Abstract
The East Timor crisis presented Australia with a unique opportunity to act like a real regional middle power. For a long time Australia has been a middle power with small power pretensions. East Timor made Australia step up to the plate and actually lead. For years Australia really didnt want to lead: it simply wanted the problem to go away. There are some important lessons in this for Australia today, because for the 14 years or so since 9/11, with a couple of exceptionsnotably the response to terrorist bombings in Indonesia and the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004the Australian Defence Force has been distracted by events in the Middle East.
Original language | English |
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Pages | Online |
No. | Online |
Specialist publication | The Strategist |
Publication status | Published - 2015 |