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2. Winning hearts and minds: the PRC’s efforts to attract scientific talent
- Author:
- Yun Jiang
- Publication Date:
- 12-2022
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Australian Institute of International Affairs
- Abstract:
- In her second policy research report, Ms Yun Jiang, AIIA China Matters Fellow, assesses efforts by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to encourage the return of PRC-born scientists from abroad. Xi Jinping has made attracting returnee talent a priority to enable the PRC to achieve greater technological strength and self-reliance. Yun Jiang argues that these sometimes controversial programs have not met their objectives. Many top scientists are reluctant to return because of domestic policies in the PRC. At the same time, scientists of Chinese heritage in the United States face greater scrutiny and suspicion. Australia has an opportunity to attract some of this top scientific talent caught between the two countries.
- Topic:
- Science and Technology, Hegemony, Business, Strategic Competition, and Strategic Interests
- Political Geography:
- China and Asia
3. An Enduring Contribution? Australia's Term on the United Nations Security Council (2013-2014)
- Author:
- Michael Bliss and Gary Quinlan
- Publication Date:
- 06-2021
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Australian Institute of International Affairs
- Abstract:
- As Australia took up its role as an elected member of the United Nations Security Council for 2013-2014, the challenges ahead were all too apparent. Dynamics between the five permanent members were particularly tense. Options for elected members to make a serious contribution appeared more limited than ever. The Council was unable to find consensus on how to address the most pressing threats to international peace and security. As political coordinator for Australia’s Security Council delegation across the Council’s 2013-2014 term, Michael Bliss had a unique insight into the workings of the Council, into Australia’s contributions, and into the relationships and diplomacy that underpinned the outcomes achieved. This monograph, published six years after Australia’s fifth Council term concluded, seeks to contextualise Australia’s work during its term, and to track how those contributions have endured and resonated in subsequent years. As a senior officer of Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, a specialist in multilateral affairs, an experienced diplomat and international lawyer, and an unrelenting optimist, Bliss is well placed to tell this recent story of Australian diplomacy. In doing so, he makes a compelling case that it is in Australia’s interests to seek to again “serve with distinction” as an elected member on the Security Council, in 2029-2030. Based on Australia’s experience in 2013-2014, Gary Quinlan AO, former Australian Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Australia to the United Nations (2009-2014) in his afterword asks the question of whether the Council has a future? Australia is a declared candidate for election for the 2029-2030 term but what kind of Council might we face and what are the dynamics that will affect our role?
- Topic:
- Security, Diplomacy, International Cooperation, United Nations, and UN Security Council
- Political Geography:
- Australia
4. The Vote for Cambodia: Australia's Diplomatic Intervention
- Author:
- Richard Broinowski
- Publication Date:
- 10-2021
- Content Type:
- Research Paper
- Institution:
- Australian Institute of International Affairs
- Abstract:
- Under the supervision of the United Nations, Cambodia held its first democratic elections on the 23rd May 1993, an event which was hailed as a monumental victory for democracy. Australia played a prominent role in the lead-up. However, optimism that free and fair elections would continue to be held as a matter of course was eroded during the following years, and finally ended following the forced dissolution of Cambodia’s major opposition party, the Cambodian National Rescue Party, in 2017. Reflecting on his own experiences as a diplomat in the Department of External Affairs, Richard Broinowski AO dissects the impact of Australia’s contribution to the emergence of contemporary Cambodia. Whilst Australia played a prominent role in supporting the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia to stabilise the region, it’s efforts to build a lasting democratic system is proving to be in vain. In this first-hand account, Broinowski strings together archival documents and private conversations with senior officials to recount Australia’s role in Cambodia’s tumultuous rise and evaluate the future of peace and stability in the country.
- Topic:
- International Cooperation, United Nations, Authoritarianism, Elections, Democracy, and Election Observation
- Political Geography:
- Asia and Cambodia
5. Taiwan, Cross-Strait Tension, and Security in the Indo-Pacific
- Author:
- Bryce Wakefield
- Publication Date:
- 11-2021
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Australian Institute of International Affairs
- Abstract:
- Tensions across the Taiwan Strait are rising and are potentially more serious than crises in the 1990s and even the 1950s. Military activity around Taiwan has increased, with China’s largest daily incursion into Taiwan’s Air Defence Identification Zone occurring in October 2021. Nevertheless, experts disagree as to whether such activity signals China’s intent to go to war over Taiwan or whether Beijing is posturing to a nervous international community. What is the likelihood of conflict over Taiwan? Could accidents around the island spark all-out hostilities? How should states in the region, like Australia and Japan, react to the current situation? How is the increased tension perceived in Taipei?
- Topic:
- Defense Policy, Military Strategy, Territorial Disputes, Conflict, and Borders
- Political Geography:
- China, Taiwan, and Asia
6. Trade and Supply Chain Issues for Taiwan and Australia
- Author:
- Bryce Wakefield
- Publication Date:
- 12-2021
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Australian Institute of International Affairs
- Abstract:
- Covid-19 has disrupted supply chains around the world, while political movements in the United States and Europe that predate the pandemic have raised the prospect that we are once more living in a world where regionalism and nationalism trump global integration of trade. China, meanwhile, has made it clear that it sees trade as a tool in its political statecraft, a factor that has been keenly felt in the region. Nervous actors in the Indo-Pacific are looking to diversify their trade away from China, but do nations in the region have many choices? What does this mean for Taiwan-Australia trade relations? How does Taiwan’s ambiguous position in the international system relate to recent trade agreements? Where do Taiwan and Australia, as mid-level powers, sit within the global trading order?
