Author: John Blaxland, Professor, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University

Three years have passed since the United States, Australia and United Kingdom announced on September 15 2021 that they would enter into a security partnership called AUKUS. A major part of the deal involved the US and UK helping Australia acquire nuclear-propulsion submarines. This decision by the Morrison government controversially entailed backing out of a A$90 billion deal with a French company to purchase 12 submarines. In recent months, the AUKUS deal has generated a fair amount of criticism from former Prime Ministers Paul Keating and Malcolm Turnbull, former Foreign Minister Gareth Evans, and some in the media. Critics have…