Ladies and gentleman, it is a great pleasure to have this opportunity to address the [Los Angeles] World Affairs Council.  The Council has a well-earned and justified reputation for fostering debate here on the West Coast of the United States on the leading issues of global affairs.

I was very pleased with your introduction, Diane [Glazer] and thank you for the nice things you said about me.  These Curriculum Vitas that are sent round only include the good things, none of the bad things are included, so the Australians will know all of the bad things and the Americans will remain perpetually ignorant of them.  Also, thank you for the nice things you said about our country.  Our relationship with the United States does indeed go back a very long way, it certainly goes back, in terms of security policy, to the First World War.  You say we were your allies in the First World War but I can better that: when General Pershing’s troops first went into battle in Europe in the First World War they actually went into battle under the command of an Australian commander, General Monash, and you know what those battles were like.  At least that battle was a great success for our allied team. So we got off to a good and successful start and we’ve worked together on so many security issues since. it’s a relationship that means a great deal to both of our countries.

There is no doubt that the United States is home to much contemporary theory on foreign affairs and international relations.  Thinkers like Morgenthau and Kissinger have had a profound influence on the development of the post war theoretical discourse.  U.S. policy makers have been adept at turning these theories into practice and in some cases, turning theorists into practitioners--Henry Kissinger and Condoleezza Rice being two very good examples of that.

While at times the discipline of international relations can be conducted in a highly theoretical fashion and a subject of intense debate among purists of different schools, this discussion is often somewhat remote to the daily lives of the broader community--Your country as well as ours.

As foreign minister I take decisions that are deeply relevant to people’s lives and have a direct bearing on the security and well-being of my fellow Australians.

As a consequence of globalisation, and I think, particularly since September 11, the public in our country, as well as clearly here, have come to see in stark terms how international relations and the foreign policy decisions governments make are central to their lives.  Foreign policy now ranks among the bread and butter issues for all of us. It is no longer considered the preserve of the few or an outlet for those fascinated with symbols and rhetoric.

I regard this change to the way in which people see foreign policy as a positive thing.

It places ever-greater demands, of course, on practitioners to achieve outcomes rather than to posture.

My experience in nearly eight years as foreign minister is that a focus on outcomes can deliver dividends for many people. In the time I’ve been foreign minister I’ve seen proof of what we’ve contributed to.  The freedoms now enjoyed by the people of East Timor, the renewal of prosperity of South East Asia after the economic crisis of 1997-98, small businesses are today opening up in the Solomon Islands, Afghan girls attending their first school lessons, and the Iraqi people emerging from the darkness of one of the vilest tyrannies the modern world has known.

These results have come about through purposeful policy, decisive action and clarity about the challenges we face.

President Theodore Roosevelt, who I thought was a pretty good president, understood this one hundred years ago when he said: "A great people owes it to itself and to all mankind not to sink into helplessness before the powers of evil."  A century on, Roosevelt’s words still ring true as we confront the key challenges of our age: First the global insecurity we face, the murderous fanaticism of international terrorism, the nightmarish potential of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and the incubators of future threats in failed states.

Second, the unfinished objective of defeating poverty in the third world and securing global prosperity.

We must show strength and determination in meeting these challenges.

Practical people will want to know how we will do this.  We know that hollow words and empty posturing are provocative weakness in the face of tyrants and murderers like Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden.  This is why Australia joined its coalition partners to destroy the repressive Taliban regime in Afghanistan and its shelter for Al Qaeda.  The threats are real and the imperative for action is urgent.

International terrorism and the spread of WMD-related material and missiles threaten Australia, our friends and allies, as never before.  The nexus of terrorist groups, state sponsors of terrorism, and WMD is the security nightmare of the 21^st century.

These threats underline the indivisibility of international security: terrorism in one region will impact on others and no one is immune.

The Al Qaeda attacks on the United States on 9/11 gave the campaign against terrorism an urgency that it had long deserved, but had not received in the past--to our great and common misfortune.

Australians died in the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, and they died closer to home in the Bali bombings in October 2002, which claimed the lives of 88 of my countrymen and women.  The recent appalling attacks in Istanbul and Riyadh demonstrate again the virulence of the terrorist threat and the indiscriminate nature of the death and suffering it causes.

We are working closely with our friends and neighbours to hunt down terrorist organisations, cut off their finances and disrupt their operations.  Australian and Indonesian police forces have worked together brilliantly in the aftermath of the Bali bombing in October 2002 to hunt down the perpetrators and bring them to justice.

And [in front of] the Indonesian Consul [General], let me just again repeat our enormous gratitude for what the Indonesian police and authorities have done.  They have done a simply outstanding job.  Maybe in the United States that isn’t widely known.  It deserves to be widely known.  That highly successful joint investigation into the Bali bombing has led to the arrest of 36 people to date, with 29 already tried and convicted.  It has been one of the most impressive sets of terrorism prosecutions conducted anywhere, either before or after 9/11.  Across the region, 200 suspected Jema’ah Islamyah have been detained, with Jema’ah  terrorist mastermind Hambali in U.S. custody.  

The region is becoming a more difficult environment for terrorist groups.  We already have bilateral agreements with nine countries in East Asia on counter-terrorism cooperation.  Next month, I will co-host with my Indonesian counterpart an Asia Pacific summit meeting on counter terrorism cooperation.

But Al Qaeda and Jema’ah Islamyah and other terrorist organizations do retain formidable capabilities.  Disrupting the activities of terrorist groups will be a long and difficult process. We have made some progress, but more remains to be done.  And there is no doubting the importance of U.S. leadership and assistance in this global campaign.  Everyone with experience in national security matters knows how crucial U.S. intelligence and resources are in this fight.

