“See you in court!”: Whaling as a two level game in Australian politics and foreign policy

► The paper examines Australian whaling policy as a two-level game. ► The Australian Labor Party under Kevin Rudd exploited whaling as an election issue by promising legal action against Japan if necessary. ► Domestic policy failures by Rudd government later put pressure on Rudd to take action against Japan in order to take whaling off domestic agenda. ► Rudd calculates that whaling issue can be exploited, including legal action, without damaging bi-lateral relations because of the strength and maturity of relations. ► Rudd's handling of the whaling issue illustrates the kinds of two level game calculations made by policy elites.