ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the extent to which individuals have exercised political and other forms of power within the framework of relations between nation states. The extent to which individuals are able to lay claim to the power of their own agency in the fields of foreign policy direction and application will always be a function of the balance between these contesting forces. The example of the Australia New Zealand and the United States (ANZUS) Alliance provides fertile ground for testing that balance. The chapter focuses on a specific era in the US/Australia alliance relationship, using a small case study to illustrate the extent and importance of individual agency in its long history. It concerns the general proposition that single personalities, and small groups of individuals acting with similar goals, have exercised little known agency in positions of considerable power.
