tag:theconversation.com,2011:/global/topics/anglosphere-25461/articlesAnglosphere – The Conversation2018-06-21T18:48:33Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/974432018-06-21T18:48:33Z2018-06-21T18:48:33ZFriday essay: Australia’s dangerous obsession with the Anglosphere<p>Over the past three weeks the ABC program <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/trumprussia:-follow-the-money/9840958">Four Corners</a> has presented special reports on American politics, which involved one of our best journalists, Sarah Ferguson, travelling to the US on special assignment. I watched these programs and I enjoyed them. But in part I enjoyed them because they covered ground that is already familiar. </p>
<p>If the same effort had gone into bringing us in-depth special reports from, say, Jakarta or Mumbai they would have been less familiar, but perhaps more interesting. Most important they would not be stories already covered by major English language media to which we have extraordinary access. </p>
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<span class="caption">Neal Stephenson’s 1995 novel The Diamond Age coined the term ‘Anglosphere’.</span>
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<p>As we struggle to make sense of a changing world order, in which the role of the US seems less defined and dependable, our fascination with things American continues to grow. It is one of the ironies of current Australian life that preoccupation with “the Anglosphere”, a <a href="https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/the-anglosphere-and-tony-abbott/">favourite phrase of former prime minister Tony Abbott’s</a>, is in practice shared by many who regard themselves as progressive.</p>
<p>What is the Anglosphere? The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webster%27s_Dictionary">Merriam-Webster</a> Dictionary defines it as “the countries of the world in which the English language and cultural values predominate”, clearly referring to Britain, the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. A surprisingly recent term, it was coined by the science-fiction writer Neal Stephenson in his 1995 novel <a href="https://wordspy.com/index.php?word=anglosphere">The Diamond Age</a>, and then picked up by a number of conservative commentators.</p>
<p>The Churchillian notion of near-mythical bonds created by the English language and British heritage has always attracted Australian conservatives. <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/there-is-something-good-in-the-anglosphere-20120811-2414g.html">Chris Berg</a> from the Institute of Public Affairs wrote in 2012: </p>
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<p>Our heritage is not something to be ashamed of. It is not a coincidence the oldest surviving democracies are in the Anglosphere. Or that a tradition of liberty, stretching back to the Magna Carta, has given English-speaking nations a greater protection of human rights and private property. We ought to be proud, not bashful. Sure, it’s more fashionable to talk of the ‘Asian century’. But the Anglosphere will shape Australia’s cultural and political views for a century. It’s a shame only conservatives feel comfortable talking about it. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-the-politics-of-the-us-family-sitcom-and-why-roseanne-rocks-95208">Friday essay: the politics of the US family sitcom, and why Roseanne rocks</a>
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<p>Both former foreign affairs minister <a href="https://www.news.com.au/national/bob-carr-takes-swipe-at-colonial-tony-abbott/news-story/b99cead06165645c9b1b6b976d57d737">Bob Carr</a> and former prime minister <a href="https://neoskosmos.com/en/14083/rudd-slams-abbotts-anglosphere-vision/">Kevin Rudd</a> attacked Abbott’s enthusiasm for the Anglosphere. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is far less likely to invoke the term, and the election of Donald Trump means the idea has gone out of fashion on the right, who are struggling how to respond to a US president who is both their worst fears and their greatest hopes made flesh. </p>
<p>Yet despite 50 years of governments talking about Australia as part of Asia, now somewhat rebadged in the concept of the Indo-Pacific, our cultural guardians continue to behave as if nothing has changed. We may be wary of Trump’s America, and a little bemused by the reappearance of Little Britain, but we still look unreflectively to the US and Britain for intellectual guidance.</p>
<h2>The Anglo obsession</h2>
<p>Take the ABC’s flagship talk program, Q&A. In the <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/tv/qanda/txt/s4821970.htm">week of the Sydney Writers Festival</a>, Q&A ran a panel on which four of the five writers worked and lived in New York, and the bulk of the questions were about Trump. The <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/tv/qanda/txt/s4821974.htm">following week</a> they included a British Tory novelist, Stanley Johnson, whose real claim to fame seemed to be that he was Boris Johnston’s father.</p>
