This week in Australian foreign affairs: joint statement with Canada and New Zealand supporting ceasefire in Israel-Hamas conflict, Russian cyber targeting of democratic processes, Head of Mission announcements, and more.

The war in Gaza has resumed with Israel recommitted to the destruction of Hamas, unimpeded by a proposed UN Security Council resolution that called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, which the US alone vetoed on 8 December. But despite this, the US is pressing hard for a “day after plan,” a two-state solution that delivers long term regional stability and peace.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade's first multicultural ambassador will enable Australia to project its unique multicultural soft power to the world. At a time of growing unpredictability, a more inclusive statecraft will contribute to a more stable the Indo-Pacific.

All sides of Australian politics have sustained pressure on the United States to drop the charges against Julian Assange. While the Cheng Lei experience might provide an instructive lesson on how to negotiate with what is a political charge, this may have to wait until after the 2024 election. 

As we approach the 75th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Genocide Convention), it is important to reflect on it from an Australian perspective. Australia’s ratification of the Convention in 1949 has and continues to have very significant impacts both domestically and with respect to foreign policy.

The Australia–China Youth Dialogue (ACYD) was founded in 2010 by a group of creative, boundary-pushing students who felt they could have an impact in the Australia–China space. After 13 years it continues to reflect a real interest in deepening mutual understanding and opportunity between the two countries.

On Tuesday 28 November 2023, the Institute welcomed inaugural AIIA/China Matters Fellow Yun Jiang to speak about future […]

Trade-offs are coming that Australia is not prepared for and that will test the social license of our leaders. Yet arguably our decision-making institutions are not structurally configured, and we as a nation are not culturally prepared, to manage this complexity and uncertainty.

Vladimir Putin may be hoping for a negotiated settlement on Ukraine, with the support of a weakened and defensively apathetic Europe. A revived Saint-Malo Accord may make this more difficult, a prospect the United Kingdom’s new foreign minister will certainly be trying to bolster.

Speech by AIIA National President Dr Heather Smith PSM FAIIA to the 2023 AIIA National Conference, 13 November 2023. I acknowledge the traditional […]

Although Pacific island countries contribute the least to global warming, they are at the frontline of climate change and live with the effects of it on a daily basis. The most substantial impacts of climate change include loss of coastal infrastructure and land, more intense cyclones and droughts, failure of subsistence crops and coastal fisheries, loss of coral reefs and mangroves, and the spread of diseases.