As US–China rivalry reshapes the international order, few countries have had to navigate its pressures more acutely than Australia – economically connected to China, strategically anchored to the United States, and geographically planted in the Indo-Pacific at the centre of the contest.

The question preoccupying governments from Canberra to London is how America’s allies manage in a world where might increasingly makes right. The rules-based order that the United States built and once guaranteed is now being challenged from within – with Washington itself cast in the role of revisionist power, while Beijing presents itself as a champion of stability, multilateralism, and the rule of law.

From the US alliance to trade tensions with Beijing, Malcolm Turnbull reflects on the choices, costs, and limits of strategic hedging for middle powers. What does Australia’s model offer allies seeking to preserve strategic autonomy without sacrificing economic interests? And what does it mean to be a US ally when the terms of that alliance are no longer fixed?

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