JOHN WEAR BURTON 1915- 2010

"John Burton was ... one of the most important intellectuals and policy-makers associated with the Curtin Labor Government of the 1940's.... [H]e did more to shape Australian foreign policy towards Asia and the Pacific than any other person before or since."

[, Late Night Live, ABC, 2 july 2010}

CELEBRATION OF THE LIFE OF DR JOHN WEAR BURTON 21 JULY 2010- UNIVERSITY HOUSE. ANU, JOHN W. BURTON CELEBRATION OF THE LIFE OF JOHN WEAR BURTON John Wear Burton, born in on March 2 1915, received his Ph.D. from the LSE and a D.Sc. from the . His first career WELCOME was in the Australian Public Service in which he became Secretary of the Meredith Edwards Department of External Affairs in 1947. He contributed significantly to the planning for post-war reconstruction. He attended the United Nations Charter Conference at San Francisco in 1945, the Paris Peace Conference at JOHN'S UNDERLYING San Francisco in 1945, and many Asian conferences. He was High PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE Commissioner in Ceylon in 1951 and later that year was a Labor candidate Pamela Burton in the Federal election. In the 1950s he went from full time farming to owning a bookshop, as well as being an author and maintaining his interest in international affairs. In 1955 he attended the Bandung Conference in JOHN'S CAREER IN AND Indonesia. CONTRIBUTION TO FOREIGN AFFAIRS In 1963 he took a teaching post at University College, London, where he Dr David Lee lectured in International Relations. In 1979 he moved to the University of Kent. While in the United Kingdom, John founded the Centre for the Analysis of Conflict and initiated the use of workshops for parties in ANOTHER SIDE TO JOHN conflict. In 1982 John was a Fellow at the University of South Carolina, Meredith Edwards and from 1983 he taught at the University of Maryland and , Virginia, where he helped to establish Centres for Conflict Analysis and Resolution. In 1990 John returned to Australia to a farm near JOHN'S CONTRIBUTION TO Braidwood where he continued writing, and in 1993 returned to Canberra CONFLICT RESOLUTION where he lived until he died on 23 June 2010. Dr Gregory Tillett

John was the author of more than twenty books on world peace and the theory and practice of conflict resolution, starting with The Alternative: MESSAGES FROM AFAR A dynamic approach to Australian relations with Asia (Morgans 1954) and Jeremy Eisler ending with Violence Explained (Manchester University Press 1997). Towards the end of his life, John continued to seek funds for education in conflict resolution. OPEN CONTRIBUTIONS

John will be missed by those who loved and admired him. Especially he will be missed by his family: his wife Betty Nathan; children Meredith Edwards, Clare (dec.), Pamela and Mark Burton; step-children Jeremy and Andrea Eisler; his ten grandchildren; and ten great-grandchildren. TEAAND COFFEE ON A MISSION FOR WORLD PEACE - AN INTERNATIONAL TREASURE

"More than any other Australian, probably, he deserves to be up in the pantheon of world peace-making"

[Hamish McDonald, SMH 10 july 2010}

Designed and Printed by Heavens Gate 02 6282 7572