The Australian reported in mid-October that three out of four heads of Australian diplomatic missions in Asia can't speak the language of the country they're posted to. And the shortage of suitably skilled diplomats is likely to continue, with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade recruiting two new trainees with European languages for every one with an Asian fluency.

This is partly a reflection of the lack of concern that Australian school and university students have for the languages and cultures of our region, which is a growing national problem. That's not to say our society is devoid of younger people equipped with the appropriate skills, who could be attracted to our Diplomatic Service and to other government agencies that act as the eyes and ears of the nation. It's just that they don't see themselves serving the national interest in that way.

Question most Australians on where the country's destiny lies and they'll readily acknowledge that the Asian region is crucial to our future. But ask them what they, or those closest to them, should personally be doing to make a contribution, and awareness levels drop off fast. There's a serious disconnect in this country between the perception of opportunity proffered by the region and the obligation we have to perform in order to exploit it. It's like a Cargo Cult by default - all take and no give.

But the world's changing rapidly and it won't treat such complacency benignly for much longer. Even Asia is appreciably different to the image most of us have of it. The very term ‘Asia-Pacific Century' is already dated. The geopolitical centre of the world is moving west. From somewhere out in the Ocean, it has already crossed the developed coastal belt of China and is heading for Central Asia. This has significant implications, not just for Australia, but for the global community as a whole. The old Great Game territory of Rudyard Kipling's day is now bigger, bolder and richer, and stretches from Vladivostok to the Gulf States. It contains the rising giants of China and India, a resurgent Russia, and much more, which accounts for more than half of the world's population.

On the linguistic front alone, this means that for Australia, the Asian language domain now has to embrace Russian and Arabic as well as many others. It's no longer just Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Indonesian.

Few in this broader region, especially in its burgeoning middle class, feel that they owe Australia a livelihood. We're going to have to work for our keep. Something that will become progressively more intolerable will be the sense of Western superiority we unintentionally exude when we expect others to speak English - which most Australians are lucky to be born into. True, English is nowadays an international lingua franca, but importantly, and largely unnoticed, its balance has tilted. Today, non-native speakers of English outnumber the ‘lucky' natives, and that is a process that will continue at an increasingly heady pace.

In short, DFAT's problem with Asian language speakers is but a microcosm of a wider, national attitudinal malaise. And it's one that's recognised more easily by outsiders than by Australians themselves.

Because DFAT runs our extensive network of embassies and consulates overseas it is the country's primary flag-flier and also a symbol of the best of our intellectual tradition. It is sad that in some ways it should also be an advertisement for national myopia.

Warren Reed has spent much of his professional life in the Asian region and was for three years chief operating officer of CEDA, the Committee for Economic Development of Australia.