Hard New World

What is Australia's place in the new global landscape?

Are we ready for our post-American future? In an era of rising danger for all, and dramatic choices for Australia, Hugh White explores how the world is changing and how Australia should respond.

Under Donald Trump, America’s retreat from global leadership has been swift and erratic. China, Russia and India are on the move. White explains why America has ‘lost’ Asia, what is driving events in Ukraine and the Middle East, and how the new nuclear age and the twilight of the ‘rules-based order’ are changing international relations. He discusses Albanese Labor's record thus far and why complacency about the American alliance – including AUKUS – is no longer an option. This brilliant short book urges us to navigate a hard new world with realism and confidence.

This is a thoroughly updated and substantially expanded edition of the bestselling Quarterly Essay.

‘Since 2010, Hugh White has played a key part in a broader debate over the hard questions pressing upon the nation’s and the region’s strategic future – indeed, his role has arguably been much more important than any of the Australian defence or foreign policy think tanks. Need further proof be given of his success in disturbing the conventional wisdom than the shrill responses it has often provoked? No analyst can be right all the time or on everything, but from a standing start, White foresaw China’s growing strengths and its implications for America's posture in Asia, along with the consequences for long-established habits of mind and practice in Australia.’ —James Curran

‘Well-written, erudite, intelligent, and deliberately provocative’ —Australian Institute of International Affairs