Australia and World Crisis, 1914-1923 is the second volume in a pioneering two-volume history of Australian defence and foreign policy. It explores a number of fundamental issues which shaped Australia's response to the world in this era, such as race and culture, geopolitics and security, domestic divisions and ideas of loyalty and finally the philosophies and personalities of the chief policy makers.

Australia and World Crisis, 1914-1923 is the second volume in a pioneering two-volume history of Australian defence and foreign policy. It explores a number of fundamental issues which shaped Australia's response to the world in this era, such as race and culture, geopolitics and security, domestic divisions and ideas of loyalty and finally the philosophies and personalities of the chief policy makers.

Australia and the World celebrates the pioneering role of Neville Meaney in the formation and development of foreign relations history in Australia and his profound influence on its study, teaching and application. The contributors to the volume, historians, practitioners of foreign relations and political commentators, many of whom were taught by Meaney at the University of Sydney over the years, focus especially on the interaction between geopolitics, culture and ideology in shaping Australian and American approaches to the world. Individual chapters examine a number of major themes informing Neville Meaney's work, including the sources and nature of Australia's British identity; the hapless, if dedicated, efforts of Australian politicians, public servants and intellectuals to reconcile this intense cultural identity with Australia's strategic anxieties in the Asia-Pacific region; and the sense of trauma created when the myth of 'Britishness' collapsed under the weight of new historical circumstances in the 1960s. They survey relations between Australia and the United States in the years after World War Two. Finally, they assess the US perceptions of itself as an 'exceptional' nation with a mission to spread democracy and liberty to the wider world and the way in which this self-perception has influenced its behaviour in international affairs.

This book contributes to the global turn in First World War studies by exploring Australians’ engagements with the conflict across varied boundaries and by situating Australian voices and perspectives within broader, more complex contexts. This diverse and multifaceted collection includes chapters on the composition and contribution of the Australian Imperial Force, the experiences of prisoners of war, nurses and Red Cross workers, the resonances of overseas events for Australians at home, and the cultural legacies of the war through remembrance and representation. The local-global framework provides a fresh lens through which to view Australian connections with the Great War, demonstrating that there is still much to be said about this cataclysmic event in modern history.