This textbook grew out of a sense that Australian students studying Introduction to International Relations courses were not particularly well served by the textbook offerings available. Scores of textbooks exist, many of them excellent in their own ways, but none is specifically tailored to the concerns of Australian students and the broad menu of topics covered in their undergraduate courses. Conversations with colleagues teaching introductory courses around the country led us to the view that a large textbook written specifically for Australian students, by Australian scholars and teachers, would be welcome. Additionally, it would serve as another means of building the Australian discipline of International Relations. The Australian discipline has always produced important and internationally recognised scholarship, but it has generally remained fragmented, lacking a sense of common spirit. In recent years just such a spirit has grown up in the discipline and An Introduction to International Relations: Australian Perspectives is both a reflection of and a contribution to this development. Indeed, some of the original conversations on the potential of a textbook like this took place at the first Oceanic Conference on International Studies (OCIS), hosted by the ANU in July 2004. We hope that future OCIS delegates will be able to say that this textbook helped provide a foundation on which they further developed their knowledge of and passion for what must be one of the most perennially exciting disciplines in the social and human sciences – International Relations.