AIIA

Citizen Diplomacy - How Ordinary People can Change the World (Part 2)

Citizen Diplomacy - How Ordinary People can Change the World (Part 1)

Lessons of the Cold War - Professor Joseph Siracusa

Presentation by Professor Joseph Siracusa on March 30, 2011, at Dyason House, on the origins of the Cold War, the policies that fuelled it, and the evolution of the arms race.

Tim Lindsey - Indonesia

Sir Zelman Cowen Oration - Dennis Richardson 12/10/11

Sir Zelman Cowen Oration Established in honour of Sir Zelman Cowen AK GCMG GCVO KStJ, our Senior Patron, former Governor- General, and one of Australia’s most distinguished and internationally respected public figures. Wednesday, October 12, 2011, 7pm for 7.30pm The Australian Club, 110 William Street, Melbourne The 2011 Oration will be delivered by Mr Dennis Richardson AO Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Foreign Policy in a Changing World with an appreciation by Mr Tony Walker International Editor of ‘The Australian Financial Review’

No task is more challenging or important for the Australian Government today than developing and conducting foreign policy in a highly volatile and rapidly changing world. Australia, as a middle power in global terms yet a significant player in the Pacific, has a difficult and sensitive task in ensuring that our limited resources are deployed in ways that optimise our national interests. We need to balance our crucial economic, trade and financial relations as well as our essential security interests. Advising and guiding the Government on these great challenges is the task of the Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), Mr Dennis Richardson AO. Mr Richardson is one of Australia’s most significant public servants. He has had an outstanding career serving successive governments. He was appointed Secretary of DFAT in early 2010 following his return to Australia after four years as Australia’s Ambassador to the United States of America. Prior to that he was for nine years the Director-General of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO). Previous positions include Deputy Secretary of the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs; Principal Adviser to the Prime Minister; and diplomatic appointments in Jakarta, Port Moresby and Nairobi, among a number of other prominent international roles. Mr Richardson was made an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2003 for his services to Australia.

Western Sahara and its Phosphate Rock: Is Australia in a hard place? - Kamel Fadel and Tim Robertson

Western Sahara and its Phosphate Rock: Is Australia in a Hard Place? Mr Kamal Fadel, Polisario's representative in Australia, and Mr Tim Robertson SC Wednesday 5 October, 2011 6pm – 7.30pm Dyason House 124 Jolimont Road, East Melbourne Phosphate is essential to the production of our food and is used extensively in Australian agriculture. The main source for most of our superphosphate fertiliser is phosphate rock from the Bou Craa mine in Western Sahara.  It is exported by Morocco, which claims sovereignty over the former Spanish colony of Western Sahara, and has proposed to the UN that it be an autonomous region within the Moroccan state. The Polisario, an Algerian-backed independence movement, disputes Moroccan sovereignty of Western Sahara. It also claims permanent sovereignty over Western Sahara's natural resources, and therefore disputes that Morocco has the right to sell the phosphate rock.  They accuse Morocco of disregarding the wishes of the indigenous Saharawi people by selling its phosphate to foreign countries, without the consent of and without apparent benefit to the indigenous population, a claim supported by a UN legal opinion in 2002.  The Polisario claims that as three Australian companies import phosphate from the Bou Craa mine, Australia risks the perception that it is helping to contribute to the yet unresolved situation in Western Sahara. Morocco rejects this claim. Mr Kamal Fadel, who heads the Polisario information office in Australia, will discuss this issue.  Australia does not recognise an independent Western Sahara.  With a background in international relations, Mr Fadel has served in India, Iran and the UK as a Saharawi diplomat, and is a former Ambassador to East Timor.  He is joined by Mr Tim Robertson SC, a senior NSW barrister and civil libertarian with a very broad practice, predominately in environmental law and public law, including public international law.

China Political Changes and Challenges - Dr Geoff Raby 28/09/2011

China: Political Changes and Challenges

Prof. Geoff Raby, former Australian Ambassador to China

Wednesday 28 September, 2011

6pm – 7.30pm

KPMG

161 Collins Street, Melbourne

BOOKINGS ESSENTIAL

 

Prof. Geoff Raby brings a unique perspective to understanding China, based on his most recent experience as Australia’s Ambassador in Beijing and before that as Australia’s chief trade negotiator.  Drawing on his depth of experience, this is an opportunity to hear Prof. Raby outline his views on China, at a moment of time when it is poised for a generational change in leadership.  This should not be missed by those who want a better understanding of the challenges and opportunities that the impending changes will bring.

A great deal is at stake in how Australia engages with China, our largest trading partner.  As Europe and the US struggle under a mountain of debt and faltering growth, the locus of economic power is shifting rapidly eastward, centred on China.  For Australia, the ongoing strength of the Chinese economy will continue to power our mineral exports, with consequential benefits for this country.  At the same time, China’s rise as a global power raises new and complex issues with which Australia will need to grapple.  As China increasingly comes to dominate Australia’s strategic and economic future, how we engage with her will be of critical importance to our future. 

