Image credit: Leon Neal / Getty

July 10, 2023

AUKUS Is More Than Submarines: Its Advanced Capabilities Pillar Will Also Require Fundamental Shifts

By Justin Bassi, Maeve Ryan and Lisa Curtis

Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States are nearing their third year of the most forward-looking and visionary strategic industrial effort since the 1941 Lend-Lease Act, which empowered the United States to lend or lease war supplies to any nation deemed “vital to the defense of the United States.” Their joint decision, announced in September 2021, to establish the “enhanced trilateral security partnership” known as AUKUS stemmed from a mutual recognition that China’s military build-up and technological advancement presents a clear threat to each country.

The leaders of the trilateral partnership should demonstrate the importance of AUKUS by cementing its place on the international agenda.

The most high-profile element of the collaboration is to build nuclear-powered submarines (the so-called first pillar of the agreement). But the second pillar of AUKUS — cooperation on advanced capabilities including in cyber, artificial intelligence, quantum technologies, and additional undersea capabilities — is equally important and will require the three governments to interact in new ways with each other, with industry, and with other nations. This week’s NATO Summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, where the leaders of Australia, Japan, South Korea, and New Zealand also have been invited, would be a perfect opportunity for the AUKUS three to meet and elevate this collaboration to the international stage.

Read the full article from Just Security.

  • Commentary
    • Foreign Policy
    • September 20, 2023
    Domestic Politics Threaten Hard-Won Success in East Asia

    As momentous and historic as the Camp David agreements were, this trilateral grouping is innately and structurally fragile...

    By Dr. Duyeon Kim

  • Commentary
    • The Wall Street Journal
    • September 19, 2023
    Why Aren’t the Presidential Candidates Debating China?

    Underestimating the China risk is a longstanding American strategic error....

    By David Feith & Gabriel Scheinmann

  • Reports
    • September 13, 2023
    Strengthening the Shield

    In December 2022, Japan’s government released three major strategic documents: the National Security Strategy, the National Defense Strategy, and the Defense Buildup Program. ...

    By Jacob Stokes, Lisa Curtis, Joshua Fitt, Lieutenant Colonel Joseph I. Grimm & Rebecca Wittner

  • Video
    • September 13, 2023
    Dr. Duyeon Kim and the Kim Jong Un-Putin summit

    Dr. Duyeon Kim joins BBC News to discuss Kim Jong Un's visit to Russia to meet with Vladimir Putin, and the summit's implications for South Korean security. Watch the full in...

    By Dr. Duyeon Kim

View All Reports View All Articles & Multimedia