Since 1940, when an Australian legation was established in Washington DC, Australian governments have expected much from their representatives in the American capital. This book brings together expert analyses of those who have served as heads of mission and of the challenges they have faced. Ranging beyond conventional studies of the Australian–United States relationship, it provides insights into the dynamics between Australian and US policymakers and into the culture of one of Australia’s oldest and most important overseas missions. It provides an appreciation of the importance of the embassy and the head of mission in Washington in mediating the relationship between Australia and the United States and of their role in managing expectations in Canberra and Washington. Australia Goes to Washington also sheds new light on personal trials and achievements at the coalface of Australian–United States relations.

Since 1940, when an Australian legation was established in Washington DC, Australian governments have expected much from their representatives in the American capital. This book brings together expert analyses of those who have served as heads of mission and of the challenges they have faced. Ranging beyond conventional studies of the Australian-United States relationship, it provides insights into the dynamics between Australian and US policymakers and into the culture of one of Australia's oldest and most important overseas missions. It provides an appreciation of the importance of the embassy and the head of mission in Washington in mediating the relationship between Australia and the United States and of their role in managing expectations in Canberra and Washington. Australia Goes to Washington also sheds new light on personal trials and achievements at the coalface of Australian-United States relations.

A child eagerly anticipates traveling to the nation's capital and touring the White House, home of the presidents.

Part biography, part transnational history, this study details the life and career of Percy Spender, one of Australia's most prominent twentieth-century political figures.

Unveiling the inside story of how Paul Keating and John Howard changed Australia, this record presents these two personalities as conviction politicians, tribal warriors, and national interest patriots. Divided by belief, temperament, and party, they were united by generation, city, and the challenge to make Australia into a successful nation for the globalized age. The making of policy and the uses of power are explored, capturing the authentic nature of Australian politics as distinct from the polemics advanced by both sides. Focusing on how these prime ministers altered the nation's direction, this study also depicts how they redefined their parties and struggled over Australia's new economic, social, cultural, and foreign policy agendas. A sequel to the author’s bestselling The End of Certainty, this survey is based on more than 100 interviews with the two key players as well as other politicians, advisers, and public servants.

Mandates and Missteps is the first comprehensive history of Australian government scholarships to the Pacific, from the first scheme in 1948 to the Australia Awards of 2018. The study of scholarships provides a window into foreign and education policy making, across decades, and the impact such policies have had on individuals and communities. This work demonstrates the broad role these scholarships have played in bilateral relationships between Australia and Pacific Island territories and countries. The famed Colombo Plan is here put in its proper context within international aid and international education history. Australian scholarship programs, it is argued, ultimately reflect Australia, and its perception of itself as a nation in the Pacific, more than the needs of Pacific Island nations. Mandates and Missteps traces Australia’s role as both a coloniser in the Territory of Papua and New Guinea and a participant in the process of decolonisation across the Pacific. This study will be of interest to students and scholars of international development, international education and foreign policy.

Australia and World Crisis, 1914–1923 is the second volume in a pioneering two-volume history of Australian defence and foreign policy. It is based on wide-ranging research in collections of personal and official papers in Australia, Britain, the United States and Canada. Linking up with the first volume, The Search for Security in the Pacific, it offers a new and path-breaking understanding of Australia's relations with the world from the outbreak of the First World War to the making of peace in Europe and the Pacific. This study explores a number of fundamental issues that shaped Australia's response to the world in this era, such as race and culture, geopolitics and security, domestic divisions and ideas of loyalty, and the philosophies and personalities of the chief policy makers. From the outset of this global conflict Australia was involved in a 'hot war' in Europe against Germany and its allies, and in a 'cold war' in the Pacific against Japan. The British Australians, for reasons of sentiment and interest, supported the Mother Country, but even as they did so they were deeply concerned about Japan's ambitions. As a result Japan figured prominently in Australia's approach to the war and the peace. Indeed for the Australians the 'cold war' did not come to an end until the Washington Conference of 1921–2, when Japan with the other Pacific powers agreed to limit naval building and to respect existing territories in China and the Pacific. In tracing out this story, the book throws light on many particular aspects of the 'hot' and 'cold' wars. They include the origins of Asian studies in Australia, intelligence gathering, the secret service and loyalty leagues, the fear of Japan in the conscription controversy, Irish Catholics and the Anglo-Irish War. The labour movement and the Bolshevik revolution, the ideological clash of the American President and the Australian Prime Minister over peacemaking, the visit of the Prince of Wales, 'Britishness' and the failure of the idea of Greater Britain all influenced the development of Australia's defence and foreign policy. At the end of the book there is an attempt to provide an assessment of Australia's leadership through these testing times and to point out the significance of this experience for a later generation of Australia policy makers.

