Foreign policy wonks have spent a lot of time over the past week musing on the concept of negative globalism.
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The prime minister's landmark speech outlining his approach to foreign policy left a lot of people scratching their heads.
The focus has been on eight lines out of Scott Morrison's half-hour speech to the Lowy Institute.
What exactly did he mean by negative globalism? Which mandates have a borderless global community imposed on Australia? And how about that "unaccountable internationalist bureaucracy"?
As Labor was quick to point out, any rules or treaties Australia abides by are the results of the government signing us up of their accord.
Former spy boss and Lowy founding director Allan Gyngell says the speech was remarkably defensive.
"I can't remember a foreign policy speech by an Australian prime minister in which the words 'sovereign' or 'sovereignty' appear so often," he wrote on the Lowy Interpreter blog.
Pressed for examples of the country being forced into actions against its will, the prime minister referred to Australians setting their own policies, "whether it's on border protection or anywhere else", in the nation's interests.
He flat-out refused to expand further.
Certainly, the country has received no shortage of advice from the United Nations and others about its border protection policies - a point underscored by the head of its human rights agency when she visited Sydney this week.
But his thoughts may have also been on another global issue where Australia is being pushed to act outside of what his government's policies are: climate change.
This isn't just a matter of the UN telling us (along with everyone else) to do more.
The Pacific Islands Forum, which Morrison attended in early August, wasn't exactly the tour de force of friendship and kinship he may have hoped for.
Fijian prime minister Frank Bainimarama, in particular, has been very outspoken about Australia's action - or lack thereof - on climate change.
As the PIF came to a close, he accused Morrison of being "very insulting and condescending" during negotiations over climate action.
They've since met in Canberra and New York, and Morrison is headed back to Fiji this week, but Bainimarama has indicated he won't shy away from further criticisms on the topic.
All leaders at the Pacific Islands Forum - Morrison included - signed up to a statement committing to "bold regional climate change action".
It called for all countries to heed the UN secretary-general's calls for carbon pricing and a transition from fossil fuels.
The statement also urged G20 members to phase out fossil fuel subsidies, and for everyone signed up to the Paris Agreement to boost plans for emissions cuts in order to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees.
Gee, who around that table in Tuvalu could Pacific leaders have been thinking about?
"(Morrison) wants to demonstrate that he's willing to be neighbours and true blue friends and family members, but when it comes to the key global concern, he's not there," the Australia Institute's climate program director Richie Merzian tells AAP.
"This is really his Achilles heel, the international stage on climate change."
And the prime minister's absence from the special UN climate summit in New York, despite being in America at the time, was noted on global and domestic levels.
Morrison emphasised in the Lowy speech and since that his government was answerable to Australian voters.
"Only a national government, especially one accountable through the ballot box and the rule of law, can define its national interests," he said.
It's understandable that he might be feeling frustrated that, having just won an election nobody expected him to win, and seeing that as an endorsement of Liberal Party policies, he's now having to contend with these other countries demanding Australia step up.
Merzian says that's the wrong way to look at things.
"It's not an issue with the international stage, it's an issue with his policies, but he's just not seeing it as such," he said.
"On climate action, Australians over and over again want to see a government that is actually delivering."
Australian Associated Press
