Kevin Rudd’s Foreign Policy Overshoot

The Rudd Government’s foreign policy legacy: grand plans and ideas but an elusive national interest.

Of the many failings of Kevin Rudd’s prime ministership, most attention has focused on his problematic management of the domestic political agenda. In foreign affairs Rudd is widely perceived to have performed more impressively. This assessment, however, deserves closer scrutiny. Indeed, much that was wrong with Rudd’s policy-making at home was replicated in his policy-making abroad. While his international record as Prime Minister is not without some successes, overall it achieved less than promised and certainly less than Rudd and his admirers have claimed.

Kevin Rudd has a sophisticated understanding of the global strategic landscape and a well developed vision of Australia’s place in world affairs. It is a vision that places Australia on the high plains of influence, not on the lowlands of irrelevance. As Prime Minister, Rudd pursued this vision relentlessly. In the end,…