James Curran teaches political and diplomatic history and is International Editor at The Australian Financial Review. His latest book is Australia’s China Odyssey: From Euphoria to Fear (New South Press, 2024). Prior to joining Sydney University, James served in the Department of The Prime Minister and Cabinet, the Department of Defence and at the Office of National Assessments. In 2013, James was the Keith Cameron Chair of Australian History at University College Dublin and in 2010 a Fulbright Scholar at Georgetown University in Washington DC. Curran has published in Diplomatic History, The Journal of Cold War Studies and The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History. He has also written for The National Interest, Australian Foreign Affairs, the Council on Foreign Relations ‘Asia Unbound’ blog and the East Asia Forum. He is currently working on a book about former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating and is also writing a short history of Australian foreign and defence policy. Curran is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Social Sciences. His study of Australian rugby legend David Campese was published in 2022 and is entitled, Campese: The Last of the Dream Sellers (Scribe).

Teaching and supervision

HSTY2611: America in World Affairs: A History
HSTY2677: Australia: Politics and Nation
HSTY2676: Australia's World

Awards and honours

Prizes

Shortlisted for the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards adn the NSW Premier's History Prize:

Curran, J. (2004).The Power of Speech: Australian Prime Ministers Defining the National Image. Australia: Melbourne University Press.

Shortlisted for the Prime Minister's Australian History Prize 2011:

Curran, J., Ward, S. (2010).The Unknown Nation: Australia After Empire. Carlton, Australia: Melbourne University Press.

Current research students

Project title	Research student
The Australian School of Pacific Administration: An Experiment	Alexandra FROST

Selected publications

Australia's China Odyssey: From euphoria to fear

(UNSW Press, 2022)

Campese: the last of the dream sellers

(Scribe Publications, 2021)

Fighting with America: Why saying no to the US wouldn't rupture the alliance

(Penguin Specials, 2016)

Unholy Fury: Whitlam and Nixon at War

(Melbourne University Press, 2015)

Australia and the Wider World: Selected Essays of Neville Meaney

(Sydney University Press, 2013)

Curtin's Empire

(Cambridge University Press, 2011)

The Unknown Nation: Australia After Empire

(Melbourne University Press, 2010)

The Power of Speech: Australian Prime Ministers Defining the National Image

(Melbourne University Press, 2004)

Expand all

Books

Curran, J. (2022). Australia's China Odyssey: From euphoria to fear. Sydney: UNSW Press.
Curran, J. (2021). Campese: the last of the dream sellers. Melbourne: Scribe Publications.
Curran, J. (2016). Fighting with America: Why saying no to the US wouldn't rupture the alliance. Sydney: Penguin Specials.
Curran, J. (2015). Unholy Fury: Whitlam and Nixon at War. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press.
Curran, J. (2011). Curtin's Empire. New York: Cambridge University Press. [More Information]
Curran, J., Ward, S. (2010). The Unknown Nation: Australia After Empire. Carlton, Australia: Melbourne University Press.
Curran, J. (2004). The Power of Speech: Australian Prime Ministers Defining the National Image. Australia: Melbourne University Press.

show 4 more

Edited Books

Curran, J., Ward, S. (2013). Australia and the Wider World: Selected Essays of Neville Meaney. Sydney, Australia: Sydney University Press.

Book Chapters

Broinowski, A., Curran, J. (2014). The US Alliance. In Daniel Baldino, Andrew Carr, Anthony J Langlois (Eds.), Australian Foreign Policy: Controversies and Debates, (pp. 118-133). Melbourne: Oxford University Press.
Curran, J. (2013). Republican Reset: The Lessons of History and a Way Ahead. In Benjamin T Jones and Mark McKenna (Eds.), Project Republic: Plans and Arguments for a New Australia, (pp. 141-154). Melbourne: Black Inc.
Curran, J. (2012). 'The World Changes': Australia's China Policy in the Wake of Empire. In James Reilly and Jingdong Yuan (Eds.), Australia and China at 40, (pp. 22-43). Sydney: University of New South Wales (UNSW) Press.
Curran, J. (2010). The 'New Line in the Strand': John Armstrong and the 'New Nationalism'. In Carl Bridge, Frank Bongiorno and David Lee (Eds.), The High Commissioners: Australias Representatives in the United Kingdom, 1910-2010, (pp. 164-181). Barton: WHH Publishing.

