The international outlook of any community, at any stage in its development, is likely to be determined very largely by the interaction of four overlapping factors: geographic position with its strategic requirements; racial composition and resulting prejudices; economic interests, actual and potential, and, by no means least in importance, traditional policies and ideological trends. The relative strength of these several influences varies from period to period. Their individual content may change considerably under pressure of events either inside or outside the community, including the impact of party politics and of powerful personalities. They nevertheless have much to contribute to an understanding of the involved and complicated behaviour patterns of democratic societies in their relations with foreign states and peoples.

Late in the morning of Sunday 2 August 1914, following the receipt of various warnings from London that war was imminent, the Australian Prime Minister, Joseph Cook, met senior army officers in Melbourne to discuss ‘arrangements for putting the precautionary stage into operation’. The officers explained the plans, and immediately orders were issued for the first stage of mobilisation. The orders went out to the permanent gunners of the Royal Australian Garrison Artillery, as well as the permanent engineers, to man the defended ports at Thursday Island, Brisbane, Newcastle, Sydney, Melbourne, Hobart, Adelaide, Albany and Fremantle.

Many factors contribute to the problem, and it is not surprising therefore that a multifaceted response is needed to address it. Above all, it is essential to de-normalise alcohol-related violence if genuine and effective responses to the problem are to be found. This chapter maps out the relationship between alcohol and violence, and reviews both the key dimensions and dynamics of alcohol-related violence, and approaches to preventing it. In particular, it investigates topics of alcohol and violence, family and domestic violence, responsibilities of the different levels of government in Australia for preventing alcohol-related violence and family and domestic violence. It also investigates various challenges facing practitioners and policy-makers working in these areas, including competing ideological views about how best to prevent these offences, negative unintended consequences of adopting particular approaches, and urban versus rural issues that affect alcohol-related violence.