Ashton Robinson began his career in the then Department of Foreign Affairs in Canberra. Most of his subsequent experience in government was with the Australian Department of Defence, the Iraq Survey Group in Baghdad and the Office of National Assessments (ONA) âEUR" part of the Australian Prime Minister's portfolio âEUR" where he dealt with long-term strategic matters, including terrorism, transnational crime and irregular migration. Throughout his career Ashton has been an occasional lecturer at Wollongong, Sydney and La Trobe universities as well as at the Australian Defence Force Academy and at the Australian Command and Staff College in Canberra. Ashton joined the University of Melbourne's School of Social and Political Sciences as an Honorary Fellow in 2016. He now blogs for the Lowy Institute's Interpreter.

List of images

Preface

Acknowledgements

Abbreviations used in the text

Introduction

1 Prelude to the Seychelles of René

2 Conceived in isolation

3 Less than innocent abroad

4 London and the bank

5 Towards Seychelles independence

6 The coalition and the republic

7 The coup

8 Assembling the apparatus of oppression

9 The campaign against the opposition

10 Death in London

11 Developing the new state

12 Strange friends in New York, Rome and Rwanda

13 Perplexed friends and unfussed enemies in the Cold War

14 1989 and all that

15 The new economy

16 Mastering democracy

17 Leaving on his own terms

18 The character of René

Appendices

Bibliography

Index