High-Level Strategy

Abstract

Gjessing assesses the high-level strategic choices made by the UK and Australia between 1945–75 in this Chapter. Both nations gravitated to the USA for purposes of national security but strategic ties were still maintained between Britain and Australia throughout the post-war period. Agreements such as the Australia-New Zealand-Malaya agreement (ANZAM) the Far East Strategic Reserve, the Australia-New Zealand-UK treaty (ANZUK), the Five Power Defence Agreements (FPDA) and the South-East Asian Treaty Organisation (SEATO), strengthened or maintained, in varying levels, the bonds between the two Anglo-Australian navies. In contrast, accords such as the Australia-New Zealand-United States treaty (ANZUS) made plain the strategic shift of Australia to the USA. Likewise, the British focus on the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) underlined the importance of that treaty’s importance to the UK and presaged the strategic shift of Britain from its global defence commitments to European/North Atlantic defence.