Australia is not just a settler-colonial state — for much of the twentieth century, it was also a direct colonial power in the Pacific. And today, while Australia does not directly govern formerly colonized nations like Papua New Guinea or Nauru, it still dominates the South Pacific, in large part thanks to the geopolitical order established by the United States.

At the same time, however, the United States interferes in Australian politics and demands Australia’s adherence to an economic system that privileges American corporations. This can raise difficult questions: is Australia best understood as an imperialist nation in its own right or merely as an outpost of US power? In his new book, Subimperial Power: Australia in the International Arena, Clinton Fernandes argues that the truth lies somewhere in the middle: Australia is a subordinate beneficiary of the US empire.

Fernandes is professor of international and political studies at the University of New South Wales, Canberra. He began his academic career in the mid-2000s after serving as an intelligence officer in the Australian Army. In his first book, Reluctant Saviour: Australia, Indonesia and the Independence of East Timor, Fernandes demonstrated the Australian government’s complicity with the genocidal occupation of East Timor by Indonesia.