The National Security Podcast

In this episode of National Security Podcast, we speak with the Perth USAsia Centre's Dr Jeffrey Wilson about Australia's new investment measures and a shift toward caution in the face of foreign purchasing power.

In recent years, many developed economies have been enhancing their foreign investment laws with a heightened focus on national security. On Friday 5 June, Australia announced that it would be following suit, introducing new screening measures to ensure foreign nationals and organisations would not endanger Australia by buying controlling stakes in sensitive areas of the economy. But what is driving this shift in the way countries view foreign investment, and why has Australia chosen now to readjust the way it understands its vulnerabilities and risks?

Dr Jeffrey Wilson is Research Director at the Perth USAsia Centre. He provides leadership and strategic direction in developing the Centre’s research program across its publications, policy and dialogue activities. Jeffrey specialises in the regional economic integration of the Indo-Pacific and has particular expertise in the politics of trade agreements, regional economic institutions, and Australia’s economic ties with Asia.

Chris Farnham is the presenter of the National Security Podcast. He joined the National Security College in June 2015 and is currently Senior Outreach and Policy Officer. His career focus has been on geopolitics with experience working in and out of China for a number of years as well as operating in Australia and Southeast Asia.

We’d love to hear your feedback for this podcast series! Send in your questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes to [email protected]. You can also Tweet us @APPSPolicyForum or find us on Facebook. The National Security Podcast and Policy Forum Pod are available on Spotify, iTunes, Stitcher, and wherever you get your podcasts. 

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On this special episode of the National Security Podcast, we speak to three leading Indonesia experts about the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the country's national security.

How has Indonesia been impacted by COVID-19 and what are the implications for its national security? Has the pandemic offered terrorist organisations opportunities or new challenges? How will this health crisis influence the increased intensity of the conflict in West Papua? And how will the spread of the virus, which first emerged in China, impact the Chinese diaspora in Indonesia? In this episode of National Security Podcast we speak to Sidney Jones, Dr Quinton Temby, and Dr Charlotte Setijadi about the implications of COVID-19 for Indonesia’s national security. This episode is an edited version of a live podcast that was recorded on 21 May 2020.

Sidney Jones is the Director of the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict. She has previously held leadership roles at the International Crisis Group and worked with the Ford Foundation, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.

Charlotte Setijadi is an Assistant Professor of Humanities at the Singapore Management University and co-host of the Talking Indonesia Podcast at the University of Melbourne.

Quinton Temby is a Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore. He is also a Visiting Fellow at the Department of Political and Social Change at The Australian National University's Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs.

Katherine Mansted is a senior adviser at the National Security College and non-resident fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. Previously, she was a commercial solicitor with King & Wood Mallesons, a ministerial adviser to the federal government, and served as an Associate in the High Court of Australia.

Chris Farnham is the presenter of the National Security Podcast. He joined the National Security College in June 2015 and is currently Senior Outreach and Policy Officer. His career focus has been on geopolitics with experience working in and out of China for a number of years as well as operating in Australia and Southeast Asia.

We’d love to hear your feedback for this podcast series! Send in your questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes to [email protected]. You can also Tweet us @APPSPolicyForum or find us on Facebook. The National Security Podcast and Policy Forum Pod are available on Spotify, iTunes, Stitcher, and wherever you get your podcasts. 

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In this National Security Podcast, we speak to Professor Tom Nichols about international and domestic national security influences on the United States' 2020 elections.

As the United States moves toward an election in the midst of a pandemic and increasing tensions with China, and in the shadow of Russian interference, national security is going to be central to its 2020 presidential and congressional elections. Should we expect more Russian interference and could they be successful a second time? Can America’s alliance network survive a second term of President Trump? Why are there armed civilians raiding state capitals, and what does this mean for domestic security? And what would happen if President Trump refused to accept the result of an election that ended his time in office? We tackle these questions and more in this National Security Podcast.

Tom Nichols is Professor of National Security Affairs at the US Naval War College, an Adjunct Professor at the Harvard Extension School, a former aid in the US Senate and the author of The Death of Expertise: The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why It Matters.

Chris Farnham is the presenter of the National Security Podcast. He joined the National Security College in June 2015 and is currently Senior Outreach and Policy Officer. His career focus has been on geopolitics with experience working in and out of China for a number of years as well as operating in Australia and Southeast Asia.

We’d love to hear your feedback for this podcast series! Send in your questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes to [email protected]. You can also Tweet us @APPSPolicyForum or find us on Facebook. The National Security Podcast and Policy Forum Pod are available on Spotify, iTunes, Stitcher, and wherever you get your podcasts. 

