An Australian World

The retreat of Britain and America from the region at the end of the East Asian Cold War caused Australia to redefine itself in relation to Britain and to reassess it relations with the US. As a result Australia, recognising the limits of the American alliance began to focus its energies on the Asia Pacific region in a new way. This episode will look first at the foundations of Australia’s new approach to Asia which the Whitlam and Fraser governments laid down from 1972 to 1983. Voice Actor: Associate Professor Nick Eckstein

This episode explores how in response to changes in America’s East Asia policy and the course of the Vietnam war, Australian governments, particularly that of Labor Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, sought to redefine Australia’s relations with the US. Voice Actor: Associate Professor Nick Eckstein

Now comes the reassessment. In this episode, I begin to explore the breakdown of the bi-polar ideological world and the decision of Australia’s ‘Great and Powerful Friends’ to withdraw from Asia. Today, the “new nationalism”, or how Australia began to redefine its relations with Britain for a new era. Voice Actors: Associate Professor Nick Eckstein, Dr. Vanessa Witton.

Following on from the previous episode, this episode looks at the Indonesian Confrontation with Malaysia over the future of the British territories in Borneo, Sarawak and British North Borneo; and the Communist led Vietnamese nationalist movement and the Vietnam War. Voice Actor: Associate Professor Nick Eckstein

This episode is about Australia and the National Independence movements in Southeast Asian region, the issue which above all dominated Australian defence and foreign policy during the 1950s and 1960s. There is a particular focus on Indonesia’s independence and the fate of West New Guinea. Voice Actor: Associate Professor Nick Eckstein