Australia's Foreign Policy after Timor
| Date | 01 March 2000 |
| Author | Garry Woodard |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070200005500101 |
| Published date | 01 March 2000 |
| Subject Matter | Comment & Opinion |
GARRY
WOODARD
Australia's foreign
policy
after
Timor
THE
SETTING
In
July
1997,
John
Howard's
conservative
government
honoured
an
election
promise
and
issued
In
the
National
Interest,
Australia's
first-
ever
white
paper
on
foreign
and
trade
policies.
Election
promises,
like
pie-crusts,
are
made
to
be
broken,
but
1996
was
such
a
turbulent
year
in
Australian politics
-
an
ephemeral
populist
racist
movement,
Hansonism,
exploited
some
of
the
domestic discontents
of
globaliza-
tion
-
and
such an error-filled
year
in
foreign
policy
that
there
was
a
strong
compulsion
on
the government
to
retrieve
some
ground
by
set-
ting
out
its
international philosophy.
It
was
a
risky
move.
Howard's
record
did not
suggest
a
keen
interest
in
foreign
affairs.
In
the
tradition
of
bipartisanship
in
this
area,
his
party's
programme
seemed
to
contain
few,
if
any,
convincing
differ-
ences
from
its
Labor
predecessors.
Predictions
in
international
affairs
are always
hazardous.
Australia's
longest-serving
foreign
minister,
Richard
Gardiner
(later
Lord)
Casey,
an
artist
of
aphorisms,
used
to
say
that
'diplomats,
unlike
the
money market,
don't
deal
in
futures.'
Technological
advances
have
aided
the
professionals'
preference
for
making
policy
on
the
run,
for
foreign
policy
as
the
art
of
the
skilful
fumble.
By
1997
the
Department
of
Foreign
Affairs
and
Trade
(DFAT),
in
the
tenth
year
of
its
merger,
had
survived
serious
teething problems
and
severe
downsizing
largely
by
giving
economic
and
financial
issues
precedence
over
traditional broad
politico-security
concerns.
Mercantilism shaped
the
white
paper.
In
the words
of
the
foreign
affairs
minister,
Alexander
Downer,
in
an
address
to
the
National
Press
Senior
Associate
in
Political
Science,
Melbourne
University
and
former
President
of
the
Australian
Institute
oflnternationalAffairs.
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
Winter
1999-2000
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