Managing the Unbreakable Alliance: Agreements, Core Instruments, and Related Documents

The Alliance between the United States and Australia is among the respective countries' most consequential security partnerships. Born in combat during the First World War, the Alliance has grown and evolved significantly over the intervening century. With early agreements forming a loosely coordinated relationship, the bilateral partnership of the 21st Century includes rotationally-deployed U.S. forces in Australia, intelligence sharing, and cooperation on high-technology weapon systems. This third entry in the Yokosuka Council on Asia-Pacific Studies' and U.S. Studies Centre's alliance reference series provides an annotated collection of the key bilateral treaties, agreements, and policy documents that provide the structure for the U.S.-Australia Alliance. For practitioners involved in U.S.-Australia relations, it is a handy reference book. For those from other countries seeking to foster ties with Australia, the United States, or both, this book presents the blueprint for how Australia and the United States built their relationship so their approach may be replicated elsewhere. For scholars and analysts, it is a one-stop resource for documents and statements related to this ever-important bilateral relationship.

Blake D. Herzinger is a security and policy practitioner who has lived and worked in Asia since 2012. In the U.S. Navy Reserve, he served as a Foreign Area Officer specializing in the Indo-Pacific, with a particular focus on Southeast Asia. He has supported Commander, Naval Forces Korea and served as a Theater Security Cooperation Desk Officer assigned to the U.S. Pacific Fleet. From 2019-2020 he deployed to the Persian Gulf aboard USS Lewis B. Puller (ESB-3), leading an unmanned aerial vehicle unit and intelligence detachment. Previously, Blake spent ten years on active duty as an Intelligence Officer with deployments supporting Operation Odyssey Dawn in Libya, to the western Pacific on anti-submarine operations, and as the head of the Maritime Liaison Unit in Singapore until 2017. In his civilian career, he helped to design and launch the Indo-Pacific Maritime Security Initiative, expanding U.S. security assistance from a handful of Southeast Asian countries to the South Pacific and South Asia, delivering equipment and training to regional navies and coast guards to counter illicit and malign activity at sea. He serves on the editorial board of the Foreign Area Officers Association Journal and earned his MSc at the Nanyang Technological University's S. Rajaratnam School for International Studies.