The increasing literature on international human resource management has produced findings which are largely repetitive and anecdotal and as such are contributing to a reemerging problem for Australian business enterprises wishing to increase their international business activity. The problem concerns the factors which organizations need to consider in most effectively developing and managing international management career programmes. What has traditionally been missing is a strategic framework that links appropriate international human resource management practices with an enterprise′s international business agenda. Develops an argument around this central theme which provides an overview of the need to address what is an emerging problem for Australian business enterprises – how international management careers are best developed and managed in the context of a firm′s human resource management strategy and its strategic international business activity.