Is globalisation new? Are its effects inevitable? Are the concepts of national sovereignty and global markets incompatible? In this provocative book, the authors argue that Australia has always been a 'globalised' nation. In terms of its economy, political sovereignty and sense of national identity, the country and its citizens have had to create for themselves a complex position between dependence and irrelevance. Australians and Globalisation tells the tale of how governance and citizenship developed in response to global forces, starting with colonial societies and moving through the federation period and the twentieth century to the present day with its accelerated globalisation impact.