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Pacific tensions

Australia’s interactions with the Pacific
by
November 2021, no. 437

Australia and the Pacific: A history by Ian Hoskins

NewSouth, $39.99 pb, 476 pp

Pacific tensions

Australia’s interactions with the Pacific
by
November 2021, no. 437

Travel itineraries are significant in the world of diplomacy, as Ian Hoskins illustrates in this panoramic survey of Australia’s interactions with the Pacific. Gareth Evans, freshly installed as Australia’s foreign minister in 1988, made a point of visiting the South Pacific neighbourhood before paying his country’s traditional obeisance to Washington and the European capitals. Within a month he had visited Papua New Guinea, Nauru, the Solomons, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Western Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, and New Zealand. Evans was sending a message, visibly prioritising ‘our Asia-Pacific geography over our Euro-Atlantic history’.

Robin Gerster reviews 'Australia and the Pacific: A history' by Ian Hoskins

Australia and the Pacific: A history

by Ian Hoskins

NewSouth, $39.99 pb, 476 pp

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