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Australia's engagement with Asia from 1944 until the late 1960s was based on a sense of responsibility to the United Kingdom and its Southeast Asian colonies as they navigated a turbulent independence into the British Commonwealth. The circumstances of the early Cold War decades also provided for a mutual sense of solidarity with the non‑communist states of East Asia, with which Australia mostly enjoyed close relationships. From 1967 into the early 1970s, however, Commonwealth Responsibility and Cold War Solidarity demonstrates that the framework for this deep Australian engagement with its region was progressively eroded by a series of compounding, external factors: the 1967 formation of ASEAN and its consolidation by the mid-1970s as the premier regional organisation surpassing the Asian and Pacific Council (ASPAC); Britain's withdrawal from East of Suez; Washington's de‑escalation and gradual withdrawal from Vietnam after March 1968; the 1969 Nixon doctrine that America's Asia-Pacific allies must take up more of the burden of providing for their own security; and US rapprochement with China in 1972. The book shows that these profound changes marked the start of Australia's political distancing from the region during the 1970s despite the intentions, efforts and policies of governments from Whitlam onwards to foster deeper engagement. By 1974, Australia had been pushed to the margins of the region, with its engagement premised on a broadening but shallower transactional basis.

"This book explores the time during the Cold War when Russian displaced persons, including former Soviet citizens, were amongst the hundreds of thousands of immigrants given assisted passage to Australia and other Western countries in the wake of the Second World War"--

This article asks new questions about the U.S.-Australian alliance at the height of the Cold War. Looking at Lyndon B. Johnson's visit to Australia in October 1966 -- the first time a serving U.S. president had set foot in the country -- the article contends that Johnson's presence brought Australian and U.S. approaches to the Cold War into sharp relief, shedding new light on the policies of both countries, especially as they grappled with the ongoing conflict in Vietnam. Although many Australian historians have claimed that this inaugural visit by a U.S. president exposed the alliance between the two countries as that of an imperial power and a colony, a closer look at reactions to the visit reveals a much more complex picture. The article challenges the widely held assumption that Johnson's trip put the final ceremonial gloss on Australia's exit from the bonds of the British Empire and heralded its entry into a U.S.-dominated global order. Adapted from the source document.

Join economist and former Greek Finance Minister, Yanis Varoufakis for a special talk at the University of Sydney. Yanis will discuss his new book, Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism, and its implications for Australia as the world enters a 'New Cold War' of geopolitical tensions between the United States and China.
The post Yanis Varoufakis, Australia & the New Cold War in the Age of Technofeudalism appeared first on Progress in Political Economy (PPE).

Intro; Acknowledgements; Abbreviations; 1. Introduction; 2. Region and regionalism in the immediate postwar period; 3. Decolonisation and Commonwealth responsibility; 4. The Cold War and non-communist solidarity in East Asia; 5. The winds of change; 6. Outside the margins; 7. Conclusion; References; Index

This article asks new questions about the U.S.-Australian alliance at the height of the Cold War. Looking at Lyndon B. Johnson's visit to Australia in October 1966—the first time a serving U.S. president had set foot in the country—the article contends that Johnson's presence brought Australian and U.S. approaches to the Cold War into sharp relief, shedding new light on the policies of both countries, especially as they grappled with the ongoing conflict in Vietnam. Although many Australian historians have claimed that this inaugural visit by a U.S. president exposed the alliance between the two countries as that of an imperial power and a colony, a closer look at reactions to the visit reveals a much more complex picture. The article challenges the widely held assumption that Johnson's trip put the final ceremonial gloss on Australia's exit from the bonds of the British Empire and heralded its entry into a U.S.-dominated global order.