<p>This was in part a reflection of the extraordinary emphasis on American writers at the festival, and the scarcity of writers from other parts of the world. But it was particularly notable in a year when the festival’s theme was power, and only some of the invited writers, such as Chinese-Canadian Yiwei Xue, might have taken part in a discussion of the different ways power is played out in, say, China, India, Saudi Arabia.</p>
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<span class="caption">Alexis Okeowo, Richard McGregor, Masha Gessen, Katy Tur and Wesley Morris on Q&A.</span>
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<p>The obsession continues. The Monthly recently announced a weekly dispatch from the US, because “the number of Australians reporting from the United States has dwindled”. Unlike, of course, the Australian reporters based in Beijing, Delhi or Sao Paulo. And the Melbourne Writers Festival is already promoting the first of its guests, with prominent Americans such as Ronan Farrow, Emily Nussbaum, Ta-Nehisi Coates and David Neiwart, although it deserves credit for also highlighting a number of Australian and international writers.</p>
<p>A common language means that inevitably we will be more aware of writers in English and the cultural fashions of New York, London and Hollywood. We have access to the richest and most diverse range of cultural production in the world, and we grow up reading, viewing and interfacing with the Anglo metropolis.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/were-laughing-in-an-echo-chamber-its-time-to-rethink-satire-95867">We're laughing in an echo chamber: it's time to rethink satire</a>
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<p>But Australia is not Britain or the United States, and there is a paradox that we are more and more obsessed with them even as their relative importance in the world, and certainly in our region of the world, declines.</p>
<p>The intelligentsia recite “Trump, Brexit” as a summary of everything wrong with global politics – occasionally they will refer to Putin – but somehow the setbacks for democracy in countries closer to us, such as Thailand and the Philippines, are rarely mentioned. </p>
<p>Thus the experienced and progressive journalist, David McKnight, begins his book, <a href="https://www.newsouthbooks.com.au/books/power-people/">Populism Now!</a>, with quotations from Bernie Sanders and Jeremy Corbyn. Predictably, they are quickly contrasted to Trump and Brexit.</p>
<p>What is striking about these tropes is that they show so little interest in countries where there may be more useful progressive models for Australia, even if, like Germany, they don’t speak English. A few years ago, <a href="http://www.publishing.monash.edu/books/nl-9781921867927.html">Andrew Scott</a> pointed to some interesting public policies in Scandinavia, but these are largely ignored. We pay relatively little attention to either Canada or New Zealand, although they share more similarities with us than either of the major Anglospheric powers.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-can-learn-a-lot-about-public-policy-from-the-nordic-nations-32204">We can learn a lot about public policy from the Nordic nations</a>
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<p>Similar issues arise in the current debates about whether and how “Western civilisation” should be taught in our universities. A full course in “Western civilisation” would of course examine the complex interaction between Europe and the rest of the world, and the extent to which these interactions shaped our assumptions of liberal progress. </p>
<p>If students are led to ponder the extent to which the foundation of the United States depended upon slavery, or why Nazism could arise in one of the great centres of Western culture, they may be better prepared to develop an understanding of the world less dominated by the preoccupations of London and New York.</p>
<h2>Culture shapes politics</h2>
<p>Our political debates are inevitably coloured by the cultural dominance of Anglo-American literature, film and music. All small countries face questions of how to develop their own culture while open to the rest of the world. In Australia, language is both a barrier and an opportunity. </p>
<p>It is no surprise that our film and television viewing is heavily American: of the top ten grossing films in Australia only two, from the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings series, are not unambiguously American. <a href="https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/fact-finders/cinema/industry-trends/films-screened/top-50-all-time">Only three Australian films, led by Crocodile Dundee</a>, make the top 50.</p>
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<span class="caption">Avatar is the highest-grossing film of all time in Australia.</span>