[There is] a new urgency to finding practical solutions to the problem of WMD proliferation.

The strategic implications of WMD acquisition by a rogue state are serious enough; but each state that deviates from non-proliferation norms also provides an opportunity for potential proliferators or terrorists to access WMD and missile material and know-how.

We know terrorists have sought to acquire these weapons.  Osama bin Laden has declared openly that he would use such weapons if he had them.

Australia has been an active and consistent supporter of multilateral non-proliferation regimes underlined by the singular contributions we have made over the years in support of critical normative instruments such as the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, the Chemical and Biological Weapons Conventions, and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

It was against this background that we strongly supported the U.N. Security Council's 12-year effort to remove and verify the removal of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.  When the UN effort faltered, we joined the coalition military action to remove the threat to international security and end Saddam Hussein’s decade of defiance of the international community.

While some people may worry about whether the action we took was popular, we did what we believed was right and will continue to do so.  Saddam Hussein will never again threaten his people.  Iraq’s people will enjoy freedoms and opportunities hitherto undreamed of: we must not and we will not abandon them.

Our resolve to deal with Saddam sent a shiver through those who similarly sought to defy and threaten the international community.  We demonstrated to the world that the United States and many of its allies are serious about seeing this agenda through and by doing so we have achieved results.

Iran has entered into negotiations with the International Atomic Energy Agency. Australia and the United States are now working with the broader international community to ensure that Iran understands clearly that it must conform to the letter and spirit of its non-proliferation obligations.

Libya, very importantly, recently renounced its WMD programs and ambitions. Its agreement to forsake weapons of mass destruction and allow weapons inspectors from international organisations into the country is indeed very welcome news.

North Korea’s engaged in six-party talks and is aware that the continued pursuit of nuclear weapons is simply not acceptable to the East Asian region or the broader international community.  And others, like Syria, are more carefully considering their approach to these things.

We’re taking steps to cut the supply of WMD-related materials and missiles to rogue states through close cooperation with like-minded countries on effective export and transhipment controls.  And we are a partner with the United States, and ten other countries, in the Proliferation Security Initiative, which seeks to develop practical ways to impede illicit trade in WMD including through maritime, air and ground interdiction. 

What all this shows is that practical action against WMD proliferation can achieve real results.

Just as we must deal with existing states of concern, we also need to help those on the precipice of collapse.  We cannot afford to ignore those societies that have ceased to function through a failure of political order, economic growth or social cohesion.

Terrorism has underlined the threat to international security posed by weak and failed states.

Afghanistan illustrated the central role that such states can play in providing shelter and support for terrorist networks.

But terrorism is not the only consequence of weak or failed states. The smuggling of people, the laundering of money, the trafficking of drugs and weapons--including in some cases WMD materials--are all made easier in states whose legal and political systems have ceased to operate.

In our own region, Australia is working to strengthen the institutions and improve the outlook of countries around us.  Most recently, the Government has committed itself to helping the people and government of Papua New Guinea realise their national goals.

We have agreed with the Papua New Guinea government to a package of enhanced cooperation, in particular in the areas of economic management, public sector reform, border security and law, justice and policing.

If anything typifies the extent to which we have been prepared to support and work with our regional partners over the last year, it is the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands.  In cooperation with our Pacific neighbours, and at the invitation of the Solomons’ government, that mission has achieved some remarkable things.

For the first time in three years the people of the Solomons are able to live their lives free of violence.  For the first time in three years the Solomon Islands’ government is able to operate and deliver services to its people free of intimidation.

Of course that mission is not over.  We still have troops there, we have a lot of officials and police there helping to get the country working, much does remain to be done.  But it is gratifying to be able to say at such an early stage that we are well on the way to helping the people of the Solomons build a brighter, more stable and more prosperous future.  And we will all benefit from that, because a country that was, just a couple of months ago, a country on the precipice of becoming a failed state is now a country which has a reasonable future.

Our ambition for a brighter future is not confined to our neighbours in the South Pacific; it is bound in an idea, an idea that through globalisation we can globalise prosperity.

This enormous challenge requires a truly global commitment--from developed and developing countries--to removing barriers to trade and economic growth.

It needs an understanding of what made our countries--Australia and the United States--so prosperous.  An understanding that economic freedom, individual property rights, free trade, accountable government, and contestable ideas are the foundations of prosperity.

But these ideas will only take root if we lead by example.  We need to help the developing world build the institutions of good governance.  And we must end the hypocrisy of many developed countries that give aid with one hand, but through protectionist trade policies take back with the other. We need to open our markets to the developing world and truly fulfil the promise of globalisation.

This is the real world where the foreign policy of the Australian Government operates.  We focus on those relationships, institutions and issues that matter most to Australians and which will deliver results. 

Our national interests remain the touchstone of our foreign and trade policies.  These interests are increasingly global; they are not defined solely by geography.  And they are informed by our values as a society, our faith in democratic principles, individual worth and achievement, and a sense of duty to help others less fortunate than ourselves.

In this environment the security alliance between Australia and America of over 50 years has even greater importance and relevance.  It has endured because of the values we share, and because we can be confident in the other as a reliable, consistent and dependable ally.  We’ve stood shoulder to shoulder in almost every major conflict since the First World War.

Our alliance has seen us through challenges of the past. It will deliver us from the challenges of the present and take us forward into the future.

Australians and Americans have not just a right, but a responsibility to dream of a better world, but we also need to have the courage to make our dreams a reality, to act, not just to talk and hope.

We can help peoples throughout the world fulfil their goals of greater freedom and prosperity.  We can rid the world of senseless terrorism and the threat of human obliteration by weapons of mass destruction, but we cannot do these things without courage, strength and resolve.

Thank you very much.