HUGH WHITE AO
in-conversation with
Misha Ketchell, Editor,
the conversation

Are we ready for our post-American future?

In an era of rising danger for all, and dramatic choices for Australia, Hugh White AO explores with Misha Ketchell, Editor of The Conversation, how the world is changing and how Australia should respond. 

Under Donald Trump, America’s retreat from global leadership has been swift and erratic. China, Russia and India are on the move. White explains the big strategic trends driving the war in Ukraine, and why America has “lost” Asia.

In his Quarterly Essay, Hugh discusses Albanese Labor’s record and its future choices, and why complacency about the American alliance – including AUKUS – is no longer an option. This essential essay urges us to make our way in a hard new world with realism and confidence.   

Hugh White is the author of The China Choice and How to Defend Australia, and three previous Quarterly Essays, Power Shift, Without America and Sleepwalk to War. He is Emeritus Professor of Strategic Studies at the Australian National University and was the principal author of Australia’s Defence White Paper 2000.

The Canberra establishment is shocked by any suggestion that we should walk away from the ANZUS commitments.

They think we can and must depend on America more than ever in today’s hard new world. But that misses the vital point. It is America that is walking away from the commitments it made in very different circumstances seventy-five years ago. That was plain enough under Joe Biden. It is crystal clear today under Trump.

Hugh White, Hard New World

Imprints Booksellers will be selling copies of Hugh White's Quarterly Essay, Hard New World: Our Post-American Future in the Auditorium foyer on the night of the event.

Presented by The Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre 

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