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<p>Television is more complex; the ABC in particular is fond of British material, although Australian-made programs regularly win high ratings, heavily skewed towards sports and reality shows. SBS offers an extraordinary range of non-English language programs, often from countries with small diasporas in Australia; how many Scandinavian-noir series can there be?</p>
<p>There is a great deal to relish about the dominance of the US in our cultural imagining, whether it be jazz, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5853176/">The Good Fight</a> or the cartoons of The New Yorker. But the problems arise when we echo American rhetoric to respond to very different political realities in Australia.</p>
<p>This is clearest in foreign policy debates, where successive governments have accepted an American view of the world even while insisting that Australia must work within its own region. Because so much of our view of the world comes to us through American and, to a lesser extent, British eyes, we are uncritical of the dominant view of Washington and Whitehall, and its implicit assumptions that they represent forces of good.</p>
<p>There was a certain irony in Australian military operations in Afghanistan taking place under the aegis of NATO: the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. But Australia has a bipartisan record of sending troops overseas to win the gratitude of our “great and powerful friends”. </p>
<p>With an American president who seems uninterested in traditional alliances and unmoved by appeals to protect democracy or human rights, one might expect the government would be more conscious of the reality that US and Australian interests will not always converge. On the contrary: they seem to be working harder to align us with the United States.</p>
<p>In the short run it might pay off: it seems to have for steel exports, although the trickle of asylum seekers on Manus who are accepted by the US suggests that Trump’s objections carried weight. But the inability of the major parties to view the United States dispassionately, as a great power with interests that will often diverge from ours, is increasingly hobbling our foreign policy.</p>
<p>This is where culture and foreign policy meet: <a href="https://theconversation.com/view-from-the-hill-china-challenge-is-the-issue-of-the-moment-in-australian-foreign-policy-98580">alarm bells about Chinese influence </a> ignore the far greater sway of American, to a lesser extent British, influence on our everyday lives. Yes, China is a repressive authoritarian state which is trying to increase its global influence. Yes, we should be cautious about their expansion. But too often we view this through an American prism, rather than making the effort to understand how the shifting power relations are being understood in countries in our region.</p>
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<span class="caption">Clive Hamilton’s Silent Invasion raised alarm bells about the influence of the Chinese Communist Party in Australia.</span>
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<p>Of course our diplomats know this, but for its size <a href="https://archive.lowyinstitute.org/publications/australias-diplomatic-deficit">Australia has an under-resourced foreign service</a>. We are less well represented abroad than most other members of the G20. But politicians reflect larger cultural assumptions, and the major parties are united in seeing the world through an America-centric focus. </p>
<p>Except for occasional feeds from Al Jazeera on SBS television news, we rely heavily on American and British reports for our understanding of the outside world. The ABC does its best to cover overseas stories with reporters based around the world, but its network is small and under-resourced. Inevitably, overseas news will come to reflect the preoccupations of New York, London and Los Angeles.</p>
<h2>Broadening our horizons</h2>
<p>If we want a serious discussion about populist politics and the threat of “illiberal democracy”, there are far more examples to draw on than Trump and Brexit: Hungary, the Philippines, Venezuela and Turkey are all examples of countries where authoritarian governments are increasingly threatening human rights and freedom of expression.</p>
<p>There are writers in all these countries, whose insights would be somewhat different to those from New York and whose voices might shake some of the assumptions on which we base our picture of the larger world. I recognise that institutions like writers festivals and the Wheeler Centre depend heavily on publishers, and that publishing in New York and London dominates the Australian market. </p>
<p>But there are many people within Australia who can speak with authority about a larger world. SBS Radio broadcasts in 74 languages, yet despite the language of diversity, it is rare for speakers from most of the countries represented to be asked onto mainstream platforms. </p>
