Rudd's new Asian community

[Jovial Monk]

His idea was received fairly coolly originally, but twelve months work by the veteran diplomat Richard Woolcott appointed by Rudd to press for the community and a global recession hitting their economies has changed all that. A nuclear bomb and missile testing defiant North Korea also helped!

So much so that Rudd was asked to address the Shangri La security conference which had always been the role of the Singaporean PM, quite an honor. Still a long way to go, but encouraging nevertheless. Kudos are no doubt also due to our Foreign Minister Stephen Smith who may be a bit colorless but a clear thinker and developer of policy.

Poor Stephen is a bit overshadowed by the PM, just like under Howard the Fib Defence Ministers joked they were just Assistant Defence Ministers to the real Minister, the PM.

Smith and Rudd are raising our profile world wide and that is a good thing.

[JW Frogen]

Foreign governments and Prime Ministers announce a lot of initiatives in their time, handholding is part of the theater of governance, but what tangible benifits have been received for Australia?

The problem is Asia is not a community, either culturally, in religion, philosophically, politically, and ethnically. The one possible binding force is economics and even the power and attraction of that force seems to have no lure for much of the Asian Islamic world.

China and Japan will have increasing tension has China grows in military strength, as will China and India. China will continue to pressure democratic Taiwan. Many Asian Islamic communities will seek greater autonomy from the countries they reside in, such as the Philippians or Thailand and those countries such as Australia and Japan with strong ties to the US will continue to balance that relationship with any sense of “Asian” identity they have.

The problem with the concept of an “Asian Community” is there is really no community to be had.

Only shifting alliances and interests.