Fear of Abandonment: Australia in the World - an update

Allan Gyngell AO FAIIA, National President, Australian Institute of International Affairs

Professor Caitlin Byrne FAIIA, Director, Griffith Asia Institute

Dr Bryce Wakefield, National Executive Director, Australian Institute of International Affairs

This event is online only. After registering, you will be sent a link before 11am on the day of the event. All times are in AEST (Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne time).

In this discussion, Allan Gyngell, Caitlin Byrne, and Bryce Wakefield will talk about the latest, updated edition of  Allan's acclaimed history of Australian foreign policy, Fear of Abandonment: Australia in the World Since 1942.

Everything Australia wants to achieve as a country depends on its capacity to understand the world outside and to respond effectively to it.

In Fear of Abandonment, Allan Gyngell AO FAIIA tells the story of how Australia has shaped the world and been shaped by it since it established an independent foreign policy during the dangerous days of 1942. He argues that the fear of being abandoned – originally by Britain, and later by our most powerful ally, the United States – has been an important driver of how Australia acts in the world. The new edition brings the story to January 2021 and covers the drama of Brexit, the Trump Administration, Xi’s ambitions for China, and the geopolitical implications of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This is a gripping and authoritative account of the way Australians and their governments have helped create the world we now inhabit. It lays the foundation for how Australian foreign policy should change as the country confronts the most difficult set of international challenges we have faced since 1942.

Purchase the 2021 Edition of Fear of Abandonment here. Available now as an eBook or on preorder as a paperback.

Allan Gyngell AO FAIIA has been National President of the Australian Institute of International Affairs (AIIA) since September 2017, having previously been named a Fellow of the AIIA in 2010. He is also an honorary professor with the Australian National University’s College of Asia and the Pacific.

Allan has had an extensive career in Australian international affairs. He was the Director-General of the Australian Office of National Assessments (ONA) from 2009 to 2013. Prior to leading the ONA, he was the founding Executive Director of the Lowy Institute from 2003 to 2009. Additionally, he has worked at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, serving as an Australian diplomat in Yangon, Singapore and Washington. He was Senior Advisor (International) to Prime Minister Paul Keating between 1993 and 1996.

Allan was appointed as an Officer in the Order of Australia in 2009 for services to international relations. In 2007, he co-authored Making Australian Foreign Policy with Michael Wesley. An updated edition of his history of Australian foreign policy, Fear of Abandonment: Australia in the World Since 1942, was published in 2021.

Professor Caitlin Byrne FAIIA is the Director of the Griffith Asia Institute.

She is a Fellow of the Australian Institute for International Affairs (AIIA) and Faculty Fellow of the University of Southern California's Centre for Public Diplomacy (CPD). Caitlin's research is focused on Australian diplomacy with a special interest in Australia's engagement in the Asia-Pacific region. Most recent research projects explore the role of leadership, soft power and public diplomacy-including people-to-people connections developed through international education, culture and sport-in developing Australia's regional influence, relationships and reputation.

Caitlin brings expertise in executive education and currently delivers training on Soft Power & Public Diplomacy, and International Policy & Tradecraft through Australia's Diplomatic Academy in Canberra. She consults on occasion to government in the areas of strategic foreign policy and diplomatic practice.

Prior to joining academia, Caitlin had established a professional career spanning strategic management, legal, foreign and social policy roles in government, business and community sectors.

Dr Bryce Wakefield is the national executive director of the Australian Institute of International Affairs and a visiting fellow at the Australian National University. He has lived, worked and researched in the United States, Japan, Europe and New Zealand. He trained as a political scientist with particular expertise in International Relations and the international affairs of East Asia.

From 2008 to 2012 Bryce was the associate responsible for Northeast Asian programs at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC. In this role, he was responsible for conceiving, designing and organising around 60 events in Washington, including policy briefings in the U.S. Congress, on political issues in Australia, Taiwan, North and South Korea and Japan. 

From 2012 to 2018, he was a tenured lecturer of area studies and international relations at Leiden University in the Netherlands.  During his time as a university academic he also delivered training, induction and briefing sessions for Dutch and international diplomats in the Hague and in Japan. Bryce lived in Japan from 1998 to 2004 and earned his master’s degree from Osaka University’s School of International Public Policy. He earned his PhD in political studies from the University of Auckland.