The Australia in World Affairs series commenced in 1950 and provides a continuous, researched scholarly account of Australia's foreign policy. The ninth volume, Australia in World Affairs 1996–2000: The National Interest in a Global Era, covers an active and eventful period in Australia's foreign relations. During the years 1996–2000, Australia was led by two Coalition governments under the prime ministership of John Howard, with Alexander Downer as Foreign Minister. The issues confronting the government, no less than the policies devised to deal with them, exhibited some significant contrasts with those of the first half of the decade. This volume deals both with major substantive issues in Australian foreign policy (human rights, defence, the environment, East Timor, the economy, the Asian economic crisis) and with important bilateral relationships (with Japan, China, the United States and Europe), and examines Australia's foreign policy relationships with Latin America and with South Asia.