<p>Our political culture shares many elements with Britain and the United States, and there are good reasons to uphold the basic values and understandings of individual freedom that are part of a common legacy. But these values are not unique to “the Anglosphere”, and often they are more honoured in rhetoric than practice.</p>
<p>The danger of aligning ourselves with the Anglosphere is that it distorts the complexity of the greater world and aligns us with policies that are neither in our national interest nor that of a more just world. Just as republicans can enjoy the spectacle of a royal wedding without abandoning the idea of an Australian head of state, we need to remind ourselves that Trump is, literally, not our president.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/97443/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dennis Altman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Coined in a science-fiction novel in 1995, the Anglosphere has become Australia’s cultural (and political) obsession. That leaves us blind to other perspectives.Dennis Altman, Professorial Fellow in Human Security, La Trobe UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/817502017-07-28T04:50:33Z2017-07-28T04:50:33ZBoris Johnson puts on the charm offensive to entice Australia into Britain’s post-Brexit future<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180127/original/file-20170728-23792-14iaz4a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption"></span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Dan Himbrechts</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/comment/boris-johnson-britain-to-seek-stronger-ties-with-australia-after-brexit-20170727-gxkcq8.html">came to the Sydney Town Hall</a> on Thursday night for an event organised by the Lowy Institute. Judging by a rapturous reception, he beguiled a crowd of journalists, policy wonks and politicians.</p>
<p>That would not have been difficult in the circumstances given the suspension of disbelief that seems to accompany these sorts of events in which the great and the good from far away give us the benefit of their wisdom.</p>
<p>Media coverage of Johnson reflected this tendency.</p>
<p>What a funny chap, he is; although, it must be said, his mastery of the Australian vernacular leaves something to be desired? Whatever he absorbed in his gap year at Geelong Grammar it was hardly command of the idiom.</p>
<p>Putting all that nonsense aside, let’s stand back and ask the question: what was the point of the Johnson speech, and its relevance for his Australian audience?</p>
<p>The short answer is that he was trying to use his few days in the Antipodes to score some political points at home, and alternately charm his Australian audience as fellow members of <a href="https://theconversation.com/beyond-brexit-global-britain-looks-to-the-emerging-anglosphere-for-new-opportunities-77562">the Anglosphere</a> – whatever that might mean these days.</p>
<p>Johnson fell back on reference to Winston Churchill when he conferred his own blessing on the “special genius of English-speaking peoples” and, by extension, our membership of this exclusive club.</p>
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<p>For my part I think we must be careful to avoid any such conceit or complacency that English-speakers are especially blessed. But it is certainly true that there is a series of interconnected ideas that have been highly successful.</p>
<p>They are democracy, the rule of law, habeas corpus, an independent judiciary, the absolute freedom to make fun of politicians, and above all the freedom to live your life as you please provided you do not harm the interests of others. </p>
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<p>So endeth the Anglosphere lesson that seemed partly designed to draw Australia into Britain’s corner in the potential traumas that will accompany that country’s departure from the European Union.</p>
<p>Australia, he told us, would be first in line for a post-Brexit free-trade agreement. That might be a useful idea, but Australia’s trade diplomats should devote significant energy first to securing an FTA with the EU, since trade with that behemoth dwarfs our commercial relationship with Britain.</p>
<p>In all of this Johnson drew a particularly long bow when he posed the question that what if Australia had itself sought membership of the EU, with all the constraints that might apply.</p>
<p>What if the humble Violet Crumble had been subject to the tyranny of Brussels?</p>
<p>Indeed, what indignities would we have endured?</p>
<p>Well, that line of reasoning might have been deployed as a debating point at the Oxford Union. But it is hardly relevant to an Australian consideration of a changing global environment.</p>
