IAN HALL AND RENÉE JEFFERY |

In The Interpreter last month, Bec Strating and Joanne Wallis weighed into the debate about Australia’s “strategic personality” and how it should change to respond more effectively to the security challenges the country now faces.

If Canberra’s policymakers wanted a personality to emulate, Strating and Wallis argued, they might look to the just retired tennis star, Ashleigh Barty. Prodigiously talented, versatile, and appreciative that individual success on the court depends on the hard work of a big team on the sidelines, Barty is an excellent role model. And as a Ngaragu woman, she also reminds Australians of the need “meaningfully” to engage with First Nations at home and abroad.

There is much to be said for this argument. But we want to pick up on something else in Strating and Wallis’ piece: their scepticism about the concept of “strategic personality” and its usefulness. As it so happens, we have been conducting a review of what others in the region think about Australia’s strategic personality. And while the full results are not yet in, we have been trying to refine the concept and work on ways to analyse the personalities of states.

Please click here to read the full “Can states have strategic personalities?” article published at The Interpreter, written by Griffith Asia Institute members, Professor Ian Hall and Professor Renée Jeffery.

This article is a product of a Griffith Asia Institute project on Assessing Australia’s Strategic Personality funded by the Department of Defence.