Europe and Australia in the Age of Globalization: Becoming Neighbours in a Flat World?

Globalization theory claims that the world becomes a small place. Distance is no longer relevant in world affairs. The relations between Europe and Australia provide an excellent case to test this theoretical assumption, because both entities share many social, cultural and economic characteristics while being located at the respective other end of the world. Accordingly the central questions of this essay are: What is the current state of the Euro-pean-Australian relations? Has globalization so far brought the two continents closer to-gether? What role does distance play in the interaction between Brussels and Canberra? To answer these questions the connections between the societies, markets and govern-ments of Europe and Australia are analysed, looking at patterns of migration, tourism, trade, investment and at the diplomatic relations. The findings suggest that globalization has so far not made geography as political category obsolete. Indeed in some aspects glo-balization even widened the gap between Europe and Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]