<p>Australia never aspired to membership of the Common Market, although some of its politicians might have felt more comfortable in the halls of Westminister or viewing the cricket from the balcony at Lord’s – than in emerging Asia.</p>
<p>It could be argued that the Treaty of Rome was the best thing that ever happened to us since it helped expedite our engagement with Asia, and dissipated whatever illusions might have prevailed about our future as a European outpost.</p>
<p>Johnson’s broader point that Britain is itching to exit the European Community and navigate its own way free of the constraints that currently apply is a perfectly reasonable political point. But he was coming the raw prawn when he told his audience that Brexit was the “overwhelming desire of the British people”.</p>
<p>What a load of tosh.</p>
<p>Polls consistently show a fine margin either way for and against Brexit. Indeed, in the recent British election exit polls indicated that unhappiness with the Brexit process contributed significantly to the ruling Conservatives’ poor result. This was especially so in the south of the country, where Remain sentiment is strong.</p>
<p>Johnson, as one of the saboteurs of David Cameron’s lame attempts to keep Britain in the European Community, needs to justify his position. He is, after all, when all is said and done, a politician, and one who aspires to lead his own party. He is not about to admit error, and certainly not on foreign soil.</p>
<p>Johnson’s remarks about security in the Asia-Pacific are welcome, if they represent any more than boilerplate statements by a visiting official.</p>
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<p>In the South China Sea, we urge all parties to respect freedom of navigation and international law, including the ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague.</p>
<p>We are also ready once again to articulate our commitment to international order with money and military presence … That is why one of the first missions of our two vast new aircraft carriers will be to sail through the Straits of Malacca, the route that currently accommodates a quarter of world trade.</p>
<p>If you look at these vessels you will see that they are not only longer than the Palace of Westminster but more persuasive than most of the arguments you will hear in the House of Commons.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Johnson wisely avoided reference to the last time Britain sought to rule the waves in the Asia-Pacific. On December 10, 1941, the sinking of the battleship Prince of Wales and the battlecruiser Repulse by Japanese bombers off Malaysia represented one Britain’s greatest naval disasters, and bleakest days in the second world war.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/81750/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson came to the Sydney Town Hall on Thursday night for an event organised by the Lowy Institute. Judging by a rapturous reception, he beguiled a crowd of journalists…Tony Walker, Adjunct Professor, School of Communications, La Trobe UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/775622017-05-17T20:14:58Z2017-05-17T20:14:58ZBeyond Brexit: ‘Global Britain’ looks to the emerging Anglosphere for new opportunities<p>What lies beyond Brexit? This is not just a question for the United Kingdom and the European Union, but also one that will reverberate around the world.</p>
<p>One answer is “the Anglosphere”.</p>
<p>Often spoken of as an alternative to the UK’s membership of the EU, the Anglosphere is the other side of the Brexit coin. But what is this novel ideology, which rose to prominence during the Brexit referendum? Where did it come from, and how will it affect Australia?</p>
<h2>Emergence of the Anglosphere</h2>
<p>The origins of <a href="https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/anglosphere-old-dream-brexit-role-in-the-world">the Anglosphere concept</a> were first presented in the late 19th century. </p>
<p>Imperial federation was proposed as an alternative to growing instability within the British Empire and growing competition from external rivals (not least the US). </p>
<p>However, although having some influential friends such as one of Australia’s founding fathers, Alfred Deakin, the proposition lacked sufficient precision in terms of its form and purpose. The dream faded.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, the concept of the “English-speaking peoples” was not totally dead. Brief periods of political support manifested but quickly passed, particularly in pivotal moments of change. </p>
<p>During the second world war, and as the UK prepared to “abandon” its empire and join the European Economic Community, support for the English-speaking peoples as a political community was strengthened.</p>