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In this episode, we talk to the former head of Emergency Management Australia Mark Crosweller about national resilience in an era of climate change and COVID-19.

How has Australia’s recent bushfire disaster impacted the way policymakers consider climate change and its impact on national security? Has COVID-19 illuminated the fragility of an interdependent society? What is it that keeps a former Director General of Emergency Management Australia awake at night? In this National Security Podcast, Mark Crosweller talks about our vulnerability to the increased severity of climate change-driven natural disasters, the impacts of national crises like COVID-19, and how we need to change the way we look at developing national resilience in the face of a dangerous future.

Mark Crosweller was the Director General of Emergency Management Australia and led the National Resilience Taskforce for the Commonwealth Government of Australia. Mark’s professional life has seen him serve in leadership roles for state and territory, as well as national governments across numerous disaster response and crisis management portfolios.

Chris Farnham is the presenter of the National Security Podcast. He joined the National Security College in June 2015 and is currently Senior Outreach and Policy Officer. His career focus has been on geopolitics with experience working in and out of China for a number of years as well as operating in Australia and Southeast Asia.

We’d love to hear your feedback for this podcast series! Send in your questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes to [email protected]. You can also Tweet us @APPSPolicyForum or find us on Facebook. The National Security Podcast and Policy Forum Pod are available on Spotify, iTunes, Stitcher, and wherever you get your podcasts. 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How do Australia’s experiences fit into the global contest over the climate change narrative and why is that contest now bleeding into discussion about the coronavirus pandemic? On this National Security Podcast, Chris Farnham is joined by Chris Zappone to tackle a growing spread of disinformation in the media and how it can affect a crisis.

Australia’s recent bushfire crisis saw the nation’s computer screens, airwaves, and television screens dragged into the global disinformation storm over climate change. Who were the actors behind messages and memes claiming that the fires were the work of arsonists or climate change activists, and what were their aims? In this podcast we speak to Chris Zappone, Digital Foreign Editor for The Age and TheSydney Morning Herald to determine the answer to this and more on disinformation, from climate change to COVID-19.

Chris Zappone is Digital Foreign Editor at The Age and Sydney Morning Herald, where his writing focuses on the interplay between technology, politics, economics, and the future. Chris is also an inaugural member of the National Security College Futures Council.

Chris Farnham is the presenter of the National Security Podcast. He joined the National Security College in June 2015 and is currently Senior Outreach and Policy Officer. His career focus has been on geopolitics with experience working in and out of China for a number of years as well as operating in Australia and Southeast Asia.

We’d love to hear your feedback for this podcast series! Send in your questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes to [email protected]. You can also Tweet us @APPSPolicyForum or find us on Facebook. The National Security Podcast and Policy Forum Pod are available on Spotify, iTunes, Stitcher, and wherever you get your podcasts. 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How do the impacts of climate change make it a national security issue, and how is climate change going to affect Australia’s preparedness for national resilience and even war?

In this episode of the National Security Podcast, Chris Farnham speaks with Associate Professor Matt McDonald about where major risks likely lie for national defence, societal resilience, and regional security in the face of the climate crisis.

Associate Professor Matt McDonald is Reader in International Relations at the School of Political Science and International Studies of the University of Queensland. His research focuses on critical theoretical approaches to security and their application to environmental change, Australian security policy, climate politics, and security dynamics in Asia and the Pacific.

Chris Farnham is the presenter of the National Security Podcast. He joined the National Security College in June 2015 and is currently Senior Outreach and Policy Officer. His career focus has been on geopolitics with experience working in and out of China for a number of years as well as operating in Australia and Southeast Asia.

We’d love to hear your feedback for this podcast series! Send in your questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes to [email protected]. You can also Tweet us @APPSPolicyForum or find us on Facebook. The National Security Podcast and Policy Forum Pod are available on Spotify, iTunes, Stitcher, and wherever you get your podcasts. 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode, Chris Farnham chats with Professor Rory Medcalf about the future of the Indo-Pacific region and Australia's place in it.

Will any one country have the power to map the future of a region so central to global prosperity and security? If diplomacy fails, the Indo-Pacific will be the theatre of the first general war since 1945. But if its future can be secured, the Indo-Pacific will flourish as a shared space. In this episode of the National Security Podcast, Chris Farnham speaks to Rory Medcalf about his new book, Contest for the Indo-Pacific: why China won’t map the future and Australia’s place in a multipolar region.

Rory Medcalf is the head of the National Security College at The Australian National University. His professional background involves more than two decades of experience across diplomacy, intelligence analysis, think tanks, and journalism.

