Australia occupies a peculiar place in the world system. On the one hand, it has always been a component of a larger empire. On the other hand, it is an imperialist state in its own right.
We have become accustomed to referring to postwar periods: the post-Second World War era, the post-Vietnam era, the post-Cold War era. But we have potentially entered a new and dangerous prewar era of intense superpower jockeying in which bloc politics returns to the fore.
