Premium
Brave New Liberal: Percy Spender
Author(s) -
Lowe David
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
australian journal of politics and history
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.123
H-Index - 23
eISSN - 1467-8497
pISSN - 0004-9522
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8497.2005.0381a.x
Subject(s) - foreign policy , political science , work (physics) , period (music) , liberal party , political economy , public administration , law , sociology , politics , aesthetics , philosophy , engineering , mechanical engineering
Percy Spender's pioneering work as External Affairs Minister is often held up as a significant contribution to Liberal policy‐making and Australian foreign policy more generally. A closer look at his life and thinking illuminates some of the factors behind his policy‐making. Some of the more prominent, shaping factors can be organised under the headings of his overseas travels before becoming External Affairs Minister at the end of 1949; his sense that the mid‐twentieth period was one in which Asia suddenly played a big role; and his determination that Australians should be proactive in their relations in their region, rather than merely reactive in foreign policy.