Australia’s place in the world

With globalisation fundamentally changing the way nations interrelate, we are more dependent on each other than at any other moment in history. This has brought enormous challenges and opportunities across trade, international security, and international law. It is also changing the way we view inequality, shifting the lens from inequality between nations to inequality within them. How will the decisions taken beyond our borders affect our future?

ANU Panellists:    
Dr Shiro Armstrong, Australia-Japan Research Centre, East Asian Bureau of Economic Research, Crawford School of Public Policy
Professor Sharon Bessell, ANU Children’s Policy Centre, Crawford School of Public Policy
Ms Jacinta Carroll, National Security College, Crawford School of Public Policy
Associate Professor Meg Keen, Department of Pacific Affairs, Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs
Ms Anne McNaughton,  ANU Centre for Commercial Law

Moderated by: Catherine McGrath, one of Australia’s most respected political journalists.

Dr Shiro Armstrong is the Director of the Australia-Japan Research Centre and Director of the East Asian Bureau of Economic Research at ANU. He is also a Co-Editor and Co-Founder of both the East Asia Forum and East Asia Forum Quarterly.  Shiro’s research is centred on Sino-Japan economic and political relations, East Asian economic integration and international trade and foreign direct investment. He co-authored Financing Higher Education and Economic Development in East Asia (2011) and edited The Politics and the Economics of Integration in Asia and the Pacific (2011).

Professor Sharon Bessell is Professor at the Crawford School of Public Policy, where she is Director of the Children’s Policy Centre and of the Poverty and Inequality Research Centre. Sharon also co-leads the ANU Individual Deprivation Measure (IDM) Program, which is a partnership between ANU, the International Women’s Development Agency and the Australian Government, funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT). Sharon’s research focuses on issues of social justice, social inclusion and human rights for children and the gendered and generational dimensions of poverty and inequality.

Jacinta Carroll is Senior Research Fellow, Counter-Terrorism and Social Cohesion at the ANU National Security College.  Her career experience includes working on national security, counter-terrorism, strategic policy, border security, military operations, campaign planning and scenario development. She has expertise in information management and international policy with a particular focus on the Middle East and Afghanistan. Jacinta has served in Iraq and was the inaugural Head of ASPI’s Counter Terrorism Policy Centre. She is regularly sought for comment on national security and international affairs. Jacinta is a graduate of The Australian National University, has post-graduate qualifications in management from Flinders University, and holds masters degrees from the University of Sydney and Deakin University.

Associate Professor Meg Keen joined the Department of Pacific Affairs (formerly the State, Society and Governance in Melanesia Program) in 2015, following ten years as a senior analyst in the Oceania Branch of the Office of National Intelligence, and a year as a senior policy adviser in the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands. Her current research is focused on urbanisation in the Pacific, sustainable oceans management, and regional governance in the Pacific Islands. She has worked on research projects across the Asia-Pacific, publishing on urbanisation, natural resource management, Pacific security, informal economies, aid effectiveness, and community development. Meg is currently the Research Director of the Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs.

Anne McNaughton is Director, ANU Centre for Commercial Law and a former Director of the ANU Centre of European Studies. Anne’s research focuses on the European Union as a unique legal system in international law. Her work is directed to developing a more sophisticated and evidence-based understanding of the European Union in the broader Australian community and the wider Asia-Pacific region. Anne was an investigator on an interdisciplinary ARC Linkage Grant, ‘Australia and the European Union: A Study of a changing trade and business relationship’. Most recently Anne has been researching and publishing on the integration of services in the European Union and is currently completing a project on mutual recognition and professional services. She is frequently called upon to provide commentary to media outlets on the Brexit vote and the fallout. Anne is a Fellow of the European Law Institute (ELI), and a corresponding member of the Principles of European Insurance Contract Law (PEICL) and Principles of Reinsurance Contract Law (PRICL).

(Photo from the event’s ANU webpage)