Tag Archive for: "DFAT"
Why doesn’t DFAT do strategy?

After reading Bob Carr’s Diary of a Foreign Minister, I’m left wondering why the business of foreign policy is—well, to be blunt—so completely un-strategic. Can it really be true that ‘all foreign policy is a …

An ambassador for countering transnational crime

The Australian Crime Commission has warned that a significant amount of Australia’s organised crime problem is generated overseas. Foreign countries are often the sources of drugs and guns, and  may provide the bases where criminal …

Of aid and wombats

In ordering administrative upheaval in Foreign Affairs and Trade, Tony Abbott finally killed off an aid consensus that had lasted for a brief political moment, while quietly breaking an Iron Law of politics that ruled …

Dennis Richardson and Arthur Tange: part II

My previous column compared the only Australian mandarins who have headed both Foreign Affairs and Defence, Dennis Richardson and Arthur Tange. To further pursue that comparison, step forward two other mandarins: Philip Flood, former Secretary …

Dennis Richardson and Arthur Tange: part I

With his appointment as the Secretary of the Defence Department last year, Dennis Richardson has joined Arthur Tange as the only public servant to have headed both the departments of Foreign Affairs and Defence. Given …