DIIS event

AUKUS: The history, ideas and implications of the US-UK-Australia security pact

Eight months and a Russian war in Ukraine later, AUKUS remains a gamechanger – but how? What is it, who created it – and why? Join us for this webinar where expert Srdjan Vucetic offers his unique thoughts on the security pact and its future implications

3d rendering aukus nuclear submarine deep

Illustration © Shutterstock

By pressing play you accept cookies and tracking from the external video-provider.

Watch the recording of the webinar here

On 15 September 2021, the US, Britain, and Australia announced that they had formed a trilateral security pact – AUKUS – aimed at the Indo-Pacific region. The announcement took Europe by surprise, cementing fears that American involvement in European security, not least its commitment to NATO, may be in decline. Announced just weeks after the Biden-administrations surprisingly unilateral retreat from Afghanistan, not just the pact itself, but the fact that it involved a US-Australian nuclear submarine deal otherwise promised to France, left many wondering if a more serious US-Europe rift is ahead. That the pact pushed post-Brexit Britain even further away from Brussels, and more in the direction of ‘Global Britain’, was another immediate concern.

Eight months and a Russian war in Ukraine later, AUKUS remains a gamechanger – but how? What is it, who created it – and why? What will it mean to Europe? And how does it fit into a global political arena, that is quickly turning its back on ‘liberal’ principles and ideas. In this talk, Srdjan Vucetic, a longtime expert on British and American foreign policy, as well as a co-director of the Canadian Defense and Security Network, offers his unique perspective on both the history beneath AUKUS – and its potential future implications.

Speakers
Srdjan Vucetic, Co-director, Canadian Security and Defence Network and Professor at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs and Research Co-coordinator at the Center for International Policy Studies, University of Ottawa.
Vibeke Schou Tjalve, Senior Researcher, DIIS - Danish Institute for International Studies
Stefano Guzzini, Senior Researcher, DIIS - Danish Institute for International Studies

Programme
16.00-16.05 Introduction, Vibeke Schou Tjalve
16.05-16.40 AUKUS: Something new, something old, something borrowed?, Srdjan Vucetic
16.40-17.00 Comments & Questions from a European perspective, Stefano Guzzini and Vibeke Schou Tjalve
17.00-17.30 Q&A from audience

Recorded on Tuesday 10 May 2022, 16.00-17.30 online via Zoom