Ministers, Mandarins and Diplomats: Australian Foreign Policy Making, 1941-1969

In the three decades from the beginning of World War II Australia emerged on the world stage as an independent actor in foreign affairs. The key institution overseeing the development of Australia’s international status and foreign policy during that period was the Department of External Affairs.
This stimulating collection of essays explores the history of this government department as it grew from being a small amateur bureaucratic player to become a professional global network.
This book sheds new light on the major figures in Australian international history, H. V. ’Doc’ Evatt, Percy Spender, Richard Casey, Garfield Barwick and Paul Hasluck--and their relationships with their senior bureaucratic advisers. The experiences of Australian diplomats, as they joined the Department of External Affairs as junior recruits and worked overseas, are also examined.
Ministers, Mandarins and Diplomats tells the story of the people, the events and the ideas that shaped Australian foreign policy and gave Australia its identity in the eyes of the rest of the world.

Joan Beaumont is the dean of arts and a professor of history at Deakin University in Victoria. She is the author of Gull Force: Survival and Leadership in Captivity, 1941-45. David Lowe and Christopher Waters both teach at the School of Australian and International Studies, Deakin University. Garry Woodard is a senior fellow in the department of politics at the University of Melbourne.