Blind Spot – Michael Wesley in conversation with Geraldine Doogue

Michael Wesley in conversation with Geraldine Doogue on Quarterly Essay 101: Blind Spot: Southeast Asia and Australia's Future

Australia has forgotten what keeps it safe. So argues Michael Wesley in this sharp and compelling essay about our place in the world.
Southeast Asia is the key to our national security and prosperity. If China dominates the region, as it plans to, Australia will be very vulnerable. So why are we following an American strategy that isolates and alienates us from our neighbours?

Wesley argues that the focus on AUKUS and sticking with Trump is a dangerous distraction. Whereas the United States has little at stake in Southeast Asia, Australia has everything to lose. How did our foreign policy elite become so wedded to the US worldview? What do our Southeast Asian neighbours have to tell us, if only we would listen? Blind Spot is a gripping essay about strategic folly and the future of our region.

“It should be clear that Australia has made the wrong bet: that relying on the US alliance to address the threat of a Chinese-centred Sphere of Deference on its northern doorstep has left it dangerously exposed and unprepared. The nation is arguably at an all-time low in its ability to shape events and attitudes in Southeast Asia.” —Michael Wesley, Blind Spot


Michael Wesley’s books include There Goes the Neighbourhood: Australia and the rise of Asia and Mind of the Nation: Universities in Australian life. He is Professor of Politics and Deputy Vice Chancellor (Global, Culture and Engagement) at the University of Melbourne and was formerly head of the Lowy Institute and dean of ANU’s College of Asia and the Pacific.

Geraldine Doogue has had a long and distinguished career in various arms of Australian journalism. She is currently co-presenter, with Hamish Macdonald, of the podcast/RN program Global Roaming, which focuses each week on international developments that influence Australia’s place in the world. For the previous 18 years Geraldine presented RN’s Saturday Extra, which specialised in foreign policy, regional issues, good books, good travel.