{"product_id":"grand-ambition-paul-keatings-global-vision-for-australia-9781761425233","title":"Grand Ambition: Paul Keating's global vision for Australia","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWritten with never-before-seen documents from Paul Keating’s archive and drawing on long conversations and interviews with him over many years, this book explores the ambitions for Australia and its place in the world that guided Keating: arguably the last Prime Minister with a compelling long-term vision for the country.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs Australia stands on the edge of the greatest reappraisal of its strategic circumstances, what is the relevance of Paul Keating’s vision for Australia in the world today?  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAt the moment of his political defeat in 1996, Paul Keating stood defiant, still arguing for a vision of Australia that reached far beyond the limits of electoral politics. Three decades on, this book revisits that vision: bold, contested and somewhat unravelled by subsequent Coalition governments.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDrawing on newly revealed documents and extensive interviews, it traces how Keating sought to reshape Australia’s foreign policy at the end of the Cold War: anchoring the country in Asia, embedding China within a regional order, deepening ties with Indonesia and challenging long-held assumptions about dependence on great powers. For Keating, economic reform, national identity and international strategy were inseparable: part of a single, sweeping project to remake Australia.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAmbitious and provocative, this is both a portrait of a singular political mind and a reappraisal of a pivotal era. It argues that the questions Keating grappled with – about independence, security and identity – remain unresolved, and more urgent than ever in a world defined by rising tensions between the United States, China and the rest of the world.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eIncluding exclusive photographs from Paul Keating's private collection.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch4\u003eDetails\u003c\/h4\u003e\u003cp\u003eISBN13: 9781761425233\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFormat: Hardback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eNumber of Pages: 400\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eEdition: \u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePublication Date: 01 Sep 2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePublisher: Simon \u0026amp; Schuster Australia\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePublication City, Country: Australia\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDimensions (cm): 23.4(H)x15.3(L)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWeight (gm): \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch4\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h4\u003e\u003cp\u003eJames Curran is Professor of Modern History at the University of Sydney and has published widely on the history of Australia's foreign relations. He has written for Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The National Interest and \u003ci\u003eAustralian Financial Review,\u003c\/i\u003e where he was International Editor from 2023–2025. In 2025, Curran was an ABC Boyer Lecturer. In 2013, he was Chair of Australian History at University College Dublin and has also been a Fulbright Scholar at Georgetown University, in Washington D.C. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Social Sciences and a Fellow of the Australian Institute of International Affairs. Prior to his academic career, he worked for the Australian government in the Prime Minister's Department and the Office of National Assessments.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch4\u003eReviews\u003c\/h4\u003e","brand":"James Curran","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49241062867161,"sku":"9781761425233","price":49.99,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/www.arielbooks.com.au\/products\/grand-ambition-paul-keatings-global-vision-for-australia-9781761425233","provider":"Ariel","version":"1.0","type":"link"}