show 1 more

Journals

Curran, J. (2023). Paul Keating: In Conversation with James Curran. Australian Foreign Affairs, (February).
Curran, J. (2022). Has Australia Found the Right Answer to Chinese Aggression? The National Interest, (October).
Curran, J. (2021). Seeing China Coming: Behind Paul Keating’s pact with Indonesia. The National Interest, (October).
Curran, J. (2020). Who Lost Australia? The National Interest, 2020 (169), 79-91.
Curran, J. (2019). China Syndrome. The National Interest, 2019 (159), 49-57.
Curran, J. (2019). What should Australia do about PRC-US tensions? China Matters, (September).
Curran, J. (2017). Mugged by Sentiment: Revamping the US alliance and surviving the forty-fifth president. Australian Foreign Affairs, October 2017(1).
Curran, J. (2015). Beyond the Euphoria: Lyndon Johnson in Australia and the Politics of the Cold War Alliance. Journal of Cold War Studies, 17(1), 64-96. [More Information]
Curran, J. (2014). The Dilemmas of Divergence: The Crisis in American-Australian Relations, 1972-1975. Diplomatic History, 38(2), 377-408. [More Information]
Curran, J. (2013). Australia at empire's end: Approaches and arguments. History Australia, 10(3), 23-35. [More Information]
Curran, J. (2010). L'Australie, le Japon et l'heritage de la Seconde Guerre mondiale. Vingtieme Siecle - Revue d'histoire, 107, 115-129. [More Information]
Curran, J. (2009). 'An Organic Part of the Whole Structure': John Curtin's Empire. The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 37(1), 51-75. [More Information]
Curran, J. (2008). 'Australia Should Be There': Expo '67 and the Search for a New National Image. Australian Historical Studies, 39(1), 72-90. [More Information]
Curran, J. (2002). The "Thin Dividing Line": Prime Ministers and the Problem of Australian Nationalism, 1972-1996. Australian Journal of Politics and History, 48(4), 469-486. [More Information]

show 11 more

Magazine / Newspaper Articles

Curran, J. (2020). 'Pact' a big step to the new strategic normal for Australia and Japan. Financial Review.
Curran, J. (2020). Obama's memoir is an elegant elegy for the fraying thread that links the US. The Age.
Curran, J. (2019). Australia's increasingly complex role in Asia. Australian Financial Review. [More Information]
Curran, J. (2019). Australia's last Cold War prime minister. Australian Financial Review. [More Information]
Curran, J. (2019). Can a publishing house divided stand? The Sydney Morning Herald. [More Information]
Curran, J. (2019). How did Labor manage to forget about aspiration? Australian Financial Review. [More Information]
Curran, J. (2019). Ruled by Britannia (book review). The Australian.
Curran, J. (2018). All shot and no powder in the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue. East Asia Forum. [More Information]
Curran, J. (2018). Australia cannot afford to be distracted by the cold war talk. The Australian. [More Information]
Curran, J. (2018). Australia is navigating a diplomatic course between China and the US. Australian Financial Review. [More Information]
Curran, J. (2018). Australia's revolving-door politics a serious drag on Asia strategy. Australian Financial Review. [More Information]
Curran, J. (2018). Clash of ideologies feeds into the rivalry between the two power. The Australian. [More Information]
Curran, J. (2018). Fighting the Fog of War (book review). The Australian.
Curran, J. (2018). Is Trump the end of the line for American exceptionalism? Australian Financial Review. [More Information]
Curran, J. (2018). No Mattis miracles at Shangri-La as allies urged to keep the faith. East Asia Forum. [More Information]
Curran, J. (2018). Not the war to end all wars but death's birthing place. Australian Financial Review. [More Information]
Curran, J. (2017). An unprecedented president: world awaits Donald Trump. The Australian. [More Information]
Curran, J. (2017). Australia contemplates America's shifting role in Asia. War on the Rocks. [More Information]
Curran, J. (2017). Australia needs to adapt to the new circumstances of Trump's America. The Guardian. [More Information]
Curran, J. (2017). Donald Trump's focus on home front hardly a surprise. The Sydney Morning Herald. [More Information]
Curran, J. (2017). Fear of Abandonment (book review). The Australian.
Curran, J. (2017). Opinion: Malcolm Turnbull's ANZUS offer on North Korea was premature. Australian Financial Review. [More Information]
Curran, J. (2017). The case for recasting Australia's relationship with the US. Australian Financial Review. [More Information]
Curran, J. (2017). The choice between sentiment and reality in US-Australia ties. East Asia Forum. [More Information]
Curran, J. (2017). Trump exhumes the diplomatic carcass of the Security Quad. Australian Financial Review. [More Information]
Curran, J. (2017). Trump-Turnbull Meeting: The Danger of Australian Complacency. China US Focus. [More Information]
Curran, J. (2017). US self-belief tested by tardy return to being great again. The Australian. [More Information]