Australia and World Crisis, 1914-1923 is the second volume in a pioneering two-volume history of Australian defence and foreign policy. It is based on wide-ranging research in collections of personal and official papers in Australia, Britain, the United States and Canada. Linking up with the first volume, The Search for Security in the Pacific, it offers a new and path-breaking understanding of Australia's relations with the world from the outbreak of the First World War to the making of peace in Europe and the Pacific. This study explores a number of fundamental issues that shaped Australia's response to the world in this era, such as race and culture, geopolitics and security, domestic divisions and ideas of loyalty, and the philosophies and personalities of the chief policy makers. From the outset of this global conflict Australia was involved in a 'hot war' in Europe against Germany and its allies, and in a 'cold war' in the Pacific against Japan. The British Australians, for reasons of sentiment and interest, supported the Mother Country, but even as they did so they were deeply concerned about Japan's ambitions. As a result Japan figured prominently in Australia's approach to the war and the peace. Indeed for the Australians the 'cold war' did not come to an end until the Washington Conference of 1921-2, when Japan with the other Pacific powers agreed to limit naval building and to respect existing territories in China and the Pacific. In tracing out this story, the book throws light on many particular aspects of the 'hot' and 'cold' wars. They include the origins of Asian studies in Australia, intelligence gathering, the secret service and loyalty leagues, the fear of Japan in the conscription controversy, Irish Catholics and the Anglo-Irish War. The labour movement and the Bolshevik revolution, the ideological clash of the American President and the Australian Prime Minister over peacemaking, the visit of the Prince of Wales, 'Britishness' and the failure of the idea of Greater Britain all influenced the development of Australia's defence and foreign policy. At the end of the book there is an attempt to provide an assessment of Australia's leadership through these testing times and to point out the significance of this experience for a later generation of Australia policy makers.

Examining a series of episodes in Australia’s foreign relations under Whitlam, the author pays attention to a broad range of hitherto insufficiently researched domestic and international issues in Australian’s foreign relations of the early 1970s. The election of the Whitlam-led Labor Government in December 1972 ushered in fresh ideas and audacious initiatives in Australia’s foreign policy. Whitlam’s approach was shaped by a vision of taking Australia forward to its “rightful” and “independent” place in the future of the Asia-Pacific region. They range from immigration policy and the abolition of appeals from Australian Courts to the Privy Council to such major international issues as the Anglo-American base in Diego Garcia, French nuclear testing in the Pacific and the Five-Power Agreement with respect to Malaysia and Singapore. He demonstrates how the pursuit of foreign policy independence repeatedly placed the Whitlam Government in a position wedged in between Australia’s traditional allies and the Third World; and how it navigated Australia’s national interests on a series of dilemma situations involving conflicting strategic interests between Australia and its traditional allies, and those between major powers and the non-aligned countries. The analysis presented in this book contributes to not only historical literature on the subject but also the understanding of how a middle power, like Australia, can navigate intensifying great power rivalry. Essential reading for scholars of Australian foreign policy, as well as being an invaluable case study of middle power diplomacy in the Asia-Pacific region.