Bøger af David Goldsworthy

Losing the Blanket shows how Australia's foreign policy during the 1950s and 1960s was affected by the end of empire.When Britain's sprawling empire wound down with unexpected speed in the 1960s, Australia lost a comforting 'security blanket'. We had to struggle to re-establish and protect ourselves in a volatile and threatening world. Australia's interests in empire had taken many forms-strategic, economic, cultural and psychological. Indeed Australia had used British experience as a template for its own 'mini-imperialism', in Papua and New Guinea for example. The most important connnections between Britain's imperial interests and Australia's regional ones were in Southeast Asia, but they extended to the Indian and Pacific oceans and even to Africa. The effects of the end of empire upon Australia's external relations have tended to be eclipsed by historians' emphasis on Cold War imperatives and Australia's consequent alignment with the United States. Losing the Blanket rights the balance by showing how Australia's foreign policy during the 1950s and 1960s was affected by the end of empire. Under the thirty-year rule, vital primary sources in both Britain and Australia are now accessible. They reveal the effects of post-imperialism upon Australian policies in key areas such as defence planning in Southeast Asia, the politics of the Commonwealth, European union, Australia's own colonial policy, and relations with Britain itself. David Goldsworthy's account is both clear and thorough. As first Menzies and then Holt looked to protect Australia's interests, the groundwork was laid for our involvement in Vietnam and for the pattern of Australia's foreign relations today.

Facing North is the first substantial history of Australia's relations with Asia since Federation.Facing North is the first substantial history of Australia's relations with Asia since Federation. Volume 1 chronicles Australian-Asian relations from 1901 to the 1970s and Volume 2 (in preparation) will carry the story through the last decades of the century just ended. Both make extensive use of official government sources and of the private collections of ministers and public servants.Debate about engagement with Asia is not a recent phenomenon. Ever since Federation, Australians in public life have expressed diverse views on our foreign policy and on areas with major domestic consequences, such as immigration.In this volume, Australia faces up to many changes in Asia. Japan, an expanding military power during the 1930s, becomes an economic partner during the 1950s. The Pacific war and decolonisation open Australia's regional horizons - and the Vietnam war necessitates active engagement with Southeast Asia. Failure to recognise China during the 1950s and 1960s shifts after 1972 to a vigorous search for relationship. Other key developments include the initiation of the Colombo Plain in the 1950s, and gradual abolition in the 1960s and 1970s of the White Australia Policy.The story is not a simple one of smoothly evolving engagement. The challenges presented by Asian realities have evoked complex responses, which this history analyses and clarifies. It explains the major changes in official Australian policies towards Asia, together with the broader cultural challenges.Facing North tells us what was done in the past, and why. It is essential reading for anyone who wants to better understand Australia's present relations with Asian countries, and our future choices.