show 24 more

Report

Curran, J. (2018). AMERICANISM, NOT GLOBALISM: PRESIDENT TRUMP AND THE AMERICAN MISSION. [More Information]
Curran, J. (2017). The Prime Ministers in America. [More Information]

Reference Works

Curran, J. (2007). Australia-Britain. In Brian Galligan and Winsome Roberts (Eds.), The Oxford Companion to Australian Politics. (Vol. 1, pp. 66-69).

Other

Curran, J. (2019), How Morrison Won and What His Win Means for the US-Australia Alliance. [More Information]
Curran, J. (2018), Harry Harris and the ambassadorial absence. [More Information]
Curran, J. (2018), Julie Bishop: buffeted by headwinds. [More Information]
Curran, J. (2017), Cracks in the U.S.-Australia Relationship. [More Information]
Curran, J. (2017), Fighting with America: Facing up to the unpredictable.
Curran, J. (2017), Foreign Policy White Paper sees a new Asia but pleads for the old. [More Information]
Curran, J. (2017), India and Australia Eye the World According to Trump. [More Information]
Curran, J. (2017), Joe Hockey and the limits of mateship.
Curran, J. (2017), Moored to Memory: The Problem of the Past in U.S.-Australia Relations.
Curran, J. (2017), Rhetorical arthritis won't sell an Australian republic.
Curran, J. (2017), The allure of orthodoxy and the peril of sentimentality.
Curran, J. (2017), The Trump/Turnbull transcript: the PM's parting gift.
Curran, J. (2017), When will Australia acknowledge a changed America?.
Curran, J. (2017), Where India fits in an activist Australian foreign policy.

show 11 more

Expand all

2023

Curran, J. (2023). Paul Keating: In Conversation with James Curran. Australian Foreign Affairs, (February).

2022

Curran, J. (2022). Australia's China Odyssey: From euphoria to fear. Sydney: UNSW Press.
Curran, J. (2022). Has Australia Found the Right Answer to Chinese Aggression? The National Interest, (October).

2021

Curran, J. (2021). Campese: the last of the dream sellers. Melbourne: Scribe Publications.
Curran, J. (2021). Seeing China Coming: Behind Paul Keating’s pact with Indonesia. The National Interest, (October).

2020

Curran, J. (2020). 'Pact' a big step to the new strategic normal for Australia and Japan. Financial Review.
Curran, J. (2020). Obama's memoir is an elegant elegy for the fraying thread that links the US. The Age.
Curran, J. (2020). Who Lost Australia? The National Interest, 2020 (169), 79-91.

2019

Curran, J. (2019). Australia's increasingly complex role in Asia. Australian Financial Review. [More Information]
Curran, J. (2019). Australia's last Cold War prime minister. Australian Financial Review. [More Information]
Curran, J. (2019). Can a publishing house divided stand? The Sydney Morning Herald. [More Information]
Curran, J. (2019). China Syndrome. The National Interest, 2019 (159), 49-57.
Curran, J. (2019). How did Labor manage to forget about aspiration? Australian Financial Review. [More Information]
Curran, J. (2019), How Morrison Won and What His Win Means for the US-Australia Alliance. [More Information]
Curran, J. (2019). Ruled by Britannia (book review). The Australian.
Curran, J. (2019). What should Australia do about PRC-US tensions? China Matters, (September).

