Next week I will run a series of short articles entitled ‘Quo vadis - the future of the US-Australian alliance’.

In anticipation of that series, I will be posting three articles this week. Part 1, posted today, is by Michael McKinley concerning our reliance on the US relationship. He argues that whilst US military power remains strong, the US is in decline in many ways.

Part 2 will based on comments by the late Malcolm Fraser in which he said “We no longer have an independent capacity to stay out of America’s wars”.

I will write the third article, Part 3, about the US being almost always at war and the powerful and persuasive influence of the military/industrial and intelligence complex in the US. John Menadue.