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After America: Vantage Point Issue 1
Big Ideas in Small Packages
Australian political leaders have bent the knee at the altar of American global leadership for decades, placing the ANZUS treaty at the centre of the nation's security. AUKUS has become the latest symbol of strategic solidarity. For Australia's governments, of whatever political persuasion, America continues to define the global rules-based order. Now that the American people have elected Donald Trump as the forty-seventh president, how will his presidency affect Australia's foreign policy, trade, climate action and approach to human rights? More importantly, will Australia be able to act in its own interests, or will it simply defer to Trump's idea of America?
Dr Emma Shortis draws on her long-standing research on America's place in the world, her discussions with some of Australia's most prominent policy-makers and commentators and her experience in America in the final days of the election campaign, to develop a picture of how the world is changing with a second Trump presidency and what choices Australia has in determining its own future.
Australian political leaders have bent the knee at the altar of American global leadership for decades, placing the ANZUS treaty at the centre of the nation's security. AUKUS has become the latest symbol of strategic solidarity. For Australia's governments, of whatever political persuasion, America continues to define the global rules-based order. Now that the American people have elected Donald Trump as the forty-seventh president, how will his presidency affect Australia's foreign policy, trade, climate action and approach to human rights? More importantly, will Australia be able to act in its own interests, or will it simply defer to Trump's idea of America?
Dr Emma Shortis draws on her long-standing research on America's place in the world, her discussions with some of Australia's most prominent policy-makers and commentators and her experience in America in the final days of the election campaign, to develop a picture of how the world is changing with a second Trump presidency and what choices Australia has in determining its own future.
130 pages, Paperback
Published April 29, 2025
1 person is currently reading
16 people want to read
About the author
Emma Shortis
3 books2 followersDr Emma Shortis is Director of the International & Security Affairs Program at The Australia Institute. Emma is a historian and writer, focused on the history and politics of the United States and its role in the world. Emma’s first book, Our Exceptional Friend: Australia’s Fatal Alliance with the United States, was published by Hardie Grant in 2021. Before joining The Australia Institute, Emma was a Lecturer at RMIT University, where her academic work focused on international relations and climate transition. Before that, she spent a year in the United States as Fox-Zucker International Fellow at Yale University, where she finished her PhD in History.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
May 14, 2025
A laconic text that challenges what Australia’s global relationships and defence relationships should look like in the future. Specifically, it challenges the assumption that Australian sovereignty is built upon US Foreign policy.
Shortis cogently walks us through the short-comings of the formation of AUKUS, the precarious assumptions it’s built upon and the impact this deal has upon Australia’s military relationship with America. Specifically, bringing us from interoperability to interchangeability.
I would’ve liked to have seen more of an extrapolation of what Australia’s defence would look like without America, what our current threats or believed threats are and what good diplomacy and international relationships could look like for Australia’s defence. I think relationships are powerful and essential, like the EU, and I would argue they don’t necessarily extinguish sovereignty.
Shortis’ radical evaluation is necessary to challenge our underlying assumptions of our relationship with the US. relationships and contexts shift, and the values of our partners change. We cannot continue behaving as if they haven’t.
Shortis cogently walks us through the short-comings of the formation of AUKUS, the precarious assumptions it’s built upon and the impact this deal has upon Australia’s military relationship with America. Specifically, bringing us from interoperability to interchangeability.
I would’ve liked to have seen more of an extrapolation of what Australia’s defence would look like without America, what our current threats or believed threats are and what good diplomacy and international relationships could look like for Australia’s defence. I think relationships are powerful and essential, like the EU, and I would argue they don’t necessarily extinguish sovereignty.
Shortis’ radical evaluation is necessary to challenge our underlying assumptions of our relationship with the US. relationships and contexts shift, and the values of our partners change. We cannot continue behaving as if they haven’t.
