ANZUS Treaty was signed in San Francisco in 1951, the first major international treaty Australia entered independent of the British government. Today, the alliance between Australia and the United States — and the deep, long-standing channels of trust and cooperation it has fostered — is being tasked with more issues and with more urgency than at any point in its 70-year history. Both John Howard and Julia Gillard presided over critical phases of change...
Sep 02, 2021•1 hr 22 min•Ep. 103
As a refugee from South Vietnam when he was four years old Professor Viet Thanh Nguyen’s work explores the convergence between politics and literature. The Sympathizer, his thriller about a communist double-agent won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2016. The United States Studies Centre was honoured to have Professor Nguyen deliver the first-ever American Cultures Lecture. The lecture by Aerol Arnold Chair of English at the University of Southern California Professor Viet Thanh Nguyen was foll...
Aug 27, 2021•1 hr•Ep. 102
As it celebrates its 70th anniversary, the Australia-US alliance continues to evolve in response to a changing regional context in the Indo-Pacific. How do Australia’s neighbours in Southeast Asia understand the purpose of the alliance in 2021? Is the alliance seen as limiting Australia’s autonomy, or enhancing its influence? Is the alliance seen as distracting Australia from engaging its neighbours, or as contributing to regional security? This event explored how various trends, including the e...
Aug 21, 2021•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 101
2020 will be remembered as one of the most tumultuous years in American history. COVID-19 tested every country, every government and every political leader in the world. But with the pandemic arriving as Donald Trump launched his campaign for re-election, the world watched aghast as the United States lost more than 500,000 of its citizens to COVID. From hydroxychloroquine and bleach, to making hostility to masks and social distancing emblems of partisanship, Trump’s last year as president was ma...
Aug 18, 2021•1 hr•Ep. 100
The United States Studies Centre and Perth USAsia Centre host a monthly web series reviewing the latest in US politics and policy and what this means for Australia. This month our guest was Ambassador Jane Hardy, who has joined the United States Studies Centre as a Visiting Senior Fellow from the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. She most recently served as Consul-General in Honolulu from 2018 to 2021 during which time she led Australia’s engagement with US Indo-Pacific Command...
Aug 06, 2021•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 99
The United States Studies Centre and Perth USAsia Centre host a monthly web series reviewing the latest in US politics and policy and what this means for Australia. This month hosts Simon Jackman and Gordon Flake were joined by guests Dr Victoria A. Farrar-Myers, a dedicated civic leader, an award-winning educator and a distinguished scholar; and Professor Valerie Hudson, the George H.W. Bush Chair in the Department of International Affairs at The Bush School of Government and Public Service at ...
Jul 05, 2021•1 hr•Ep. 98
Cybersecurity, defence innovation and climate change in the military are all on the agenda for NATO’s Brussels Summit on 14 June. But with NATO placing unprecedented attention on the Indo-Pacific, what are the summit’s implications for Australia? What will NATO's defence innovations mean for the Indo-Pacific? How can Australia work with NATO to strengthen cyber defences? USSC hosted a webinar event with NATO’s Director for Security Policy and Partnerships Directorate, Political Affairs and Secur...
Jun 30, 2021•1 hr•Ep. 97
No campaign promise, rumour mill or day one executive order is as revelatory of a US president’s strategic intentions than the men and women they trust to guide them. A president’s Cabinet and key policy advisors have the extraordinary power of controlling the day-to-day decisions of the federal government. In essence, ‘personnel is policy’ and, as such, the key players of the Biden administration say a lot about the next four years of American politics. How does Antony Blinken’s upbringing by r...
Jun 22, 2021•59 min•Ep. 96
In the midst of the biggest pandemic in a century, Sky News Host Annelise Nielsen headed to the epicentre – the United States. Bringing a cameraman she ventured into the heart of the 2020 election to talk directly to citizens to understand the people behind the political polarisation. Why were Americans so much more divided over mask mandates than Australians? How many people truly believe the 2020 election was stolen? What has changed since President Biden took office? This month’s US Politics ...
Jun 07, 2021•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 95
Geoeconomic threats to American primacy are prompting the Biden administration to explicitly connect domestic recovery to external strength, with reviews of supply chains and strategic, government-led investments to secure US technological supremacy. Given increasing threats to the rules-based order, it is imperative that Australia and the US work together to reinforce a secure Indo-Pacific economy. How can Australia work together with the Biden administration to manage geoeconomics, contestatio...
May 19, 2021•59 min•Ep. 94
