Facing Asia: A History of the Colombo Plan

‘No

nation can escape its geography’, warned Percy Spender, Australia’s Minister

for External Affairs, in 1950. With the immediate turmoil of World War II

over, communism and decolonisation had ended any possibility that Asia could

continue to be ignored by Australia. In the early 1950s, Australia embarked

on its most ambitious attempt to engage with Asia: the Colombo Plan. This

book examines the public and private agendas behind Australia’s foreign aid

diplomacy and reveals the strategic, political and cultural aims that drove

the Colombo Plan. It examines the legacy of WWII, how foreign aid was seen as

crucial to achieving regional security, how the plan was sold to Australian

and Asian audiences, and the changing nature of Australia’s relationship with

Britain and the United States. Above all this is the question of how

Australia sought to project itself into the region, and how Asia was

introduced into the Australian consciousness. In answering these questions,

this book tells the story of how an insular society, deeply scarred by the

turbulence of war, chose to face its regional future.