Examine the reasons why Australian foreign policy developed an increasingly Asian focus after the Second World War.

The question requires candidates to consider the interrelationship between the reasons why Australian foreign policy developed an increasingly Asian focus after the Second World War. Reasons may predate the timeframe but they must be clearly linked to the issue raised in the question. Candidates may refer to the change of direction towards Asia in foreign policy in successive post-war governments, as a result of the outcomes of the Second World War and onset of the Cold War, which saw a shift away from Britain and towards the US. This involved the need to establish economic links with Japan due to its rising power, through trade and foreign diplomacy methods. Australia signed the ANZUS treaty in 1951 in the context of the Cold War and Korean War as it sought to confirm its allies to secure a regional power balance in the region. Candidates may also refer to the Colombo Plan and other ties with Asian nations during this period.

Candidates were required to consider the interrelationship between the reasons why Australian foreign policy developed an increasingly Asian focus after the Second World War. Candidates could have identified a broad range of causes or focused more in-depth on a few factors and either of these approaches would have been valid.