Beeson, M.Jayasuriya, K.2011-04-042011-04-042009Australian Journal of Politics and History, 2009; 55(3):360-3740004-95221467-8497http://hdl.handle.net/2440/62898The study of Australia’s Asian engagement — just as much as the history of the process itself — has been shaped by structural shifts in the international system and the global political economy as they reverberate through domestic political debates. As a consequence, ideas about Asian engagement tell us as much about the character of national political debates as they do about Australian policy-makers’ perceptions of the region. Understandings of Asia as a transnational political space are shaped by national conflicts and struggles over issues such as communism or national identity. Ideas and disputes over Australia’s relationship with Asia become closely aligned with conflict between conservative and radical academic approaches to Asia. With the end of the Cold War in the 1980s and 1990s, the triumph of neoliberalism and the waning of ideological politics of the 1960s were mirrored in academic approaches that adopted a policy or cultural approach to Asia.en© 2009 The Authors. Journal Compilation © 2009 School of History, Philosophy, Religion and Classics, School of Political Science and International Studies, University of Queensland and Blackwell Publishing Asia Pty Ltd.Journal article002010345110.1111/j.1467-8497.2009.1522a.x0002696999000042-s2.0-7034910245132018