- Topic:
- International Trade and Finance, Public Health, Pandemic, and COVID-19
- Political Geography:
- China, Taiwan, Asia, and Australia
7. Winning Hearts and Likes: How foreign affairs and defence agencies use Facebook
- Author:
- Damien Spry
- Publication Date:
- 06-2020
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Australian Institute of International Affairs
- Abstract:
- For defence and diplomacy, digital media, and specifically social media, have become an unavoidable aspect of their operations, communications and strategic international engagement, but the use of those media isn’t always understood or appreciated by governments. While the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and the Department of Defence (DoD) both use social media, including accounts managed by diplomatic posts overseas and by units of the ADF, both departments can improve how they reach and engage online. It’s important to note, however, that their use cases and audiences are different. DFAT’s audience is primarily international and varies by geographical location. Defence has a more local audience and focus. More importantly than the content, online engagement is dependent on the strength of the ties between the senders or sharers and the recipients of the content. For both departments, improving those online ties is vital as they seek to influence. The Australian Government should use social media far more strategically to engage international audiences—particularly in the diplomatic and defence portfolios. Both DFAT and Defence should review outdated digital strategies, cross-promote more content and demonstrate transparency and accountability by articulating and publishing social media policies. Both departments should create more opportunities for training and the sharing of skills and experiences of public diplomacy staff. They should refrain from relying solely on engagement metrics as success measures (that is, as a measure of an individual’s, usually senior staff’s or heads of missions’, level of ability or achievement). Instead, by changing the emphasis from the producers of social media content to the audiences that interact with it, the engagement data can be usefully regarded as a proxy for attention and interest. This can tell us what kinds of audiences (mostly by location) are engaged, and what types of content they do and don’t engage with. This information indicates the (limited) utility of social media; this should guide online engagement policy. This report also highlights and recognises the value of social media for the defence community — especially as a means of providing information and support for currently serving personnel and their families—by supporting the use of Facebook for those purposes by all defence units. DFAT should remove the direction for all Australian heads of mission overseas to be active on social media. While this presence is indeed useful and boosts the number of global government accounts, if our ambassadors aren’t interested in resourcing those accounts, the result can be sterile social media accounts that don’t engage and that struggle to connect with publics online. Instead, both departments should encourage those who are interested in and skilled at digital diplomacy to use openness, warmth and personality to engage.
- Topic:
- Foreign Policy, Defense Policy, Social Media, and Facebook
- Political Geography:
- Australia
8. India, The United States, Australia and the Difficult Birth of Bangladesh
- Author:
- Ric Smith
- Publication Date:
- 10-2019
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Australian Institute of International Affairs
- Abstract:
- Ric Smith has masterfully woven archival material, memories of his own time as a foreign service officer, and conversations with other officers of the then Department of Foreign Affairs to recount the crisis in East Pakistan in 1971 and the difficult birth of Bangladesh. Smith highlights the Cold War incongruities of the crisis, including the Soviet Union’s support for democratic India’s position during the crisis, while the United States supported the military regime in Pakistan. The episode also stands as an example of Canberra diverging from Washington on an issue that was garnering political and media attention in Australia. Australia was able to pursue a policy toward the region that was independent from the United States, accepting early that East Pakistan was “finished” and that there was a need to address an unfolding humanitarian crisis. Smith’s book imparts important lessons about diplomacy for Australia: It is not only possible for Australia’s politicians and diplomats to take independent positions on major international problems, but they are sometimes respected by their allies when they do so.
- Topic:
- Cold War, Human Rights, Democracy, Geopolitics, and Military Intervention
- Political Geography:
- Pakistan, United States, Europe, India, Asia, Soviet Union, and Australia
9. Ministers For Foreign Affairs 1972-83
- Author:
- Melissa Conley Tyler and John Robbins
- Publication Date:
- 11-2018
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Australian Institute of International Affairs
- Abstract:
- The Australian Institute of International Affairs (AIIA) is pleased to present the latest book in the Australian Ministers for Foreign Affairs series. In May 2016 the AIIA held a one-day forum to examine the achievements of Australia’s foreign ministers between 1972-83. This forum and publication is the third book in the AIIA’s Australian Ministers for Foreign Affairs series following on from Ministers for Foreign Affairs 1960-72 and R.G. Casey: Minister for External Affairs 1951-60.
- Topic:
- Foreign Policy, Cold War, Diplomacy, Human Rights, and International Cooperation
- Political Geography:
- United States, Japan, China, Indonesia, Asia, and Australia
10. The EU and Australia: Shared Opportunities and Common Challenges
- Author:
- Melissa Conley Tyler and Antonia Mochan
- Publication Date:
- 05-2017
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Australian Institute of International Affairs
- Abstract:
- When Minister for Foreign Affairs Julie Bishop and I launched the EU-Australia Leadership Forum – last September in Brussels – she made a passionate case for our friendship, and for a strong and united Europe. She remembered thousands of Australians who died fighting in our continent during the world wars, and the 70 years of peace that a united Europe has made possible for its member states. She celebrated economic prosperity inside Europe, and the European Union’s contribution to a global order based on rules, on cooperation, on sustainable development.
- Topic:
- International Relations and International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Europe and Australia
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