By: Evan Parkhill, Latareia Maben, Will Morris
Imagine winning the lottery and having the winning ticket stolen by one of your best friends. Then your former best friend starts a new club with the stolen money, invites all of your friends and won’t let you in. This is the case with France and the newly formed AUKUS pact, a trilateral military pact spearheaded by the United States. AUKUS not only caused France to lose a $66 billion USD submarine deal but also compromised international relations in the Indo-Pacific region with China. This pact must be dissolved in order to avoid global recession and a second cold war.
The AUKUS pact is a military alliance intended to promote efficient intelligence sharing between the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia, which most importantly gives Australia access to long-range guided missiles and nuclear-powered submarines to rival that of the Chinese military.
In the joint-announcement with United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson, President Joe Biden described the alliance as necessary to accessing “the most modern capabilities we need — to maneuver and defend against rapidly evolving threats,” indirectly referring to the recent Chinese military buildup.
France originally had a contract to build 12 traditional, diesel-powered submarines for Australia for $66 billion USD in 2016; however, Australia cancelled the deal for eight Australian-built, nuclear-powered submarines with US technology just one day after joining AUKUS.
“It’s really a stab in the back,” France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told France Info radio.
One of the biggest issues with Australia ditching the initial submarine contact with France and joining AUKUS is a matter of back-stabbing an ally and ending a longstanding strategic partnership.
This move caused France to withdraw their ambassadors from both Australia and the United States two days after the pact was announced for consultations regarding the “unacceptable behavior.”
Through joining AUKUS, Australia is enabled to build eight nuclear-powered submarines with technology from the U.S., which adds insult to injury as France has long been considered a world leader in nuclear technology.
Nuclear submarines are faster and more difficult to detect than traditional submarines; they can stay submerged for months and shoot missiles longer distances while carrying more cargo. This will make Australia the seventh nation to have nuclear-powered submarines joining the U.S., U.K., France, China, India and Russia. The only other country to use U.S. submarine technology is the United Kingdom and now under the current arrangement, Australia.
Another underlying issue with AUKUS is all member states having current political tension with China, making the pact the modern NATO and Warsaw. China is the largest trading partner of both Australia and the United States, meaning the defense pact has serious potential to further harm economic relations between the nations. The United States is currently engaged in a trade war with China, which has crippled the U.S. supply chain along with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Although member states are trying to secure their best interests, it will come at a great cost to the peace and stability of the Indo-Pacific region and sets the stage for the second cold war.
China Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said it “seriously undermines regional peace and stability and intensifies the arms race.” Lijian went on to state that “the three countries should discard the Cold War zero-sum mentality and narrow geopolitical perspective.”
It is uncertain how the AUKUS pact will influence future international policy of the European Union, as France has an overarching influence in that international organization. AUKUS does more harm than good, as it alienates France, infuriates China and arms Australia, leading to a more divided world with less balance of power.
The AUKUS pact is detrimental to the stability of the South China Sea and needs to be dissolved as a divided international community leads to the rise of Chinese power in the region, setting the stage for a second cold war via a bi-polar world. Ending this pact along with rebuilding the U.S.-France/Australia-France relationship(s) with France will lead to a more stable, multi-polar world.
The authors of this article are undergraduates at the University of Tennessee at Martin under the supervision of Dr. Adnan Rasool, assistant political science professor and expert on democratic transitions, regional organizations in Asia, and the foreign policy of small
states.
