Asia-Pacific Development, Diplomacy & Defence Dialogue

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As the year draws to a close, #AP4D would like to thank all who have given the benefit of their guidance and advice during a busy 2024. Have a safe and relaxing break and we look forward to reconnecting in the new year. The AP4D office will reopen on 9 January.

In Australian Outlook #AP4D Executive Director Melissa Conley Tyler and intern Viet Dung Trinh explain why Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Vietnam have put themselves on a path to #BRICS membership. "Australia has said it wants to be a partner of choice in Southeast Asia. This means that it needs to understand the motivations behind Southeast Asian countries moving closer to BRICS—as a strategic way to maintain autonomy and offset uncertainties and challenges from Trump’s protectionist economic policy." Read their Australian Institute of International Affairs piece at https://lnkd.in/gwn9h3dc.

#AP4D Advisory Group's Susannah Patton features in a new Lowy Institute piece that asks experts what they're watching for in 2025. Susannah outlines some key questions for #SoutheastAsia, including on #Malaysia, #Prabowo, Philippines-US ties and #TimorLeste. 👉 Take a look at https://lnkd.in/gwyfnrvY.

The latest Intel asked Melissa Conley Tyler "How can Australia’s turn to economic statecraft help the poor?" Melissa’s experience leading public policy think tanks across Australia and as the current Executive Director of AP4D informs her response this week. Read her response here 👉https://lnkd.in/gNbGk2Ak Sign up to get the Intel straight to your inbox 👉 https://ow.ly/rYB250SavNo

This week Development Intelligence Lab asked three experts: How can Australia’s turn to economic #statecraft help the poor? #AP4D's Melissa Conley Tyler explains that "Australia has an interest in a secure and prosperous region. Poverty and instability are a threat to these goals. This positions development funding as a preventive (and cost effective) investment." She sees the turn to economic statecraft as "an opportunity to show the link between helping the poor and Australia’s foreign policy aims." Helen Mitchell says that "Alongside other tools of statecraft, Australian economic tools make the poor at home and abroad more prosperous and resilient. As our international system becomes less easy or certain to navigate, these are valuable tools indeed." Ryan Edwards offers three suggestions: ✅keep moving towards open labour markets in the Pacific ✅make poverty reduction DFAT’s primary development objective again ✅re-engage with and scale up activities in countries where most of the world’s poor actually live Take a look at https://lnkd.in/gNbGk2Ak. AP4D recently undertook consultations with 40+ experts looking at how Australia can navigate this new era of economic statecraft. Explore the resulting paper at https://lnkd.in/g5W8_QBz. Watch a recording of the launch, featuring Assistant Minister Tim Ayres, at https://lnkd.in/gyUGXJfH.

Yesterday #AP4D was delighted to host the online launch of 'Australia in World Affairs 2016-2020: A Return to Great-Power Rivalry'. Published every five years by the Australian Institute of International Affairs, the Australia in World Affairs series is the definitive account of Australian #foreignpolicy since the 1950s. Deakin University Co-editors Baogang He, Danielle Chubb & David Hundt and contributing author Bec Strating (La Trobe Asia La Trobe University) spoke to the key foreign policy developments during the period 2016-2020, the implications for Australia’s international engagement at the time, and contemporary lessons they might offer. 🔗 Purchase a copy of the volume at https://lnkd.in/gqZU3fqA. 📺 Watch a recording of the launch at https://lnkd.in/gXuqNN7m.

What does the newly signed Australia-#Nauru Treaty entail? #AP4D Advisory Group member Joanne Wallis and Monash University's Jack Corbett share their views in The Conversation Australia + NZ, saying that "important questions remain unanswered". Read their piece at https://lnkd.in/gCnGwzTn.

#AP4D Advisory Group member Jennifer Parker recently spoke with ABC News Breakfast about the Australian Navy's new missile capabilities. 👇👇👇

🚨Webinar🚨 Join us tomorrow from 2pm for the online launch of the new volume of Australian Institute of International Affairs's Australia in World Affairs, which looks at the period 2016-2020. Featuring Deakin University's Danielle Chubb, David Hundt & Baogang He and La Trobe Asia's Bec Strating. Register at https://lnkd.in/gMH_rXJ7