Pax Australis: The History of Australia's Imperial Internationalism

Abstract

A great deal has been written about how global affairs and the international ambitions of other nations have shaped Australia, but almost nothing has been written to address the question of just how effective Australian Governments have been at devising and pursuing their own visions for how the world should be organised. In response to this question, this thesis explores instances in which Australia tried to shape the world and it presents the argument that these instances were guided by ideological motivations that came to form 'traditions of internationalism'. To support this proposition, this dissertation chronicles the history of Australia's tradition of Imperial Internationalism, which guided Australia's approach to the world from Federation to the late 1960s. This history demonstrates a remarkable ambition and ideological consistency at the heart of Australia's approach to the world. By exploring Australia's past to identify its traditions of internationalism, this dissertation not only presents an alternative approach to documenting Australia's past, but it also reveals an understanding of Australia's impact on world affairs that is altogether different from the established literature. A number of historians have reinforced the notion that Australia's historical relationships with the British Empire and the United States made Australia's international endeavours derivative of, and dependent upon, these great powers, leading some to even dispute the true independence of Australia. Concurrently, others have argued that an independent Australian approach to the world was apparent even prior to Federation. This piece seeks to reconcile these disparate views by demonstrating that the forces of Australian nationalism and British imperialism were in fact complimentary to Australia's international ambitions. This history of Australia's tradition of Imperial Internationalism reveals that successive Australian Governments were effective at using great power relationships to project Australia's own self-devised international ambitions - ambitions that were often bold and disruptive. It explains that Australia's chief ambition during this period was to entrench British and American power in its neighbourhood for the purpose of reinforcing Western hegemony over the developing nations of the Asia-Pacific region. This thesis therefore demonstrates that Australia had a significant impact on global affairs in the twentieth century that is disproportionate to the historical perception of Australia as a smaller power. Not least of all, this impact was accomplished because of the ability of successive governments to shape and influence the behaviour of two great powers with whom Australia shared powerful ideological affinities.