Suresh Marcandan has kindly provided this following summary:
Commencing with the first Presidential Debate, to the ’super-spreader’ event at the White House, resulting in the
hospitalisation of President Trump, and the attempted kidnapping of a State Governor, the first three weeks of
October have been very tense in the run-up to what is expected to be one of the most important Presidential
Elections in the history of the USA.
Rotary Melbourne was very privileged to welcome Tom Switzer, Executive Director of the Center for Independent
Studies, whose very insightful and balanced analysis of the implications for Australian foreign policy was both
informative and realistic and hence was very well received by the members.
Some of Tom’s key observations are as follows:
1. Biden leads the polls, but based on the misleading predictions in 2016, there cannot be room for complacency;
2. Regardless of whether Trump or Biden win, there is widespread consensus in Washington that there will be a
continued hard-line policy towards China;
3. Australia is best placed by ’straddling two horses’ and balancing our defence interests and our economic interests
with the USA and China respectively. This is not easy when the two ‘horses’ are on diverging courses;
4. Australia relies heavily on USA as its key defence ally and should continue to do so.
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