Publication Date: Jun 2019
RRP: $39.95
ISBN: 9781925523522
Format: Paperback
Size: 153mm x 234mm
Pages: 240
Category: Investigating Power

The US Lobby and Australian Defence Policy

Vince Scappatura

Also available as an ebook from your favourite retailer.


‘Vince Scappatura provides some much-needed fresh thinking on Australia’s strategic relationship with the United States. This book would be an important contribution to a rather small and frequently uncritical literature at any time. In the Trump era it is essential reading – especially for those who are likely to disagree with its carefully researched conclusions.’ Mark Beeson


Australian society and its leaders generally take for granted the importance and value of this nation’s relationship with the United States. The US is commonly thought of as the world’s great purveyor of liberal values and the rule of law, and as a powerful friend indispensable to Australian security.

In The US Lobby and Australian Defence Policy Vince Scappatura demonstrates how these conceptions are underpinned by the work of the Australian American Leadership Dialogue, Australia’s most important, private, pro-US lobby group. As the inner workings of this lobby are unveiled for the first time, Scappatura also discusses the considerable costs to Australia of its strong military ties to the US, draws into question notions of “benign” US power, and demonstrates that suggestions of the US keeping Australia safe from invasion are flatly wrong. For Australia’s national security elite, other considerations, to do with power and wealth and spreading political influence, are to the fore.


Vince Scappatura

Vince Scappatura teaches Politics and International Relations at Macquarie University. His research interests include Australian and American foreign policies, the international relations of the Asia-Pacific, and Middle East politics. He is a member of the Independent and Peaceful Australia Network (IPAN)...
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