On Thursday 10 October the Australian Institute of International Affairs NSW hosted a careers evening at which successful professionals discussed their experiences in their international careers. The panel comprised former Australian Ambassador Jane Hardy, Irish Consul General in NSW Rosie Keane and Dr John Lee of the Centre for International Security Studies at Sydney University. The event was moderated by Alice Nason, AIIA NSW councillor.  The speakers outlined their careers in diplomacy and international policy advice.

Jane Hardy (centre) reflected on her recruitment to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and her overseas and Canberra-based career. She emphasised the importance to working in policy of being well-read in international affairs, including academic theory and the work of think tanks. She contrasted her experience of small embassies, drawing on her time as Ambassador to Spain and Andorra, with her work in Washington, where the embassy was so large as to resemble a government department in Canberra, with 17 attached Commonwealth agencies. The embassy’s outreach had resembled that of the huge number of lobbyists active in Washington.

Jane also described daily work in the foreign ministry at home, such as the preparation of policy submissions [i.e. recommendations] for ministers. She suggested that diplomatic analysis and negotiation demonstrated the power of the pen. She saw the key attributes for a diplomatic career as being integrity, adaptability to new places and new technologies, and hard work.

Rosie Keane (middle) described the leap she took with her recruitment into diplomacy from the world of finance. She stressed the need to be an authentic representative of one’s country and society, noting her experience of an increasingly diverse foreign service including higher levels of LGBTQI+ participation. She compared her work in Sydney to being a diplomatic
representative in a separate country, with particular stresses and uncertainty during the Covid period. She commented on the requirement as a diplomat to cover a wide and variable range of issues, often unfamiliar and sometimes    uncomfortable. Accordingly she emphasised the need for adaptability and openness to new developments: world events direct government priorities. Examples had been her responsibility in the Irish Embassy in London for recommendations on Ireland’s responses to Brexit and her unexpected first assignment to the Disarmament and Non-Proliferation office despite her background in finance. She noted that courage and flexibility are critical traits for any diplomat faced with navigating new and complex challenges.

John Lee (right) described his years in business, his academic qualifications including study at Oxford University and his period for two and a half years as an adviser to former foreign minister Julie Bishop. He compared and contrasted business life with government policy advice, including issues of job security, career structure and hierarchy. Policy and business problems were not so different. The key starting point in any analysis lay in asking why the issue had arisen, in order to address how to solve it. John commented on the importance of keeping ahead of international political and economic change and recognising the need to take account of congruity with majority opinion and analysis. He also stressed the need to challenge prevailing trends and think independently, advising against being captive to intellectual fashions. Instead, he encouraged professionals to anticipate change and cultivate original ideas.

Looking to the future, speakers commented on the growing problem of both misinformation and disinformation and the activities of malign actors. There was a need for global responses to the challenges posed by artificial intelligence and the prospect of new international diseases.