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  • Published: 5 November 2014
  • ISBN: 9781760140632
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook

The Adolescent Country: A Lowy Institute Paper: Penguin Special




Drawing on exclusive interviews with prime ministers, foreign ministers and other policy-makers, Gold Walkley award–winning journalist peter Hartcher argues Australia needs to shake off its 'provincial reflex' and become a mature player in global affairs.

The great crises that threaten Australia's national prosperity come from abroad. So do the grandest opportunities. But in Australian politics the big matters are commonly crowded out by the small. International policy is used for domestic point-scoring. Leaders are criticised for travelling beyond the water's edge. Measured against its potential today and its needs tomorrow, Australia is seriously underperforming. It is wasting valuable opportunities to strengthen its position and help shape the world.

Drawing on exclusive interviews with prime ministers, foreign ministers and other policy-makers, Gold Walkley award–winning journalist peter Hartcher argues Australia needs to shake off its 'provincial reflex' and become a mature player in global affairs.

'One of the most formidable intellects in journalism.' The Saturday Paper

  • Published: 5 November 2014
  • ISBN: 9781760140632
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook

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About the author

Peter Hartcher

Gold Walkley award–winning journalist Peter Hartcher is currently the political and international editor of the Sydney Morning Herald. He has worked as a foreign correspondent in Tokyo and Washington, and has broken some of the biggest stories in Australian foreign policy and public life. Acknowledged as an independent, non-partisan commentator, Hartcher has appeared before parliamentary inquiries to give expert testimony on Australia's relations with Asia, and is a long-standing member of the Australian–American Leadership Dialogue.

He is the author of several books and essays, including Bubble Man: Alan Greenspan and the Missing Seven Trillion Dollars, Sweet Spot: How Australia Made Its Own Luck – and Could Now Throw It All Away, To the Bitter End: The Dramatic Story Behind the Fall of John Howard and the Rise of Kevin Rudd, and The Quarterly Essay: Bipolar Nation.