Muscling up to the world: For constrained democratic leaders, foreign policy is another country

Foreign policy is the last refuge of the strong leader. While those who differ too much or dream too big in the domestic sphere are quickly branded 'out of touch', the external affairs of a nation remain a welcoming hearth for 'leaders'. The impact of leaders and public perceptions is at the heart of two recent books on Australian foreign policy: James Curran's Unholy Fury and Ken Ward's Condemned to Crisis. Their insights are here filtered through a recent work by British scholar Archie Brown, The Myth of the Strong Leader.