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Geoffrey Williams

Geoffrey Williams is the author of a dozen books on defence and strategic affairs, former lecturer in Strategic Studies at Southampton University for five years, and former Defence Fellow and Consultant to the British Ministry of Defence on maritime strategy.

Geoffrey Williams reviews 'Agenda for the Eighties: Contexts of Australian choices in foreign defence policy' edited by Coral Bell

October 1980, no. 25 01 October 1980
This book is a useful acquisition for those anxious about Australia’s prospects in the 1980s and while it does not exude optimism it contains a generally hopeful outlook which, given the way things are going, could be a rare commodity in 1990. The topics covered are those thought the most complex and difficult which the policymakers are likely to confront this decade. The essays are of a variabl ... (read more)

Geoffrey Williams reviews 'Diplomatic Witness: Australian foreign affairs 1941-1947' by Paul Hasluck

October 1980, no. 25 09 September 2022
Sir Paul Hasluck has written a most interesting account of Australia’s foreign policy during the war and the period 1945 to 1947. His impressionistic narrative which seeks to illuminate a period of history through one pair of eyes, as a central witness, giving evidence of how it was, works quite well despite the difficulties and unintentional distortions of the historical record that such an app ... (read more)

Geoffrey Williams reviews 'A History of Australian Foreign Policy: From dependence to independence' by E.M. Andrews

July 1986, no. 82 01 October 1980
This book is a useful and lucid account of Australian foreign policy since the very beginning. It does not purport to be an authoritative or a particularly analytical account of the evolution of external policy but is one which senior secondary school children could find helpful in achieving a sense of perspective. As its author concedes, to grasp the essentials of Australian foreign policy this b ... (read more)