In this brief, we find:
- Geostrategic competition is exacerbating certain facets of fragility in low-and middle-income states, and that fragility is enabling and accelerating said competition.
- This dynamic risks undermining the effectiveness of Australian statecraft (including development assistance) in contexts where the imperative to compete demands a primary focus on responding to the symptoms of fragility, rather than its root causes.
- To realise its vision of a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific, Australia could better balance its short and long term focus, build resilience to corrosive aspects of geostrategic competition, and ensure coherence as it competes.
The question we are left with is: how can Australia widen the focus of its development program and broader foreign policy to better deal with the underlying drivers of fragility? And does it have what it takes?
