Dimensions
137 x 212 x 24mm
How has a government that has done so many things critics said would damage Australia's relations with its region managed to build such strong links with Asian countries?
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 overestimations 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 alliance with America strengthens or weakens its entree into Asia, and explores the emergence of new forms of Australian diplomacy in the region.