Chris Farnham is the presenter of the National Security Podcast. He joined the National Security College in June 2015 and is currently Senior Outreach and Policy Officer. His career focus has been on geopolitics with experience working in and out of China for a number of years as well as operating in Australia and Southeast Asia.

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Join us at the pod squad members’ lounge as we field your questions on all sorts of issues, from how countries are performing on emissions reduction to which politician you’d least like to be stuck in conversation with at the annual Midwinter Ball.

On the first episode of our special Ask Policy Forum series, regular hosts and special guests crack a beverage and chat about what you want to know. Led by Chris Farnham of the National Security Podcast, kick back as Mark Kenny of Democracy Sausage, Martyn Pearce of Policy Forum Pod, Professor Mark Howden, Associate Professor Carolyn Hendriks and Dr Arnagretta Hunter field your questions on life, the universe and everything.

Future episodes of Ask Policy Forum will be released only to members of our Policy Forum Pod Facebook group, so make sure you jump online and join to get access to this exclusive monthly pod.

Mark Howden is Director of the ANU Climate Change Institute. Mark was a major contributor to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports for the United Nations, for which he shares a Nobel Peace Prize.

Carolyn Hendriks is Associate Professor of Public Policy and Governance, at ANU Crawford School of Public Policy. Her work examines the democratic aspects of contemporary governance.

Arnagretta Hunter is a cardiologist, physician, and a Senior Clinical Lecturer for The Australian National University Medical School.

Mark Kenny is the presenter of Democracy Sausage with Mark Kenny and a Senior Fellow in the ANU Australian Studies Institute. He came to the university after a high-profile journalistic career including six years as chief political correspondent and national affairs editor for The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, and The Canberra Times.

Chris Farnham is the presenter of the National Security Podcast. He joined the National Security College in June 2015 as Policy and Events Officer. His career focus has been on geopolitics with experience working in and out of China for a number of years as well as operating in Australia and Southeast Asia.

Martyn Pearce is a presenter for Policy Forum Pod and the Editor of Policy Forum.

We’d love to hear your feedback for this podcast series! Send in your questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes to [email protected]. You can also Tweet us @APPSPolicyForum or find us on Facebook

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In this episode of National Security Podcast, Sam Roggeveen joins Chris Farnham and Katherine Mansted to talk about his recent paper Our Very Own Brexit: Australia’s Hollow Politics and Where It Could Lead Us.

Is Australia seeing a surge in conservative sentiment, or is the nation being led by political parties in search of a new identity? On this National Security Podcast, we are joined by Sam Roggeveen of the Lowy Institute to discuss where and how domestic politics and foreign policy interact, and ask what it would mean for Australia’s place in Asia if the country’s politics were to turn on multiculturalism.

Sam Roggeveen is Director of the Lowy Institute’s International Security Program and a Visiting Fellow at The Australian National University's Strategic and Defence Studies Centre.

Katherine Mansted is a senior adviser at the National Security College and non-resident fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. Previously, she was a commercial solicitor with King & Wood Mallesons, a ministerial adviser to the federal government, and served as an Associate in the High Court of Australia.

Chris Farnham is the presenter of the National Security Podcast. He joined the National Security College in June 2015 as Policy and Events Officer. His career focus has been on geopolitics with experience working in and out of China for a number of years as well as operating in Australia and Southeast Asia.

We’d love to hear your feedback for this podcast series! Send in your questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes to [email protected]. You can also Tweet us @APPSPolicyForum or find us on Facebook.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Is press freedom a national security issue? If it is, what does that mean for Australia’s regional relations and its fight against foreign interference? In this episode of the National Security Podcast, Katherine Mansted and Rory Medcalf discuss their recent submission to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and National Security on freedom of the press. They  also unpack pivotal national security issues for the region in the past year and discuss what policymakers should keep an eye out for in 2020.

Rory Medcalf is the head of the National Security College at The Australian National University. His professional background involves more than two decades of experience across diplomacy, intelligence analysis, think tanks and journalism.

Katherine Mansted is a Senior Adviser for Public Policy at the National Security College and a Non-resident Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.

Chris Farnham is the presenter of the National Security Podcast. He joined the National Security College in June 2015 and is currently Senior Outreach and Policy Officer. His career focus has been on geopolitics with experience working in and out of China for a number of years as well as operating in Australia and Southeast Asia.

We’d love to hear your feedback for this podcast series! Send in your questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes to [email protected]. You can also Tweet us @APPSPolicyForum or find us on Facebook. The National Security Podcast and Policy Forum Pod are available on Spotify, iTunes, Stitcher, and wherever you get your podcasts.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.