International Broadcasting and Its Contested Role in Australian Statecraft

His is a timely and important intervention, for in bringing light to this aspect of the nation's media history, Heriot also speaks deftly to the pressing security concerns facing Australia today.[…] Heriot’s work speaks to both historical matters and present-day concerns. In doing so, it has a lot of insight to offer to Australian historians as well as those interested in Australia’s contemporary security and diplomatic challenges —Australian Outlook

Offering both theoretical and practical insights from business practice, media and communications studies, international relations and foreign policy, Heriot provides an accessible multidisciplinary analysis of the varying roles of RA against the backdrop of Australian political history, global events and the often-tumultuous Asia-Pacific. The book is also rich with insights from his nearly fifty-year career in broadcasting— Australian Journalism Review

“Combining his top-notch scholarship and personal experience, Geoff Heriot has created an insightful multidisciplinary account of the rise and fall of Australian international broadcasting. Heriot deftly blends theoretical insights from international relations and communication with history to explore Radio Australia’s contribution to its country’s foreign policy. This is an important addition to the literature on Australia’s foreign relations and middle power foreign policy, as well as international radio, and public diplomacy” — Nicholas J. Cull, author, Public Diplomacy: Foundations for Global Engagement in the Digital Age.

“This valuable and original book deftly combines attention to soft power and its limits as a tool of analysis with deep knowledge of international broadcasting, especially giving fascinating insights into the history of Radio Australia” — Rodney Tiffen, Emeritus Professor in Government and International Relations at the University of Sydney.

“International Broadcasting and its Contested Role in Australian Statecraftexamines a national broadcaster’s influence on overseas audience. Identifying variables hampering international broadcasting, it assays the instrumental efficacy of broadcasting practice. Multiple sub-focuses, interdisciplinarity, readability and scholarship will be appreciated by researchers, course convenors and students of media and international communication” — Naren Chitty AM, Professor Emeritus, Inaugural Director, Soft Power Analysis and Resource Centre, Faculty of Arts, Macquarie University.

The International Broadcasting and Its Contested Role in Australian Statecraft: Middle Power, Smart Power is a fascinating, timely and challenging account of Australia’s attempts to project itself through broadcasting, largely on the ABC international feed to countries in the region. Geoff Heriot’s work is timely and illuminating of the issues facing the country and its public broadcaster. His framework is closely argued; his historical chapters, insightful and entertaining. Heriot’s framework and case studies are useful in themselves, but doubly important now that the issue of Australian soft power to counter China in Asia and the Pacific is back strongly on the political agenda—Pacific Journalism Review, 29 (1 & 2) 2023, pp. 280–282, Jeremy Rees, Radio New Zealand

Heriot’s International Broadcasting and Its Contested Role in Australian Statecraft: Middle Power, Smart Power examines the role of international broadcasting in positioning Australia globally as a smart democratic middle power. Through its chosen case study, Heriot’s book ‘reappraises the concept and utility of state-funded international broadcasting as an instrument of discursive power, which offers cultural representation with political purpose’ —Media International Australia, 7 August 2023, Benjamin Kooyman, The Australian National University