Introduction: Australia's changing relations with Britain and the Commonwealth from Menzies to Howard via Fraser—A brief survey

Abstract

In the 1950s and early 1960s Australian governments led by R. G. Menzies saw the Commonwealth essentially as a family of old British colonies of settlement or dominions bound together by national interest and sentiment. The emergence of the new multiracial Commonwealth in the 1960s coincided with fundamental changes in this relationship when Britain joined the European Community and withdrew its military from East of Suez. Since then, although Australia has played an important role as a ‘good citizen’ in various Commonwealth disputes, the Commonwealth has been of less importance to Australia. However, of late, under the twin pressures of globalization and the ‘war on terror’, the Australia – Britain relationship has had a renaissance.