In our fifth and final Boyer Lecture for 2025, James Curran, professor of modern history at the University of Sydney, analyses our partnership with the world’s most powerful democracy, the USA, addressing options for how we can deal with, and even construct, a post -American future.

In his talk, Professor Curran argues that we need to stop hoping for ‘regional strategic equilibrium' because US primacy is a thing of the past. Instead, we need to look for new solutions within our Asia-Pacific region to secure amity, commerce, and cooperation into the future.

“The point is not that we cannot have an independent foreign policy: the point is that it does not need to be articulated by the shaking cans of bully beef or dressing up the Eureka Stockade incident in the borrowed robes of Gettysburg or the storming of the Bastille. We cannot be entirely dependent of the US and China because their actions still have such a powerful influence on us. And we need to retain influence in Washington and Beijing to press the cause of peace.”

Credits:

• Presented by James Curran, professor of modern history at the University of Sydney
• Series curated and introduced by Dr Julia Baird
• Executive Producer, Julia Baird
• Producer, Gail Boserio
• Sound Engineer, Simon Branthwaite