ANZUS

Australia and New Zealand had sought a stronger voice in regional security before ANZUS. Their wartime agreement reflected concern that larger powers might overlook Pacific interests, and the creation of NATO in 1949 sharpened the question of a comparable guarantee for them. Washington initially considered a formal pact unnecessary, then reconsidered as the Korean War and the proposed Japanese peace settlement changed the strategic setting. [3]

Australia, New Zealand, and the United States signed the ANZUS security treaty in San Francisco on 1 September 1951. It entered into force on 29 April 1952, after all three governments completed ratification. [4]

The treaty emerged from negotiations over the peace settlement with Japan. Australia and New Zealand wanted protection against renewed Japanese aggression, while Washington increasingly wanted Japan as a partner in containing communism. With the Korean War sharpening those concerns, an American security commitment helped make the proposed Japanese settlement acceptable to the two Pacific countries. [3]

Under ANZUS, the governments promised to consult when their security was threatened in the Pacific and to act against a common danger following an armed attack, each according to its constitutional processes. The treaty prescribed no automatic military response. It also recognised obligations beyond the Pacific and the role of the United Nations. [4]

New Zealand and Nuclear Policy

The treaty’s operation changed after New Zealand’s Labour government adopted a policy excluding ships powered by nuclear reactors or carrying nuclear weapons. Washington’s policy of neither confirming nor denying whether its ships carried nuclear weapons made accommodation difficult. In February 1985, Wellington refused a proposed visit by the USS Buchanan. The United States curtailed military and intelligence cooperation and suspended its security guarantee to New Zealand; the treaty itself remained in place. [5]

New Zealand’s nuclear policy expressed domestic opposition to nuclear weapons and testing in the Pacific, but its government had not campaigned to leave ANZUS. The dispute therefore concerned the terms on which alliance cooperation could continue. Australia maintained its security relationship with both partners, while the American–Australian relationship continued under the treaty. [5] [3]

After September 11

Australia and the United States invoked the treaty’s mutual security provisions for the first time after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Their 2002 ministerial communiqué connected this response with cooperation on Afghanistan, intelligence, law enforcement, customs, and terrorist financing. The invocation extended the practical application of an agreement negotiated for Pacific security to an attack on the United States itself. [6]

Related Diplomats

1. Dean Gooderham Acheson [1] [2]
2. Percy Spender [7]

Related Reading

• Australia and the United States