Australia is a country worried about a future under a mighty and demanding China, and afraid that American leadership has already checked out.

Those concerns have been the motive behind the Turnbull government's white paper on foreign policy. And the white paper itself is the government's plan for what to do about it.

A breakthrough concept in the paper is that Australia should start something it has never done before. Balancing.

Not balancing one priority against another, or balancing the US alliance against the China relationship. But balancing in the meaning of classical European statecraft.