Island-consciousness and Australian Strategic Culture

One of the most curious aspects of Australian national culture is the absence of a significant maritime tradition. This is a striking paradox in that, as an island-continent dependent on sea communications, trade and alliances, Australia should be the archetype of a liberal maritime nation. Island consciousness has been the major feature of Australia's strategic culture and its pervasiveness has long inhibited Australia's security and defence policies from expressing the nation's true geopolitical identity as a 'trade dependent maritime state'. As naval writers such as Alan Robertson and Lee Cordner have argued, many Australian strategists view the sea not as a manoeuvre space that facilitates offshore deployment, but as a defensive moat that separates a continental landmass from the South-East Asian archipelagos. Such a strategic philosophy of the sea does not recall the democratic Anglo-American maritime tradition. Australia's vast land mass has always suggested that the country is best viewed in strategic terms as a continental island rather than an island continent.