John Burton (diplomat)


John Wear Burton was an Australian public servant, High Commissioner and academic.

Early life

Burton was born in Melbourne, the son of the Rev John Wear Burton, a Methodist Minister. He was educated at Newington College and went on to graduate from the University of Sydney in 1937.

Public service

In 1937 Burton became a member of the Commonwealth Public Service from where he was granted a Commonwealth scholarship to pursue a doctorate at the London School of Economics. He joined the Department of External Affairs in 1941 and served as private secretary to Herbert Vere Evatt. In 1947, aged 32, he became Secretary of the Department of External Affairs and held that position until June 1950. At the beginning of 1951 he took up the position of Australian High Commissioner to Ceylon, but resigned to return home and contest the Federal election of that year in the electorate of Lowe. As the Australian Labor Party candidate he was beaten by William McMahon, a future Prime Minister of Australia.

Academic career

While writing his first book, The Alternative, Burton farmed outside Canberra and in 1960 was awarded a fellowship at the Australian National University. Two years later the Rockefeller Foundation awarded him a grant to study neutralism in Africa and Asia. In 1963, while a Reader in International Relations at University College University of London, he established the Centre for the Analysis of Conflict. He then went on to hold fellowships at numerous universities while living in Canberra.

Death

Burton died in a Canberra hospital on 23 June 2010 after suffering a stroke. He was survived by his third wife, Betty, and three children from the prior marriages. Another daughter predeceased him.

Legacy

In introducing Burton as a guest on Radio National, Phillip Adams said; "John Burton was probably the most controversial and visionary public servant of the 20th Century. Branded a pink eminence of the Labor Party by conservative critics, he was clearly one of the most important intellectuals and policy-makers associated with the Curtin Labor Government of the 1940s. As a close associate of 'Doc' Evatt and head of the department of External Affairs he did more to shape Australian foreign policy towards Asia and the Pacific than any other person before or since."
Burton's theoretical work on conflict resolution has been highly influential in setting up conflict resolution as an academic discipline in its own right, which is very much needed in the modern globalised world because of the greater potential for disputes between different ethnic and religious communities. In Australia, Burton's work greatly influenced the pioneering course in conflict resolution at Macquarie University, Sydney.

Scholarships, fellowships and grants