National Interest in an Increasingly Globalised World

John Farrar, Mary Hiscock and Vai Io Lo

Chapter 18 in Australia's Trade, Investment and Security in the Asian Century, 2015, pp 311-316 from World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.

Abstract: ‘National interest’ is a complex term and has defied successful definition. Like ‘justice’, it can be an emotive term on which opinions differ. This indeterminateness impedes rational debate on foreign policy. In origin, ‘national interest’ is linked with the idea of a nation-state. The problem here is that many modern nations are not states, and many states do not represent nations. Australia was comprised of a number of British colonies, which subsequently joined together in a federation. This is also true of the US, but its revolutionary origins and the passage of time have perhaps melded the former colonies in a way that has not occurred in Australia. In the case of Australia, the colonists invaded land over which indigenous inhabitants had wandered for centuries with no concept of ownership other than a mystical relationship with that land, nor any concept of nationhood or state other than clans or tribes. Whether there is a law of peoples is still highly controversial in international law…

Keywords: Australia; National Interest; Trade and Investment; National Security; Regional Security; Asian Century; Labour and Migration; Financial Stability; Globalisation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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