Dyason House Podcast

Today we had a discussion with Zara Kimpton OAM, National Vice President of the Australian Institute of International Affairs and the head of the Australian delegation for the Women20, an official G20 engagement group forming a transnational network of women’s organizations, female entrepreneurs associations and think tanks. Zara talked us through the key areas of engagement for the W20, how we can turn ideas into effective action on gender equality, and the role Australia is playing in supporting the W20 agenda.

India, the most populous democracy in the world, is asserting itself as a force on the world stage at an impressive rate. With a development this rapid, there are bound to be complications. This episode saw us sit down with Professor Craig Jeffrey, Director of the Australia India Institute, to discuss some of the challenges facing youth in India, the surprising innovations employed to overcome them, and the social phenomenon of ‘time-pass’.

For today’s episode we were joined by Alexey Muraviev of Curtin University, an Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Social Sciences & Security Studies and a leading academic in Australia on Russia. We discuss the role that Russia plays in the Pacific, the ways in which soft and hard power can be asserted, and why we should never forget that Russia never gave up its title of super-power.

Today Dr Ben Wellings, senior lecturer in International Relations at Monash University, Clayton, talked us through the rise of Euroscepticism, what the Anglosphere is and how the challenges of Brexit may stem from an identity crisis within the UK.

In this episode we sat down for a chat with Dr Charles T. Hunt, a Vice-Chancellor’s Senior Research Fellow at Social & Global Studies Centre, RMIT to discuss what constitutes the success of a peacekeeping mission, the challenges that a “robust turn” in UN missions poses, and what it takes to construct conditions for lasting peace. Dr Charles T. Hunt will be giving a talk on the protection of civilians in UN peace operations at the Australian Institute for International Affairs Victoria on May 29th, 2019.

We speak with Professor Jacqui True and Assoc. Professor Katrina Lee-Koo, Director and Associate Director of The Monash Centre for Gender Peace and Security, to shed some light on what gender, peace and security studies entail, what happens when women are given full agency and meaningful participation in the peace process and why we need to continue standing up for under-represented groups impacted by violence.

In the final episode of series 2, we're joined by Associate Professor Barbara Keys of the University of Melbourne. Barbara is an historian of international affairs, and the author of two books - Reclaiming American Virtue and Globalizing Sport. In 2019, she will serve as the president of the Society of Historians of American Foreign Relations. This week, we discuss human rights and sports diplomacy.

This week we’re joined by award winning expert on North Korea, Jean Lee. Jean currently serves as Director of Hyundai Motor Korea Foundation Centre for Korean History and Public Policy at the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars. She also led the Associated Press’ coverage of the Korean Peninsula between 2008 and 2013, becoming the first American Reporter granted extensive access on the ground in North Korea, and opened the Associated Press’ Pyongyang bureau in 2012. This week, we discuss her experiences, and the North Korean economy.

In episode 7 we are joined by Walkley Award Winner Rowan Callick. Rowan has worked as a China Correspondent and Asia-Pacific Editor to the Australian Financial Review and the Australian, and was awarded an OBE in 2014. This week we discuss his experiences as a foreign correspondent, and the rise of China.

This week’s episode features Jean Dunn, currently Director Indo-Pacific of the Centre for Political and Diplomatic Studies and formerly Australia’s ambassador to Turkey and Azerbaijan, Lebanon, Poland, the Czech Republic, Lithuania and Ukraine. In 2016, Jean was presented with the Public Service Medal by the Governor General for her services during the aftermath of the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in 2014. We discuss what it takes to be a good diplomat, and the MH17 crisis.

Music: Jade by Scott Buckley