<p>More recently, <a href="http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/the-power-of-the-anglosphere-in-eurosceptical-thought/">the Anglosphere has been advanced</a> by an influential international alliance of predominantly conservative politicians, commentators and public intellectuals. This loose grouping shares an insurgent ideological and geopolitical agenda that informs ambitions for an alternative world order, including Britain’s withdrawal from the EU and the EU’s eventual collapse.</p>
<h2>An opportunity for Britain</h2>
<p>During the Brexit referendum, senior politicians in the “Leave” campaign – such as Nigel Farage, <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/08051604.pdf">Michael Gove</a>, <a href="https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2017/01-02/anglospheres-quiet-revolution/">Daniel Hannan</a>, and <a href="http://www.daviddavismp.com/david-davis-speech-on-brexit-at-the-institute-of-chartered-engineers/">David Davis</a> – also made explicit reference to the potential of the Anglosphere.</p>
<p>The Anglosphere provided a point of commonality between the different groups supporting Brexit. But such commonality can be deceptive. British national self-interest <a href="http://www.cityam.com/247909/global-free-trade-alliance-should-britains-stunning-post">has often overlooked</a> the diverse geopolitical and economic interests of the Anglosphere’s other constituent countries.</p>
<p>The Anglosphere was one of the big winners of Brexit. Three of Theresa May’s ministers – Boris Johnson, Liam Fox and David Davis – are devotees of it, and are currently shaping Britain’s new place in the world.</p>
<p>In January 2017, May argued that Brexit afforded new opportunities for a <a href="https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2017/01/theresa-mays-brexit-speech-global-britain/">“truly Global Britain”</a> to re-imagine existing and new international relationships. </p>
<p>May said a “profoundly internationalist” post-EU Britain should draw on its distinctive national history and culture to become “the best friend and neighbour” to Europe, while also reaching out across the world “to build relationships with old friends and new allies alike”.</p>
<h2>What does this mean for Australia and the world?</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.conservativehome.com/platform/2016/12/ted-yarbrough-the-anglosphere-is-the-perfect-launchpad-for-a-global-britain.html">Proponents of “Global Britain”</a> have often sought to support their vision by drawing attention to the potential for a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/jan/13/uk-to-begin-talks-with-new-zealand-on-post-brexit-trade-deal">series</a> of <a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2870196/canada-first-in-line-for-post-brexit-trade-deal-with-britain-after-eu-passes-long-awaited-ceta-agreement/">trade</a> <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/world/theresa-may-brexit-speech-pm-reveals-uk-will-leave-single-market-flags-australia-trade-deal-20170117-gttd98.html">deals</a> to be quickly concluded across the Anglosphere once the UK leaves the EU.</p>
<p>May and US President Donald Trump have also sought to reframe the “special relationship” in the context of Brexit. <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/pm-press-conference-with-us-president-donald-trump-27-january-2017">They emphasised</a> that stronger ties are founded “on the bonds of history, of family, kinship and common interests”.</p>
<p>However, there is a lack of consistency in terms of which countries actually constitute the Anglosphere. Many of the most vocal proponents have sought to frame the Anglosphere around a <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/09/13/canzuk-after-brexit-canada-australia-new-zealand-and-britain-can/">“network of core constituent Crown countries”</a> that comprise Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK. Others have sought to frame it in terms of a new Anglo-American alliance re-asserting its global influence. </p>
<p>But outside of these so-called “core” Anglophone countries, it is not clear what place there is for, say, India, Ireland, Singapore or South Africa.</p>
<p>For <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/commonwealth-trade-ministers-meeting-towards-a-free-trading-future">many supporters</a>, greater engagement with the Anglosphere is congruent with a desire to rejuvenate the Commonwealth, particularly India. Such designs reveal historical and contemporary complexities both in geopolitical relations between the core Anglosphere countries and the pervasive resonance of racism and neo-colonialism across parts of the former British Empire. </p>
<p>Trump’s America is seen both as pivotal and a potential threat to the free-trade foundations of a post-Brexit Anglosphere. Other critics have suggested that “Global Britain” is akin to <a href="https://www.civilserviceworld.com/articles/news/liam-fox-tells-civil-servants-not-use-offensive-term-empire-20">“Empire 2.0”</a>, founded on an overly positive vision of the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/08/india-britain-empire-railways-myths-gifts">colonial past</a> and resting on a nostalgia-infused, post-imperial “amnesia”.</p>
