The Howard Paradox Australian Diplomacy in Asia, 1996-2006

Abstract

Paul Keating famously said that Asian countries wouldn't deal with John Howard. The decade of Howard government foreign policy has produced numerous gaffes and foreign policy crises in Asia, yet currently Australia enjoys arguably stronger relations with the region than ever before.This new book explains how this has happened. It finds answers to the Howard Paradox in the unexpected receptiveness of Asian countries to the Howard foreign policy approach, in large dollops of luck and fortuitous timing, and in over-estimations of the impact of Australian statements and actions on the hard-headed policy calculations of Asian governments. It analyses the old debate about whether Australia's allia..