AUSTRALIA INTERNATIONAL CULTURAL-RELATIONS - SOME DOMESTIC DIMENSIONS

Recent policy statements about and administrative innovations for Australia's international cultural relations activities (involving the country-specific councils administered by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Australia Abroad Council, the Australia Council and the Cultural Ministers' Council) are examined in terms of the connections between foreign policy making and the domestic political sphere. The evidence demonstrates that while the developments were promoted in terms of supporting Australia's interests in the external world each is demonstrably serving the domestic political interests of the bureaucratic units involved.