Paul Kelly, a veteran Australian journalist, delivered a series of lectures at the Weatherhead Center in March 2002 entitled “Shipwrecked in Arcadia: The Australian Experiment.” The international editor of The Australian, having served as its editor-in-chief from 1991 to 1996, Kelly was in residence during the spring term of 2002 as a fellow of the Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government and as a visiting scholar at the Weatherhead Center.

The focus of Kelly’s lectures was Australia’s role in the world as reflected through contemporary debates on economics, security, and globalization. Kelly views contemporary Australia as an experiment whose history presents a unique puzzle: Is Australia a nation of Europeans shipwrecked by accident on the “wrong” side of the earth, or is it a society with the creativity to re-interpret its mission? At the heart of this question is a debate about Australia’s relationship with the rest of the world, including, quite prominently, with the United States, and its own identity.

Taking note of Australia’s centenary in 2001, Kelly examined the viability of the Australian experiment today and its sense of national purpose.Kelly has had a varied and celebrated career in journalism. He wrote and presented a five-part television documentary for the Australian Broadcasting Company in 2001 on Australian history and character that was entitled “100 years – The Australian Story.” He is the author of six books, including The Dismissal (1982), The Hawke Ascendancy (1984), The End of Certainty (1992), and collection of his published articles, Paradise Divided (2000). Kelly is also an adjunct professor of journalism at the University of Queensland, and he participates in the Australia-America Leadership Dialogue.
The lecture series was sponsored by the Harvard University Committee on the Australian Chair and the Weatherhead Center.