Australia and South Korea are U.S.-aligned middle powers increasingly engaging in direct bilateral and multilateral cooperation, even independent of U.S. facilitation or encouragement. This shift is driven by the convergence of global factors, including climate change, governance breakdowns, great power competition, and technological disruption. Deeper collaboration among these like-minded states is both a strategic necessity and a means of sustaining regional stability. It may also help foster the U.S. resolve to remain engaged amid uncertainty about U.S. leadership and a more assertive, powerful, and authoritarian China.

Policy Recommendations

Australia and South Korea should see each other as strategic partners and middle powers with greater potential to work collaboratively. This should include:

• Close coordination of cybersecurity policies and approaches to contemporary threats for homeland security, including financial intelligence cooperation and responding to transnational criminal networks.
• Deeper interaction between the two countries’ armed forces across the maritime, air, land, sea, space, and cyber domains.
• Allocation of funds for bilateral education scholarships and research collaboration.
• Heightened collaboration on aid, development, economic cooperation, and security cooperation in the South Pacific and Southeast Asia.