Author: Katherine Hare
Hare, Katherine, 2024 Critical discourse analysis on the representation of national security as a central theme of AUKUS, Flinders University, College of Education, Psychology and Social Work
Terms of Use: This electronic version is (or will be) made publicly available by Flinders University in accordance with its open access policy for student theses. Copyright in this thesis remains with the author. You may use this material for uses permitted under the Copyright Act 1968. If you are the owner of any included third party copyright material and/or you believe that any material has been made available without permission of the copyright owner please contact copyright@flinders.edu.au with the details.
The Indo-Pacific has become the next battle ground in the defence of what it means to be Australian. The increasing competition between two world orders—democratic rules-based order and non-democratic rule by law—as projected by the leading world powers in the region, the United States and China, has increased tensions and created a need to stabilise the region. Australia has responded by allying itself closer with the US through the AUKUS security partnership that will modernise the ADF. The central theme of AUKUS is national security, which extends across two related policies, the National Defence Strategy and non-Australian recruitment of New Zealanders into the ADF. The language and symbology of Anzac was used by the Australian government to produce Australian sentiment towards national security, which is a binary that excludes Australians and non-Australians who do not fit the Anzac archetype. This study used critical discourse analysis to interrogate news broadcasts and answer the question: what does AUKUS represent national security to be, and how will military service in Australia change or remain the same? Four themes were identified, where national security was a mass media conveyed product of the Australian government to increase national power in the world order, friendships were used and referred to hierarchically to position nations in the Indo-Pacific below Australia, and the enemy was illustrated as any threat to national security, even though the public identified China as the enemy. This study argues that national security is a construct of the democratic nation state. This social construction legitimises policies that exclude non-democratic representations based on world order, enforced by alliances and an over-reliance on military capability. However, it was assessed that that the discursive formation of national defence is incomplete, depending on the formation of the 21st century Anzac, and the real effects of Trump’s re-election and the ADF’s modernisation through AUKUS. It was also identified that the wider implication of national security is the expansion of the western ideology. However, given the time and size limitations of this study, this concept was stated but not explored. While this study explored national security through AUKUS, Anzac and military service, it serves as a baseline introduction to the concept, which requires further research.
Keywords: ADF, Australian Defence Force, military, veteran, AUKUS, national security, representation
Subject: Business thesis
Thesis type: Graduate Diploma
Completed: 2024
School: College of Education, Psychology and Social Work
Supervisor: Ben Wadham