ABSTRACT

In its 50 years, Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs (and later Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade) has become a great department of state. Foreign is an important conglomerate, doing diplomacy, trade, aid, and spying. In the Canberra system, though, Foreign has an ‘anaemia’ problem caused by chronic underfunding. Measured as a proportion of the Commonwealth budget, spending on diplomacy is halving in only three decades. Anaemia is the effect; the causes are a formidable set of forces pressing against the department over those 50 years: the evolution and empowerment of Australia’s presidential prime minister; the birth of ministerial minders; public service managerialism; Canberra’s national security system—and mindset—in the twenty-first century; globalisation and the digital era: every government department has its own bit of foreign policy; political choices: Australia’s two parties of government— Liberal and Labor—often buy something other than good foreign policy. Plus, important bits of the Liberal Party see DFAT as ideologically tainted.

摘要

在其 50 年间，澳大利亚外交部（以及后来的外交和贸易部）已成为一个伟大的国家部门。外国是一个重要的企业集团，从事外交、贸易、援助和间谍活动。但是，在堪培拉系统中，Foreign 存在长期资金不足导致的“贫血”问题。以英联邦预算的比例来衡量，外交支出在短短三年内减半。贫血是效果；原因是过去 50 年里，一系列强大的力量压迫着该部门：澳大利亚总统总理的演变和赋权；部长级监护人的诞生；公共服务管理主义；堪培拉 21 世纪的国家安全体系和心态；全球化和数字时代：每个政府部门都有自己的外交政策；政治选择：澳大利亚的两个政府党派——自由党和工党——通常购买的不是良好的外交政策。此外，自由党的重要人物认为 DFAT 在意识形态上受到了污染。