Guide to the Papers of John W. Burton, 1956-1998

Summary

Collection number:

MS 8405, MS Acc09.034

Creator:

John W. Burton

Extent:

0.9 metres and (6 boxes)

Language:

English

Preferred citation:

Items from this collection should be cited as '[Title or description of manuscript item], Papers of John W. Burton, National Library of Australia [class number, box number and series and/or file number]'.

Availability:

Available

Access conditions:

Available for research. Not for loan.

Background

Content Summary:

The bulk of the collection consists of papers, many photocopies, written by Burton and covering such topics as international conflict resolution, development and other issues in international relations. The titles of these papers have been listed. There are also newspaper cuttings of articles referring to Burton, taken from a number of sources.

Biographical Note:

John Wear Burton was born in Melbourne on 2 March 1915, the son of the Reverend Dr John Burton, who was President-General of the Methodist Church of Australasia in 1945-47.

Burton was educated at Newington College, Sydney, and the University of Sydney. He joined the Commonwealth Public Service in 1937 and was later awarded a Commonwealth scholarship to study at the London School of Economics, where he gained a doctorate in 1941. He was transferred to the Department of External Affairs in 1941 and in the following year he became private secretary to the Minister, H.V. Evatt. In 1945 he was promoted to First Secretary of the Economic Relations Division. In February 1947 he was appointed Secretary of the Department of External Affairs, a position he held until June 1950. In January 1951 he was appointed High Commissioner in Ceylon, but resigned and returned to Australia in March to stand as an ALP candidate in the federal election. He was defeated for the seat of Lowe by William McMahon.

Burton spent the next few years as a farmer near Canberra and wrote his first book on foreign policy, The Alternative (1954). In 1960 he was awarded a fellowship at the Australian National University and in 1962 received a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation to study Asian and African policies of neutralism. In 1963 he became Reader in International Relations at University College, University of London, and in the next twenty years published extensively on the subject of diplomacy and conflict resolution. In the same year he established the Centre for the Analysis of Conflict, which he took to the University of Kent at Canterbury in 1979.

In 1982 he was given an International Studies Association Fellowship at South Carolina. After this fellowship was completed he was invited to the University of Maryland, and then in 1985 he joined the George Mason University, Fairfax, where another Centre for the Analysis of Conflict was established.

In the late 1980s Burton began to spend more time in Australia and resumed farming near Braidwood. He now lives in Canberra.

Provenance:

This collection has been received in several instalments. The first three instalments were received from Burton in 1992, 1993 and 1998.

In addition to these papers, in 1998 arrangements were made through Professor A.J.R. Groom, Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Kent at Canterbury, United Kingdom to photocopy a group of papers which mostly relate to the time Burton was associated with the Centre for the Analysis of Conflict. The papers cover the period 1966-96. Groom was a colleague of Burton's during much of this period.

The bulk of the material consists of papers written on issues relating to conflict resolution, mainly during the time Burton was associated with the Centre for the Analysis of Conflict (CAC). Titles of individual papers are listed, with the name of the author included where identifiable. Also included is a collection of miscellaneous papers consisting of correspondence, handwritten notes, address lists, meeting reports, and memoranda mostly relating to the functions and operations of the Centre for the Analysis of Conflict.

Arrangement:

Groom arranged the 1998 consignment of papers into three groups - 'green folders', 'red folders' and 'yellow folders', and the papers have been kept in these groupings. A number of these papers are duplicates of papers which are already held in previous parts of this collection.

Indexed terms

Names:

John W. Burton

Conditions Governing Access:

Please refer to the collection's catalogue record for the access conditions (http://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn2877417).

Conditions Governing Use:

Copying and publishing of unpublished manuscript material is subject to copyright restrictions. For such material, written permission to publish must be obtained from the copyright holder(s). Copying of unpublished material for research purposes is permissible 50 years after the death of the creator of the material.

Preferred citation:

Items from this collection should be cited as '[Title or description of manuscript item], Papers of John W. Burton, National Library of Australia [class number, box number and series and/or file number]'.

Location of this collection:

National Library of Australia

Parkes Place

Canberra ACT 2600, Australia

Contact:

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