Author: Michael Wesley, Griffith Asia Institute, Griffith University

After he takes office next week, Barack Obama will be the first President of the United States to have visited Australia prior to assuming office. Obama, who lived in Indonesia as a young child, occasionally transited through Australia on the way back to see his grandparents in Hawai’i for holidays. These fleeting visits, according to those Australians who have spent time with him, left him with warm and positive feelings about this country.

Beyond these warm feelings, it is unlikely that an Obama Presidency will see a marked upswing in Australia-United States relations. During the Howard and Bush administrations, the political dynamics underlying the Australian-American relationship reached a cyclical high point, which by its nature will not be sustained after the exit of both Howard and Bush. The Howard government had identified Bush as a possible future President and begun building a relationship with him long before the 2000 Presidential elections in the United States, and was delighted when Bush scraped home in that poll. Howard and Bush developed a close friendship, based on shared conservative values and a common contractualist, interest-based approach to international affairs. Most crucial, however, was Australia’s support for the United States after the September 11 attacks and during the war in Iraq. Canberra’s solidarity in the face of opposition, especially as the enunciated pre-war case for invasion unravelled, was a gesture that resonated strongly in Washington.

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