John Burton

Public service In 1937 Burton became a member of the Commonwealth Public Service from where he was granted a Commonwealth scholarship to pursue a doctorate at the London School of Economics. He joined the Department of External Affairs in 1941 and served as private secretary to Herbert Vere Evatt. In 1947, aged 32, he became Secretary of the Department of External Affairs and held that position until June 1950. At the beginning of 1951 he took up the position of Australian High Commissioner to Ceylon, but resigned to return home and contest the Federal election of that year in the electorate of Lowe. As the Australian Labor Party (ALP) candidate he was beaten by William McMahon, a future Prime Minister of Australia.

Academic career While writing his first book, The Alternative, Burton farmed outside Canberra and owned a bookshop in the suburb of Kingston. In 1960 he was awarded a fellowship at the Australian National University. Two years later the Rockefeller Foundation awarded him a grant to study neutralism in Africa and Asia. In 1963, while a Reader in International Relations at University College University of London, he established the Centre for the Analysis of Conflict. He then went on to hold fellowships at numerous universities while living in Canberra.

Burton introduced the terminology of "rooted causes of conflict," which focuses on unmet human needs as the source of conflicts. Burton's view was that conflicts often emerge where there are social inequalities and barriers to people's needs for identity and participation.

Burton's theoretical work on conflict resolution has been highly influential in setting up conflict resolution as an academic discipline in its own right, which is very much needed in the modern globalised world because of the greater potential for disputes between different ethnic and religious communities. In Australia, Burton's work greatly influenced the pioneering course in conflict resolution at Macquarie University, Sydney.

Scholarships, fellowships and grants Scholarship – London School of Economics (1941) Fellowship – Australian National University (1960) Grant – Rockefeller Foundation (1962) Fellowship – University of South Carolina (1982) Fellowship – University of Maryland (1983) Fellowship – George Mason University (1982)

Publications "The Alternative" (1954) "Labour in transition" (1957) "International relations: a general theory" (1965) "Systems, States, Diplomacy and Rules" (1968) "Controlled communication" (1969) "World society" (1972) "Internationale politiek" (1974) "Deviance, terrorism & war: the process of solving unsolved social and political problems" (1979) "Resolving deep-rooted conflict: a handbook" (1987) "Conflict resolution as a political system" (1988) "On the need for conflict prevention" (1989) "Conflict: resolution & provention [The Conflict Series vol 1]" (1990) "Conflict: human needs theory [The Conflict Series vol 2]" (1993) "Conflict: readings in management and resolution [The Conflict Series vol 3]" (1990) "Conflict: practices in management, settlement and resolution [The Conflict Series vol 4]" (1990) "Conflict resolution: its language and processes" (1996)