Australia, New Zealand, and the United States; Internal Change and Alliance Relations in the ANZUS States (review)

BOOK REVIEWS. William F. Markey, editor Baker, Richard W., ed., Australia, New Zealand, and the United States; Internal Change and Alliance Relations in trie ANZUS States ...................................172 Carnegie Endowment, The Other Balkan Wars: A 1913 Carnegie Endowment Inquiry in Retrospect, with a New Introduction and Reflections on trie Present Conflict by George F. Kennan ................................................................................................. 174 Clough, Ralph N., Reaching Across the Taiwan Strait: People-to-People Diplomacy ..........................................................................................176 Crossette, Barbara, India: Facing the Twenty-First Century .....................................179 Fuller, Graham E. and Ian O. Lesser, with Paul B. Henze and J.F. Brown, Turkey's New Geopolitics: From the Balkans to Western China .................................181 Kennan, George F., Around the Cragged Hill: A Personal and Political Phihsophy ............................................................................184 Marks, Steven G., The Road to Power: The Trans-Siberian Railroad and the Colonization of Asian Russia, 1850-1917 .........................................................187 Shambaugh, David, Beautiful imperialist: China Perceives America, 1972-1990 and Iriye, Akira, China and Japan in the Global Setting ..................................................190 Sigmund, Paul E., The United States and Democracy in Chile .................................193 Verheyen, Dirk and Christian Soe, eds., The Germans and Their Neighbors..........196 171 172 SAIS Review WINTER-SPRING 1994 Australia, New Zealand, and the United States; Internal Change and Alliance Relations in the ANZUS States. Edited by Richard W. Baker. New York, NY: Praeger Publishers, 1991. 287pp. $47.95/Hardcover. Reviewed fry Matthew Potter Lantz. Mr. Lantz holds a BS from Georgetown University and is an MA candidate at SAIS. Ifdie next century is truly to be considered the "Pacific Century", all areas ofthe Pacific basin must be included. Currendy, Australia and New Zealand are not. Editor Richard Baker's book Australia, New Zealand, and tlxe United States fills a much needed vacuum in the field of United States/Australia/New Zealand (ANZUS) relations by addressing diese forgotten roles. The book is the first of a series which brings experts from all three countries togedier to investigate the social, economic, and security relations among die ANZUS nations. This book focuses on societal similarities and differences between die countries in an attempt to better understand their relations. It promotes the agenda of a conscious effort by all diree nations to maintain good relations in the face of a changing world. Australia, New Zealand, and the United States is a readable and superbly organized book. Its primary strengdi derives from its effective use ofperspective ofthe three nations. By consulting widi academics from all diree countries and allowing each to write a chapter on the issues of societal change, political evolution, and self perceptions, Baker amazes the reader by highlighting the underlying diversity of the oudooks among the ANZUS nations. From assessing New Zealand's small size, where social classes are sometimes numbered in die hundreds, to Australia's continual snuggle to define for itselfa coherent national identity, to the United States' benign neglect ofdie region due to greater priorities elsewhere, Baker's book develops an understanding that delves far beneath the stereotypes of popular culaire. Moving beyond the obvious similarities of history, culture, and language, the authors point out diat on a social level, die countries share the notions of egalitarianism and exceptionalism, and that diese views have been challenged significandy by various groups within the country over the last forty years. Politically, all the countries have experienced increasing executive power, and elections in each of the countries have recendy seen an increase in "valence issues" (non-controversial issues such as a strong economy which serve in an election as a referendum for the current government.) This analysis, while occasionally overlapping between the authors, effectively shows the commonalities between the countries while moving beyond popular stereotypical images. The reader is left feeling that socially and politically, die ANZUS countries have enough in common to justify an alliance. However, Australia, New Zealand, and the United States is even more effective in drawing the distinctions between the countries. According to die authors, New Zealand is portrayed as a small, stricdy regulated society that has recendy undergone a drastic political revolution ofsorts. It is, for the first time, dismanding its welfare state while charting an individual international relations padi, which is most evident in its "no nuclear vessels" policy. It is also defining for itselfa more prominent Pacific...