show 5 more

2018

Curran, J. (2018). All shot and no powder in the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue. East Asia Forum. [More Information]
Curran, J. (2018). AMERICANISM, NOT GLOBALISM: PRESIDENT TRUMP AND THE AMERICAN MISSION. [More Information]
Curran, J. (2018). Australia cannot afford to be distracted by the cold war talk. The Australian. [More Information]
Curran, J. (2018). Australia is navigating a diplomatic course between China and the US. Australian Financial Review. [More Information]
Curran, J. (2018). Australia's revolving-door politics a serious drag on Asia strategy. Australian Financial Review. [More Information]
Curran, J. (2018). Clash of ideologies feeds into the rivalry between the two power. The Australian. [More Information]
Curran, J. (2018). Fighting the Fog of War (book review). The Australian.
Curran, J. (2018), Harry Harris and the ambassadorial absence. [More Information]
Curran, J. (2018). Is Trump the end of the line for American exceptionalism? Australian Financial Review. [More Information]
Curran, J. (2018), Julie Bishop: buffeted by headwinds. [More Information]
Curran, J. (2018). No Mattis miracles at Shangri-La as allies urged to keep the faith. East Asia Forum. [More Information]
Curran, J. (2018). Not the war to end all wars but death's birthing place. Australian Financial Review. [More Information]

show 9 more

2017

Curran, J. (2017). An unprecedented president: world awaits Donald Trump. The Australian. [More Information]
Curran, J. (2017). Australia contemplates America's shifting role in Asia. War on the Rocks. [More Information]
Curran, J. (2017). Australia needs to adapt to the new circumstances of Trump's America. The Guardian. [More Information]
Curran, J. (2017), Cracks in the U.S.-Australia Relationship. [More Information]
Curran, J. (2017). Donald Trump's focus on home front hardly a surprise. The Sydney Morning Herald. [More Information]
Curran, J. (2017). Fear of Abandonment (book review). The Australian.
Curran, J. (2017), Fighting with America: Facing up to the unpredictable.
Curran, J. (2017), Foreign Policy White Paper sees a new Asia but pleads for the old. [More Information]
Curran, J. (2017), India and Australia Eye the World According to Trump. [More Information]
Curran, J. (2017), Joe Hockey and the limits of mateship.
Curran, J. (2017), Moored to Memory: The Problem of the Past in U.S.-Australia Relations.
Curran, J. (2017). Mugged by Sentiment: Revamping the US alliance and surviving the forty-fifth president. Australian Foreign Affairs, October 2017(1).
Curran, J. (2017). Opinion: Malcolm Turnbull's ANZUS offer on North Korea was premature. Australian Financial Review. [More Information]
Curran, J. (2017), Rhetorical arthritis won't sell an Australian republic.
Curran, J. (2017), The allure of orthodoxy and the peril of sentimentality.
Curran, J. (2017). The case for recasting Australia's relationship with the US. Australian Financial Review. [More Information]
Curran, J. (2017). The choice between sentiment and reality in US-Australia ties. East Asia Forum. [More Information]
Curran, J. (2017). The Prime Ministers in America. [More Information]
Curran, J. (2017), The Trump/Turnbull transcript: the PM's parting gift.
Curran, J. (2017). Trump exhumes the diplomatic carcass of the Security Quad. Australian Financial Review. [More Information]
Curran, J. (2017). Trump-Turnbull Meeting: The Danger of Australian Complacency. China US Focus. [More Information]
Curran, J. (2017). US self-belief tested by tardy return to being great again. The Australian. [More Information]
Curran, J. (2017), When will Australia acknowledge a changed America?.
Curran, J. (2017), Where India fits in an activist Australian foreign policy.

show 21 more

2016

Curran, J. (2016). Fighting with America: Why saying no to the US wouldn't rupture the alliance. Sydney: Penguin Specials.

2015

Curran, J. (2015). Beyond the Euphoria: Lyndon Johnson in Australia and the Politics of the Cold War Alliance. Journal of Cold War Studies, 17(1), 64-96. [More Information]
Curran, J. (2015). Unholy Fury: Whitlam and Nixon at War. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press.

2014

Curran, J. (2014). The Dilemmas of Divergence: The Crisis in American-Australian Relations, 1972-1975. Diplomatic History, 38(2), 377-408. [More Information]
Broinowski, A., Curran, J. (2014). The US Alliance. In Daniel Baldino, Andrew Carr, Anthony J Langlois (Eds.), Australian Foreign Policy: Controversies and Debates, (pp. 118-133). Melbourne: Oxford University Press.

2013

Curran, J., Ward, S. (2013). Australia and the Wider World: Selected Essays of Neville Meaney. Sydney, Australia: Sydney University Press.
Curran, J. (2013). Australia at empire's end: Approaches and arguments. History Australia, 10(3), 23-35. [More Information]
Curran, J. (2013). Republican Reset: The Lessons of History and a Way Ahead. In Benjamin T Jones and Mark McKenna (Eds.), Project Republic: Plans and Arguments for a New Australia, (pp. 141-154). Melbourne: Black Inc.

