By: Stephen Kuper
Like a girlfriend with an anxious attachment style, Australia has once again (and perhaps predictably) responded to US President Trump’s accelerating and unapologetic America First agenda in a reductionist manner where we undoubtedly lose, rather than looking at it for what it is: A wake-up call from a tired, overstretched ally.
For those who aren’t aware, an “anxious attachment style” – one of the three insecure attachment styles recognised in psychology – is characterised by “low self-esteem, strong fear of rejection or abandonment and clinginess in relationships” and often stems from an anxious ambivalent attachment in children that develops as a result of misattunement and/or inconsistent parenting.
This anxiousness and pathological fear of abandonment continued to play out in the aftermath of the Second World War, as Australia rapidly moved to “lock down” the United States via the Australia, New Zealand and United States (ANZUS) Security Treaty in 1951 and jumping at every opportunity to “pay into” the insurance scheme during the 20th century, joining America in every one of its major conflagrations.
But what does this have to do with the second Trump administration and the latest incarnation of its unashamedly “America First” agenda?