David Lowe ‘Less of a Plan than an Umbrella’ Examining Colombo & its Legacy

The Colombo Plan is one of Australia’s most successful and best remembered foreign policy initiatives. It is commonly associated with an influx of visiting students from our region who helped to breakdown the prejudices of white Australia and lay the groundwork for education to become one of our greatest exports. However, the Colombo Plan was bigger than Australia and it was broader than education. It was an ambitious attempt to use soft power to halt the spread of communism and to bring stability and prosperity to a number of developing nations. Its legacy is multifaceted and offers many positive examples that we can learn from today. 

In this week’s episode of the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to Professor David Lowe, chair in contemporary history at Deakin University, who is currently writing a new book exploring the Colombo Plan. 

Professor David Lowe holds a chair in contemporary history at Deakin University. He is a historian of modern international relations and Australia in world affairs. David studied history at Monash University before completing a PhD at the University of Cambridge. With the exception of two years at the University of London in the mid-1990s and some shorter-term fellowships, he has been based at Deakin. His teaching focuses primarily on nineteenth and twentieth century international history, historiography, conflict and memory in modern Asia, and aspects of Australia in world affairs. David has been involved in Deakin’s growth in humanities and social sciences research. For ten years between 2005 and 2014 he held the leadership roles of head of school, acting dean, and head of a research institute.