Whiplash! Disruption as the New Normal in International Affairs

The AIIA National Conference is Australia’s leading event on Australian foreign policy. Usually running annually, the conference has hosted many distinguished guests who shape the nation’s policies including ministers, academics, top government officials and industry leaders. The day brings together some of Australia’s most prominent international affairs experts examining new developments in international affairs and the place of Australian foreign policy within them.

The conference regularly draws around 400 attendees. In the last national conference, in 2025, attendees included current and former ministers, 35 ambassadors, officials from 12 government departments, engagement by participants from more than 20 of Australia’s most prestigious tertiary education institutions and guests from around 50 different countries. Masterclasses attract highly-engaged early-career professionals and tertiary students from around Australia, allowing selected participants to engage in intimate discussions with experts in international affairs.

Save November 16 in your diary for this very special event. Should you wish to sponsor the conference to assist us in bringing the world to Australia, and have your contribution recognised during the conference, contact the AIIA national office today.

Recent years have seen not only disruption in international relations, but a more fundamental challenge to the norms and principles that have underpinned the global order. The resurgence of great power politics has been accompanied by a wider willingness among major and revisionist powers to test, sidestep, or openly violate established rules of sovereignty, legality, and multilateral restraint. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, China’s coercive behaviour in the South China Sea and across the Taiwan Strait, and the use of proxies and regional escalation in the Middle East all point to a more contested international environment. These trends have been sharpened by US actions, most notably during the Trump administration, from renewed pressure over Greenland to the capture of Venezuela’s sitting president and the use of force and coercion against Iran. Together, they signal a shift towards a more transactional and power-driven international system.

Such developments have contributed to a sense of strategic “whiplash”: sudden, disorienting shifts that challenge assumptions about stability, predictability, and the durability of international norms. For Australia, these changes are not abstract. They shape the country’s strategic environment, its economic resilience, and its capacity to act as a middle power committed to a rules-based order.

This conference places Australia at the centre of analysis, examining how it can respond to—and shape—a world in which disruption is no longer episodic but enduring. It asks what it means to pursue security, prosperity, and influence in an era where norms are contested, power is exercised more bluntly, and the boundaries of acceptable state behaviour are increasingly uncertain.