<p>You don’t have to look far to find people like Australia’s current and former foreign ministers, Julie Bishop and Gareth Evans, who think this is a bad idea. Yet the Anglosphere has supporters in high places – notionally former Australian leaders Tony Abbott and John Howard. Like these figures, the Anglosphere currently remains influential yet marginalised. </p>
<p>But that’s what most people thought about Brexit a year ago. As British withdrawal from the EU shapes an <a href="http://www.britac.ac.uk/events/anglosphere-and-its-others-english-speaking-peoples-changing-world-order">emerging world order</a>, its supporters think the Anglosphere is an idea whose time has come.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/77562/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The concept of ‘the Anglosphere’ gained in importance after the Brexit referendum as an alternative to the EU – and it could now impact Anglo nations, like Australia.Andrew Mycock, Reader in Politics, University of HuddersfieldBen Wellings, Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/551392016-03-13T19:16:26Z2016-03-13T19:16:26ZWhat might a ‘Brexit’ mean for the Anglosphere – and Australia?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/113654/original/image-20160303-10357-rktp5g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Diplomats and businesspeople in Australia would likely be dismayed if Britain was to leave the European Union.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Alan Porritt</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Eurosceptics in Britain face one pressing question as the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-eu-referendum-campaign-is-finally-underway-heres-how-to-win-it-55100">in/out referendum</a> on the UK’s membership of the European Union looms: what alternative to the EU do they propose? </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.strongerin.co.uk/">Remain campaign</a> has British Prime Minister David Cameron’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-uk-deal-with-the-eu-explained-what-it-says-and-what-it-means-55052">renegotiated relationship</a> with Europe to offer. The <a href="https://leave.eu/en/our-campaign">Leave campaign</a> has <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/general-election-2015/politics-blog/11730318/Dear-Britain-there-is-life-outside-the-EU.html">offered up</a> various small European countries as models for Britain: Norway, Switzerland, even Iceland.</p>
<p>None of these sound sufficiently grand for English expectations. But the “outers” do have the “Anglosphere” <a href="http://www.conservativehome.com/platform/2016/02/david-davis-britain-would-be-better-off-out-of-the-eu-and-heres-why.html">up their sleeve</a>. This makes opinions in Anglophone countries like Australia on a British exit from the EU unusually important in the referendum campaign.</p>
<h2>Australia and the Anglosphere</h2>
<p>Despite its distance from Europe, Euroscepticism can be observed in Australia. For successive right-wing governments in Canberra, the EU is code for protectionism, bureaucracy, secularism and environmentalism – all of which are bad.</p>
<p>When former prime minister Tony Abbott called for “more Jakarta, less Geneva” in Australian foreign policy this was not merely another signalling of a shift in Australian priorities, but a comment about <a href="http://www.canberratimes.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/rise-of-european-tea-parties-cannot-be-ignored-20140129-31mv6.html?rand=1391497693675">European political values too</a>. </p>
<p>Such views were not directly linked to the “Brexit” project. They were related to a wider cultural politics of the Right that can also be found among British (or English) Eurosceptics. </p>
<p>In Australia, these arguments were driven by a rehabilitation of the British Empire as having been a force for good in the world, as a counter to the delegitimising versions of history brought up by the memory of settler-Indigenous relations. </p>
<p>This is the wellspring of Australian Anglosphere ideology. British politicians <a href="http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/danielhannan/100162842/ill-go-to-the-ends-of-the-earth-to-make-the-case-against-the-eu/">Daniel Hannan</a> and Boris Johnson actively reflect these ideas of commonality back at Australia. Johnson was even made <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/26/boris-johnson-honorary-australian-year">Honorary Australian of the Year</a> in 2014 for his assistance to Australians in London. </p>
<p>Australia, it is suggested, is preparing for the <a href="https://theconversation.com/abbott-government-may-have-new-rhetoric-but-its-still-the-asian-century-19769">“Asian century”</a>. But despite the geographical distance and dominant perceptions of immigration from Asia, people-to-people ties between Australia and the UK remain strong. </p>