May 9, 2025
Liked the review of the contemporary politics. But the Shortis’s advice at the end was your typical liberal dribble, not very imaginative. But can’t expect anything revolutionary from the Australia Institute. Let’s be a real friend, bring out the best in each other, we got agency! We do have agency, but are limited within these bourgeois benefiting institutions. Either we need to build structures that can arrival pre-existing ones, that motivates everyday people to act in they best interest that is pro social, solidarity building. But nay, the Left today is disorganised, in-fighting, and small for that. And in the past it has just helped create what we see in front of us, been co-op-ed into the state, been bamboozled by the state, dilutes itself into liberalism, or killed itself by in-fighting. The other possibility is Green authoritarianism which is terrifying onto itself, but hey the human race might be able to continue. But the shape of it, who knows.
Let’s see some Asset-management Socialism or Moral economy Democratic Confederalism!!!!
Let’s see some Asset-management Socialism or Moral economy Democratic Confederalism!!!!
May 9, 2025
Anything written by this author is well worth a read. This is no exception. A short, accessible page turner, only slightly dated since the election outcome, but highly effective in summarising the implications of accepting that "security" should mean "human security" not just defence.
The sections on AUKUS, climate change and human security are standouts, with the author being one of the most effective writers on these topics
That said, a disjointed few critiques:
The section on the US election effectively sanewashes Trump's recent election. This is a problem I've found with most coverage - the idea of a convicted, twice impeached former president who had previously attempted a coup is not normal, yet the vast majority of coverage of the 2024 US Presidential election earnestly insists this should fall into a standard frame of voters and issues analysis. This essay is no different - arguing specifically that the Democrat position on Gaza was mostly to blame. Like, sure, maybe? But the point seems to miss the forest from the trees. While there is some reference to this, with Project 2025 coming up later, Trump is framed as "cleverly downplaying" (p75) this, rather than blatantly lying, which I think shows my broader point that the essay's treatment of the presidential election is too much sanewashing.
The section on Trump and foreign policy also seemed to slightly miss a beat. The most profound effect of Trump worth exploring, I think, has been the rejection and breakdown of international norms and the role and relevant of international institutions, like the UN, WTO etc. There's limited treatment of this, which would've been a nice complement to the section on Gaza, Greenland, Canada and Russia.
Finally, the section on Albanese's first term accepts the dominant narrative that it was a government that didnt tackle structural reform or big change. I know this is the trendy narrative but it's also wrong. For one example, look at the transformation of Australia's energy sector, the Made in Australia agenda, the Solar Sunshot, National Battery Strategy. Yes, the transformation may have attracted little fanfare, but this is HUGE - to have created significant change in the structure and incentives around energy in Australia with little more than a ripple is exceptional. There's several sectors like this - think for example of the replacement of the AAT with the ART and, for all its defects, the federal ICAC. It was a shame to see this narrative repeated uncritically in this essay.
A good read, though, and one I'll come back to
The sections on AUKUS, climate change and human security are standouts, with the author being one of the most effective writers on these topics
That said, a disjointed few critiques:
The section on the US election effectively sanewashes Trump's recent election. This is a problem I've found with most coverage - the idea of a convicted, twice impeached former president who had previously attempted a coup is not normal, yet the vast majority of coverage of the 2024 US Presidential election earnestly insists this should fall into a standard frame of voters and issues analysis. This essay is no different - arguing specifically that the Democrat position on Gaza was mostly to blame. Like, sure, maybe? But the point seems to miss the forest from the trees. While there is some reference to this, with Project 2025 coming up later, Trump is framed as "cleverly downplaying" (p75) this, rather than blatantly lying, which I think shows my broader point that the essay's treatment of the presidential election is too much sanewashing.
The section on Trump and foreign policy also seemed to slightly miss a beat. The most profound effect of Trump worth exploring, I think, has been the rejection and breakdown of international norms and the role and relevant of international institutions, like the UN, WTO etc. There's limited treatment of this, which would've been a nice complement to the section on Gaza, Greenland, Canada and Russia.
