Australian Foreign Policy under the Howard Government

This thesis uses the concept of middle power to analyse foreign policy doctrine and practicies of Australia under the Coalition government led by John Howard from 1996-2007. A middle power in this thesis means a state which meets three main criteria when declaring foreign policy doctrine and conducting foreign policy, namely: (1) adhering to multilateral frameworks and international organisations; (2) being largely independent from great powers' influence and being able to criticise and oppose great powers on some occasions in order to maintain the orderliness of international relations; and (3) being a good international citizen in the sense that, apart from its own interests, it must also be aware of the interests of others such as protecting the environment and using its power to protect the weak against the strong. When applying these three criteria to analyse foreign policy doctrine and practices under the Howard government, some aspects and some practices corresponded with the criteria of a middle power while others did not at all. Therefore, this thesis concludes that Australia under the Howard government was not a constant middle power.

Autorentext

Thosaphon Chieocharnpraphan graduated with a Bachelor Degree in Political Science (International Relations) with First Class Honours and a Gold Medal from Chulalongkorn University, Thailand. He completed a Master of Diplomacy as well as a Master of Arts (International Relations) from the Australian National University (ANU), Australia in 2011.