Obituary

It is difficult not to regard Meaney as a towering figure in the discipline given the contribution hemade to understanding Australia’s role in the world throughout the twentieth century. Instilled with a passion for scholarship and learning – ‘You’re teaching me things’, he would say with infectious delight whenever the research of a colleague or student turned up new insights – Meaney inspired the same attributes in those he taught, and moulded the outlook of a great many Australian foreign policy historians and practitioners over several decades. Figure 1. Neville Meaney on the Great Wall during a visit to China in 1997.