Finally, the section on Albanese's first term accepts the dominant narrative that it was a government that didnt tackle structural reform or big change. I know this is the trendy narrative but it's also wrong. For one example, look at the transformation of Australia's energy sector, the Made in Australia agenda, the Solar Sunshot, National Battery Strategy. Yes, the transformation may have attracted little fanfare, but this is HUGE - to have created significant change in the structure and incentives around energy in Australia with little more than a ripple is exceptional. There's several sectors like this - think for example of the replacement of the AAT with the ART and, for all its defects, the federal ICAC. It was a shame to see this narrative repeated uncritically in this essay.
A good read, though, and one I'll come back to
May 24, 2025
Although this book presented nothing new to me (as I’m an avid follower of Australian and international politics), it is well written. Presenting details in layman’s terms for a potential reader new to the nauseating details of Australia’s relationship with the United States, Emma Shortis is to be commended for handling the topic with aplomb. I hope more Australians take heed and act accordingly. 🤞🏻
July 31, 2025
Dr Emma Shortis has a PhD in International Studies and is the Director of International Affairs and Security Affairs Program at the Australia Institute. I bought this slim book after her talk here about a month ago. I also heard her speak on the topic at two panels of this years Writers Week. After a short introduction on how the American people came to choose Trump and who is, she outlines in 10 brief chapters on the need for the political leaders of this country to do a radical rethink and alignment of outlook for how to make the world a safer place and a need for bold new ideas and action on same, much as we had under previous bold leaders of both political persuasions. She points out why AUKUS is such a bad deal and will have Australia pay billions of dollars to the US for a wing and a prayer that submarines may be delivered or not and if they are they will be under the command of the US military.She dives into the disaster of the policies that took effect within days and weeks of Trump's inauguration; from putting the brakes on all climate actions, speeding up the pumping of oil and natural gas, to turning off important data sets the world relies on for tracking the climate changes already happening, to cutting off foreign food aid, causing tens of thousands of deaths within weeks, and on and on. She points out that the reason Harris lost is because of that lack of a clear progressive message and empathy for the unfolding humanitarian crisis in the Middle East. This is a deep read into how the World is now and where Australia needs to go - an immediate about face on many policies - to go harder on climate, realign our defense strategy, and more. I read this in 2 days and if appointments hadn't gotten in the way I could have read it in one day. A must read for those who want to get a good understanding beyond the short film clips on the evening news.
October 11, 2025
5 ⭐️
Finished reading ... After America: Australia and the new world order / Emma Shortis ..... 05 October, 2025
Series: Vantage Point Issue 1
ISBN: 9781763662131 .... 105 pp. + Endnotes (which are references, only need to be checked if you want to follow up a particular point)
After America is insightful, informative, and brief.
It explains why Australia's so-called security at the hands of the US is no security at all. Security is more than the absence of war - we do at least look at climate change but rarely as a security issue – and our efforts are dreadful anyway. Other issues we simply ignore or tinker around the edges.
Shortis demonstrates we could do much better, spending no more, even less money. She shows how the current situation is both harmful and undemocratic, cloaked in secrecy and lacking transparency, as it is. We need to take a different path and we have the ability to do so.
But do we have the will and the imagination?
I for one certainly hope so – Trump and the US have only got crazier and way more dangerous in the relatively short time since this essay was published.
Do read it!
Even more highly recommended: read it in conjunction with Dead Centre: Vantage Point Issue 2 by Richard Denniss, ISBN: 9781763662148
October 4, 2025
3.75. This is certainly an interesting one. I only bought it about a month ago and have only just gotten around to reading it, so the information is slightly dated, but when isn't anything Trump related? As interesting as the insights in this chapter were, I felt the Biden/Harris section could have been shortened in favour of further discussion about China and Australia's relationship in comparison to the US, which I thought was a unique and interesting point I hadn't seen made elsewhere, as well as being more on topic. Either way, was a pretty good and interesting read.
June 9, 2025
Sobering analysis. I cannot understand from a population of 335 million, Donald Trump was elected.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews