CLINTON Fernandes, a professor of international and political studies with the University of NSW at its Canberra campus, is the guest speaker at the 30th annual "Red Flag Event" on Saturday afternoon, held at the Hunter Workers building and organised by the Hunter Broad Left.
Professor Fernandes, an ex-military intelligence officer, addressed the same event in 2019.
Since then, Australia has joined with the United States and the United Kingdom in the AUKUS agreement, and Professor Fernandes has written a new book, Sub-Imperial Power: Australia in the International Arena, published last month.
His previous books include Island off the Coast of Asia: Instruments of Statecraft in Australian Foreign Policy
In the book and other writings, Professor Fernandes agrees submarines are important for Australian defence but says conventional diesel subs are sufficiently capable.
He says nuclear subs "are just one part of what will be a much larger US footprint in Australia under AUKUS".
Professor Fernandes has been an outspoken critic of various aspects of Australia's defence and foreign policy, but discussing his views yesterday, Professor Fernandes said there was "nothing in the book or in my views about leaving the five eyes or ANZUS or anything like that".
"Rather it's an argument for mutual strategic empathy," Professor Fernandes said.
"We know what we feel when we contemplate a fictional Chinese base in the Solomon Islands.
"They won't view our encirclement of them benignly.
"Strategic empathy isn't about empathising with their domestic policies or one party system.
"We say in our White Papers that we plan to counter the region's capabilities and we can't plan for their intentions because intentions can change quickly.
"But we then say they should be reassured by our benign intentions and not worry about our capabilities.
"That's strategic narcissism, not empathy."
Hunter Broad Left spokesperson Rod Noble said it was important to hear what an author "the calibre of Professor Fernandes" had to say.
"Many people are concerned that we are too close to America which many consider the most war addicted nation on earth," Mr Noble said.
"Our role as a sub-imperial power doing the bidding of the US is in danger of leading us into more wars and more disasters, causing more misery and pain.
":Nothing to do with 'freedom' or 'democracy', but more to do with maintaining US world dominance.
"What we need is for time and energy to be put into organising a stronger peace movement. "
In a December 2021 article in the (self-described) left wing journal Arena, Professor Fernandes wrote of "a bipartisan elite consensus (that) protects the alliance (with the United States) from too much public scrutiny and debate, ensuring that it does not enter the terrain of political contest.
"Since submarines are associated with the alliance, public support for them is in this sense 'rational'."
Using the term that is prominent in the title of his new book, Professor Fernandes said: "In the future it may become politically feasible to adopt a policy of armed independence rather than the sub-imperialism that has characterised Australian defence strategy since federation.
"Such a policy would require a posture known as the 'strategic defensive' - making Australian forces an aggressive, elusive military that avoids detection, seeks battle on very favourable terms, and compels a hostile adversary to abandon its goals."
Professor Fernandes says submarines are a logical capability for a maritime nation such as Australia.
"They raise the stakes for any adversary contemplating hostile action against us.
"Anti-submarine warfare, at which Australia is adept, requires a range of costly, cutting-edge capabilities in the air and at sea, and is one of the most complex warfare disciplines to master.
"Submarines are expensive, but countermeasures against them are much more expensive.
"Submarines give Australia a strategic weight that no other Australian Defence Force asset or combination of assets does."
As stated above, however, Professor Fernandes says conventional submarines are suitable for our defence purposes and that "US (nuclear) submarines are not necessary".
"Nor are they required to protect merchant shipping en route to China.
"The nuclear-powered boats have a very different rationale.
"They enforce the United States' self-defined right to project power globally under the guise of 'freedom of navigation'."
Professor Fernandes refers to the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which he says the United States has not ratified, but has agreed to "act in accordance with the balance of interests" reflected in the convention "relating to traditional uses of the ocean, such as navigation and overflight".
"It is the right to conduct military activities inside another country's exclusive economic zone that is at the centre of incidents between US and Chinese ships and aircraft, and has been since at least 2001," Professor Fernandes says in Arena.
"This issue is separate from the question of territorial disputes in the South China and East China Seas.
"Even if all these demarcation questions were resolved, China would still oppose 'military freedom of navigation', which, as a senior diplomat has said, 'is an excuse to throw America's weight about wherever it wants'.
"It is a distortion and a downright abuse of international law into (sic) the "freedom to run amok".
Tickets were still available on Tuesday evening for Saturday's event, which runs from 3.15pm to 5.30pm, followed by dinner across the road at Wests Newcastle.
Contact the organisers by emailing hunterbroadleft@gmail.com for tickets.
IAN KIRKWOOD on:
- Jim Molan's new book Danger on our Doorstep
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AUKUS at Hunter Defence Conference
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AUKUS and domestic nuclear electricity
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AUKUS and 'The American Trap'