2012

Curran, J. (2012). 'The World Changes': Australia's China Policy in the Wake of Empire. In James Reilly and Jingdong Yuan (Eds.), Australia and China at 40, (pp. 22-43). Sydney: University of New South Wales (UNSW) Press.

2011

Curran, J. (2011). Curtin's Empire. New York: Cambridge University Press. [More Information]

2010

Curran, J. (2010). L'Australie, le Japon et l'heritage de la Seconde Guerre mondiale. Vingtieme Siecle - Revue d'histoire, 107, 115-129. [More Information]
Curran, J. (2010). The 'New Line in the Strand': John Armstrong and the 'New Nationalism'. In Carl Bridge, Frank Bongiorno and David Lee (Eds.), The High Commissioners: Australias Representatives in the United Kingdom, 1910-2010, (pp. 164-181). Barton: WHH Publishing.
Curran, J., Ward, S. (2010). The Unknown Nation: Australia After Empire. Carlton, Australia: Melbourne University Press.

2009

Curran, J. (2009). 'An Organic Part of the Whole Structure': John Curtin's Empire. The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 37(1), 51-75. [More Information]

2008

Curran, J. (2008). 'Australia Should Be There': Expo '67 and the Search for a New National Image. Australian Historical Studies, 39(1), 72-90. [More Information]

2007

Curran, J. (2007). Australia-Britain. In Brian Galligan and Winsome Roberts (Eds.), The Oxford Companion to Australian Politics. (Vol. 1, pp. 66-69).

2004

Curran, J. (2004). The Power of Speech: Australian Prime Ministers Defining the National Image. Australia: Melbourne University Press.

2002

Curran, J. (2002). The "Thin Dividing Line": Prime Ministers and the Problem of Australian Nationalism, 1972-1996. Australian Journal of Politics and History, 48(4), 469-486. [More Information]

In the media

Australian Financial Review opinion piece Pezzullo bangs the war drums against placating an ‘imagined China’ (7 July 2024)

Australian Financial Review analysis piece AUKUS future is resting on belief alone (3 July 2024)

Australian Financial Review opinion piece AUKUS ‘moonshot’ may be a tragically expensive failure (2 July 2024)

Australian Financial Review exclusive piece ‘A cruel joke’: Why AUKUS might leave Australia stranded (2 July 2024)

Australian Financial Review Investigative piece Morrison’s ‘longest night’: Inside the making of AUKUS (1 July 2024)

Australian Financial Review opinion piece Will Keir Starmer go wobbly on AUKUS? (30 June 2024)

Australian Financial Review analysis piece Only one question for Democrats after Biden’s debate (28 June 2024)

Australian Financial Review opinion piece Putin to Xi: I have options in East Asia (23 June 2024)

Australian Financial Review opinion piece Albanese elevates diplomacy over the drum beat of war (18 June 2024)

Australian Financial Review analysis piece Li’s visit shows Australia and China are trying to move on (17 June 2024)

Australian Financial Review opinion piece Groupthink means no one’s thinking about China (16 April 2023)

Broadcast on ABC Radio National of talk at Adelaide Writer’s Festival: America, America (11 April 2023)

Australian Book Review feature and podcast on Labor’s Foreign policy (April 2023)

Interview on ABC World Today on AUKUS (16 March 2023)

Australian Financial Review (AFR) comment piece AUKUS is a giant commitment that’s never been explained (14 March 2023)

Radio Interview on JJJ The Hack on AUKUS (13 March 2023)

TV interview on SBS News on AUKUS (13 March 2023)

Australian Financial Review (AFR) comment piece AUKUS is setting up Australia to be a US auxiliary in war over Taiwan (12 March 2023)

Radio Interview on BBC Newshour and BBC World Service on AUKUS (March 12 2023)

Australian Financial Review (AFR) comment piece ASIO’s ‘unprecedented’ threat comes every year (10 March 2023)

TV Interview on Sky News on AUKUS (8 March 2023)

Appearance at Adelaide Writers Festival on a panel with Prof. John Keane, Fintan O’Toole, chaired by Bob Carr, on ‘Whither America’ (7 March 2023)

Radio interview on ABC’s The World Today on AUKUS (8 March 2023)

Australian Financial Review (AFR) column America’s new Cold War has China on the backfoot (5 March 2023)

Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

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Professor James Curran

Selected publications

Publications

In the media