International | The AUKUS squad

The strategic reverberations of the AUKUS deal will be big and lasting

A profound geopolitical shift is happening

COCKBURN SOUND, AUSTRALIA - FEBRUARY 12: In this handout image provided by the Australian Defence Force, Royal Australian Navy submarine HMAS Rankin conducts helicopter transfers during a training assessment on February 12, 2021 in Cockburn Sound, Australia. Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom have announced a new strategic defence partnership - known as AUKUS - to build a class of nuclear-propelled submarines and work together in the Indo-Pacific region. The new submarines will replace the Royal Australian Navy's existing Collins submarine fleet. (Photo by LSIS Richard Cordell/Australian Defence Force via Getty Images)

JUST OCCASIONALLY, you can see the tectonic plates of geopolitics shifting in front of your eyes. Suez in 1956, Nixon going to China in 1972 and the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989 are among the examples in living memory. The unveiling last week of a trilateral defence pact between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States (introducing the awkward acronym of AUKUS) is providing another of those rare occasions.

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