The characteristics of Australian policymaking in national security crises (with special reference to East Timor, 1999)

Abstract

This dissertation identifies the consistent and variable characteristics of crisis policymaking in Australia, and identifies the reasons why characteristics may change. Importantly, this dissertation is about policymaking processes, not judgments about the success, morality or effectiveness of Australian policies. The analysis is conducted through three main stages. The first involves identifying characteristics for national security policymaking through an examination of the literature of foreign and defence policy. The second stage refines these into characteristics of crisis policymaking through an examination of three crises for Australian policymakers and a study of the emergence of the modern crisis policymaking system. These tentative characteristics of crisis policymaking, which are organised using the Australian Policy Cycle, are tested through a case study of the East Tim or Crisis of 1999. The final stage involves reducing a list of twenty-two characteristics into an essential group of five. These five include recognising the centrality of the national security executive; the collegial nature of crisis policymaking; the relative importance of external over domestic actors; the closed and secretive nature of the process; and the complicated and complex nature of implementation. The dissertation also identifies political preference and the contingent nature of crises as the main factors driving change in this system.