Australian Foreign Relations: Into the 21st century aims to present the reader with an introduction to Australian foreign relations, focusing in particular on those contemporary relationships that are most important to Australia.

Rather than organising the chapters on the basis of the issues that are most important in the conduct of Australian foreign policy, the book examines the key issues in the context of how they have featured in terms of Australia’s most important international relationships.

Australian Foreign Relations asks how the 'history versus geography' debate, which is a continuing theme in the history of Australian foreign relations, is relevant in the current climate of international relations and foreign policy formulation.