Australia must be better prepared to meet the growing challenges of an increasingly unstable global strategic environment, Senator Russell Trood said today.

Speaking ahead of the launch today of his Lowy Institute paper on The Emerging Global Order: Australian foreign policy in the 21st century, Senator Trood said Australia faced a world of complex change with deepening threats to its national interests.

In the paper, Senator Trood says that Australia has the capacity to meet these dangers, as long as it is well prepared and undertakes effective reform.

“Overall, the Howard government’s foreign policy record is an impressive one: it should cause neither embarrassment nor a rush to abandonment. Even so, it would be foolish not to recognise that it had weaknesses, not least over climate change and the intervention in Iraq.”

“As Liberals go into opposition, now is the time for a comprehensive reassessment, for the strengths of the Party’s policy to be affirmed and for its shortcomings to be acknowledged frankly and openly as the process of policy development looks forward to the many international challenges ahead.”

In the paper, Senator Trood argues that Australia should adopt a strategy of selective global activism as a foundation of its foreign policy.

“With limited national capabilities and lacking the means to protect all of its potential interests simultaneously, Australian has little choice but to act selectively, establish clear policy priorities and commit diplomatic, military and economic resources as appropriate”.

In his paper Senator Trood makes ten policy recommendations, including the need for increased funding for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade; developing a comprehensive national security strategy; better integration of policy outputs; and the creation of an independent National Security Office.