Asleep at the Wheel? Revisiting
In 2024, the Southeast Asian Eyes (SEAE) initiative was proposed as a bold, visionary response to Australia’s overreliance on conditional Western security guarantees. In 2025, with the global strategic order increasingly fragmented and overtures from China and Russia intensifying in Southeast Asia and the Pacific, this foresight has proven prophetic.
Ukraine was promised protection. It got invasion. Australia has been assigned a role. But not a say.
Ukraine gave up its deterrent. It trusted the USA, the UK, and Russia. It got war.
Australia’s defence agreement is no different; Ukrainian-style assurance, subject to the will of the U.S. president and the people of the day.
Our submarines are already being described by U.S. senators as “additions to the American arsenal.”
This is not about abandoning allies. It’s about demanding respect.
If we are not treated as equals, then we owe no allegiance.