The other special relationship: Australia

special relations

Israel stands out for the scale of U.S support and exposure, and domestic resonance of the relationship

Britian- constant intelligence flows and myriad instances of joint action

Australia- indo-pacific

2021 AUKUS

Cements Australia place in the innermost circle of the U.S alliance system

Core team of camp Smith outside of Pearl Harbor

Meeting Australian and brit- integrated into analytical and command function of Americas largest combatant command

“Five Eyes” grouping of five WW2 allies

US, UK, CANADA, AUS,NZ continue to share highly compartmentalized intelligence even after the war ended

Highly secret signals intelligence collection programs like ECHELON

In part throuhg the joint US-Australia Pine Gap satellite facility

Due to Australia geographical position it has hosted/ co-hosted vital U.S military installations

Naval Communication Station Harold E. Holt, 1974 became a shared facility iwth an AUS deputy commander

Cost of AUKUS to AUstralia

268 billion to 368 billion between now and mid 2050

AUstralias near-total dependence on sea based imports

Imports more than 90% of its oil, world’s largest exporter of iron ore

AUKUS Increase odds that China would target Australia?

Odds were already high but at least now Australia is making important contribution the maritime sphere domain to deter