John Howard’s decision to commit thousands of Australian troops to the invasion of Iraq 15 years ago ranks as one of the two great failures of Australian foreign policy since the Second World War.

The other is Menzies’ decision to send forces to Vietnam. Both cases represented an abysmal failure of Australian political leadership, driven by an unnecessary capitulation to strategically foolhardy decisions by the US administrations of the time.

Both decisions were taken without independent Australian analysis of the legitimacy of American war aims, the credibility of American military strategy to both win the war and secure the peace, as well as the long-term consequences for Australian national interests.

If you are looking for students who exemplify the "take-action" aspect of global competence, look no further than the survivors of the Parkland shooting. Not only have they been acting locally and nationally, they recently took their message to the world at the Dubai Global Education and Skills Forum. One of the survivors, Sam Zeif, has brought up the example of Australia as one that the U.S. should look to as an example. To learn more, I interviewed The Honorable Kevin Rudd, 26^th Prime Minister of Australia and President of the Asia Society Policy Institute, New York.