Mr. Rawdon Dalrymple A.O. is the Chairman of the Advisory Board of Asean Focus Group. He is a graduate of the University of Sydney and was Rhodes Scholar from NSW in 1952. During Rawdon Dalrymple’s career in the Department of External Affairs (now Foreign Affairs and Trade) he was involved at one time or another in all aspects of Australia’s foreign interests and policy areas. He was one of the architects of the Asian Development Bank and served on its Board, spent a total of seven years in Indonesia and was Australia’s Ambassador there from 1981 to 1985. He was subsequently ambassador to The United States of America and then to Japan.

Original, insightful and well-organized, Rawdon Dalrymple studies Australia’s sense of vulnerability and attachment to distant protectors which has coexisted with tendencies of both assertiveness and complacency. Penetrating and authoritative the book examines the cautious development of Australian relations with East Asia during the 1980s and 1990s, with detailed coverage of the background to the Australian effort and critical analysis of where Australian forays into the politics of the region leave its standing in East Asia and the world today.

Reviews
Rawdon Dalrymple offers a very perceptive and well founded analysis of Australia’s policies towards East Asia over the past twenty years. Having served as Australian ambassador to Japan, the United States and Indonesia over twelve years he is extremely well informed on his subject. He offers trenchant and sometimes discomforting views on the consequences of Australian foreign policy for Australia’s relationship with East Asia in particular. He lets the reader in on many of Canberra’s secrets as to who did what and why. Well written, the book is hard to put down before the last page is reached.”
— Professor Robert O’Neill, University of Oxford, UK

“Dalrymple addresses Australia’s biggest Foreign Policy issue authoritatively and with profound insight. The story of a hundred years of ignoring and attempting to reconcile the tension between this country’s history and geography leads into the great challenges ahead. A splendid book in the best tradition of the top diplomat as reflective author.”
— Professor Ross Garnaut, Australian National University, Australia

“A joy to read…The author’s insights are penetrating…This book is destined to be a CLASSIC. It really is a piece of first-rate scholarship and writing.”
— Dennis Rumley, Associate Professor, University of Western Australia, Australia