<p>More than one million members of the current Australian population were <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/websitedbs/censushome.nsf/home/CO-59?opendocument&navpos=620">born in the UK</a>, the leading country of birth for Australia’s overseas-born population. Conversely, approximately <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2011/may/26/foreign-born-uk-population">100,000 Australians</a> live in the UK.</p>
<p>Sporting rivalries in netball, rugby and – above all – cricket breathe life into this long-term relationship.</p>
<h2>What a Brexit might mean</h2>
<p>The bad news for the “outers” is that the Anglosphere’s supporters are no longer in the ascendancy in Australia. </p>
<p>Across the English-speaking world, 2015 was a bad year for Anglosphere enthusiasts. Abbott and the Canadian prime minister, Stephen Harper, lost power in the space of a few months. Abbott was <a href="https://theconversation.com/turnbull-defeats-abbott-set-to-become-prime-minister-experts-respond-47499">overthrown as prime minister</a> from within his own party by the more emollient Malcolm Turnbull.</p>
<p>Abbott was a known Anglophile. He courted public ridicule when he announced a <a href="https://theconversation.com/knights-dames-be-honest-australia-you-love-it-24875">return to Australian knighthoods</a> and then <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/prince-philip-awarded-knight-of-the-order-of-australia-by-prime-minister-tony-abbott-20150125-12xzk8.html">handed one</a> to the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip. This showed that aligning yourself too closely with a certain idea of Britain is not a vote-winner in Australia.</p>
<p>Despite the cultural proximity, the ties between the UK and Australia are not the same as they were 40 years ago. When Britain’s application to the European Economic Community was first announced in 1961 the <a href="https://www.mup.com.au/items/121289">shock was profound</a> given the heavy dependence on the UK as a market for primary products, such as minerals, meat and dairy.</p>
<p>The Left never really forgot the UK’s role in getting Australia involved in battles at Gallipoli and Singapore, however. </p>
<p>Under John Howard, the Right of Australian politics rehabilitated the memory of Britain as a <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10361146.2014.965658?journalCode=cajp20#.Vte66DZ_dFI">force for global good</a> in a way similar to Anglosphere enthusiasts among English Eurosceptics. </p>
<p>Bad relations with the emergent European Community after 1973 – principally over the Common Agricultural Policy – meant that Australia-UK-EU relations got <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-8497.00061/abstract">stuck in a rut</a> until Labor started courting the EU after 2007.</p>
<p>Today, the vast majority of the Australian government would be disturbed at the thought of a UK exit from the EU. This view is held with more conviction among those who regularly deal with the EU within the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. In a submission to the UK’s balance of competences <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/foreign-policy-report-review-of-the-balance-of-competences">review</a> in 2013, Australia’s then-foreign minister, Bob Carr, said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Australia recognises the UK’s strength and resilience and looks forward to seeing it continue as a leading economy and an effective power. Strong, active membership of the EU contributes to this.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This revival of the Anglosphere has been dismissed with some force in Australia as <a href="https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/uk-little-global-influence-after-brexit-by-gareth-evans-2016-02">“an illusion”</a>. Perhaps the greatest threat a Brexit poses to Australia is the <a href="http://www.internationalaffairs.org.au/australian_outlook/australia-and-brexit-what-might-it-mean/">potential disruption</a> to a relationship with the EU that at last appears to be on a decent footing. Australia’s recently announced <a href="http://dfat.gov.au/trade/agreements/aeufta/pages/aeufta.aspx">free trade negotiations</a> with the EU have been a long time coming.</p>
<p>Were Britain to exit the EU, there might be some sense of schadenfreude on the Right of Australian politics. But the dismay among diplomats and businesspeople would be heard from Canberra to Kakadu.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/55139/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ben Wellings does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Despite its distance from Europe, Euroscepticism can be observed in Australia. What would a ‘Brexit’ from the EU mean for Australia?Ben Wellings, Lecturer in Politics and International Relations, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.