Prof. Raby was Australia’s Ambassador to China from 2007 until his recent retirement in August this year.  His previous appointments include: Deputy Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) until November 2006; First Assistant Secretary, International Organisations and Legal Division (2001-2002); Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the World Trade Organisation, Geneva (1998-2001); First Assistant Secretary, Trade Negotiations Division (1995-1998); and Australia’s APEC Ambassador (2002-2004).  Prof. Raby is now a consultant resident in Beijing and holds the degrees of BEc (Hons), MEc and PhD from La Trobe University.

How the World Sees Australia - Nick Bryant 21/09/2011

Mr Nick Bryant, the BBC’s foreign correspondent in Australia Wednesday 21 September, 2011 5.30pm – 7pm Dyason House 124 Jolimont Road, East Melbourne How does the world see Australia? Do we live up to our self-image as the sun-blessed, relaxed, friendly and confident country, or does the world see us in an altogether different light?  Are we, as portrayed a decade ago by the American author Bill Bryson, an inconsequential country, or are we seen as a major component of the global economic shift from the Atlantic to the Indian and Pacific oceans? Australia is now a member of the world’s top economic body, the G20, a competitor for a seat on the UN Security Council, a committed partner to our allies, a vital supplier to China and other fast-growing countries and was the only OECD economy to avoid a recession during the GFC.  But are we still just the lucky country, our good fortune a consequence of geography more than policy?  And if we are a fast-growing, positive country, why do Australians often seem so sensitive to what others think of us? At the conclusion of his five year assignment as the BBC’s correspondent in Australia, the Institute is pleased to have Nick Bryant give us his perspective on Australia’s standing in the world. Nick Bryant has served as a BBC correspondent in Washington and South Asia, studied history at Cambridge and has a doctorate in American politics from Oxford.  He is the author of ‘The Bystander: John F. Kennedy and the Struggle for Black Equality’ and he has just published a book chronicling his experiences as a foreign correspondent, ‘Adventures in Correspondentland.’

The Fallout from Fukushima - Dr Ziggy Switkowski 14/09/2011

Dr Ziggy Switkowski, Chancellor, RMIT University and former Chairman of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation Wednesday 14 September, 2011 5.30pm – 7pm Dyason House 124 Jolimont Road, East Melbourne The earthquake and tsunami that devastated much of north-west Japan on 11 March this year also crippled all six reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.  The dramatic series of cascading events at the plant were widely reported, although the lack of reliable information meant that much coverage at the time was speculative.   With the Japanese and many Western Governments now suggesting they will wind back current reliance on nuclear energy, and abandon plans to build new plants, have the events at Fukushima confirmed the claims of the opponents of nuclear energy as an unsafe, expensive source of power?  Or has the incident, whilst undoubtedly serious, shown that nuclear power, with appropriate safeguards, should still be a viable source of greenhouse-friendly, base-load power for energy-hungry economies?  And is nuclear power now more or less an appropriate option for Australia, as suggested in the 2006 report to the Howard Government? To discuss these events, the Institute is pleased to present Dr Switkowski, the author of that report and widely respected commentator on nuclear power. Dr. Switkowski, who has a Ph.D in nuclear physics, is Chancellor of RMIT, a Director of Suncorp, and Chairman of Opera Australia.  He has previously been CEO of Telstra, Optus and Kodak, and was until the end of 2010 the Chairman of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation.   Dr. Switkowski will examine the immediate causes and consequences of the Fukushima events; the likely impact on Government policy in coming months and years, and also discuss more recent technological developments in nuclear power.

Deadly Water: the Secret World of Somalia’s Pirates - Jay Bahadur, 12-9-11

For centuries, pirates have captured the imagination of people everywhere.  But the recent gangs of daring, ragtag pirates off the coast of Somalia, hijacking the crew and passengers of huge ships for ransom, have brought the scourge of piracy into the modern era.  As recently as the end of August, Somali prates were holding 17 ships with an estimated 375 hostages.  And piracy is estimating to be adding $15 billion a year to the costs of global trade in insurance, security measures and increased journey times. To explore this phenomenon, and the response from the international community to combat it, we are pleased to present Jay Bahadur, the only Western journalist to venture deeply into this world. Mr Bahadur ventured to Puntland, the pirate base in north-eastern Somalia, to observe the pirates first hand as they planned and carried out attacks.  Some pirates claim they are operating a form of volunteer Coast Guard as the Somali State has disintegrated through civil war.  However, as piracy has become substantially more lucrative in recent years, financial gain is now seen as the primary motive.  Mr Bahadur has also interviewed some of the security personnel charged with combating piracy, as well as former pirate hostages who lived under captivity on ships, sometimes for months, while awaiting news of a ransom to secure their freedom. Jay Bahadur is a Canadian freelance journalist, who has corresponded for ‘The Times’, ‘The New York Times’, the’ Financial Times’, and CBS News.  He now runs the international news website Journalist