I'm John Bachelor. This is CBSi in the world. I'm speaking with my good

colleague and friend, the editor and publisher of Defense and Foreign Affairs, who's in Perth, Australia,

looking at the Indian Ocean.

This is the southern hemisphere, late winter, early springtime.

The koalas are moving around.

All of these strange creatures in Australia's including the venomous snakes

are making a burst of springtime. But we're speaking of the future. What is to be done with Australia transferring or believing its sovereignty was

transferred to the United States? The US is a troubled country, Gregory, and

depending upon Uncle Sam is unwise if you don't have a

plan B. So let's begin with plan B. Australia needs grand strategic thinking. Is

it ready for that, Gregory?

Well, it's ready for, it needs it right now, it's needed it for some time, but it's not exhibiting any demand for it. And I think it's worth commenting that this utopianist view of a post-industrial society

which was forecast by Herman Khan the great US strategist in 1981,

with a book called Will She Be Right,

mimicking the Australian phrase of,

she'll be right.

In other words, don't worry everything's going to be fine.

And basically he said that Australia was becoming dependent upon other powers.

It exported its self-reliance, and so were the United States and

Western Europe going to follow suit, and they have, because what we've seen in Australia as well as in

the US and UK and Western Europe declining labour productivity and that's been going

on successively since about 9895 in Australia.

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