This paper, and the three additional papers connected to it, set out the evidence for that narrative. They examine where development and strategic policy intersect, and explore the opportunities and limits of how cooperation advances Australia’s national interests in multilateralism, regional growth and lasting peace.
Key messages:
- Multilateralism remains indispensable to Australia’s interests. While not without its flaws, it provides the basis for rule setting, essential dialogue, and collective action at the global scale.
- These functions deliver benefits at the level of ‘high politics’, providing forums where conflicts can be prevented or resolved and establishing mechanisms to act on global threats like climate change, but also underpin largely unseen, critical systems like global aviation, telecommunications standards and disease monitoring.
- Modernising the multilateral system is essential. Australia’s efforts must be focused where Australian engagement is likely to be most effective, where Australian, Pacific and Southeast Asian regional partners’ interests coalesce, and where global and regional scale action is critical.
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