John McCarthy

John McCarthy trained at Cambridge and worked as a lawyer in London and New York before joining the Australian foreign service in 1968. Early postings took him to Damascus, Baghdad, and Vientiane. He subsequently headed missions in Vietnam, Mexico, and Thailand, and served as a departmental deputy secretary. ¹

His Washington ambassadorship in 1995–97 drew on earlier service there. In 1987, he had taken the newly created position of minister for congressional and public affairs under Rawdon Dalrymple, strengthening the embassy's capacity to work with Congress as agricultural trade disputes intensified. ^{1, 2}

McCarthy went on to lead missions in Indonesia and Japan and served as high commissioner to India from 2004 to 2009. After leaving the service, he held leadership roles in the Australian Institute of International Affairs, Australia–India institutions, and the Australia–Indonesia Dialogue. ¹