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Upcoming Events

David vs Goliath: Inside Hungary’s 2026 Election Campaign

ldi Amon, Communications Advisor

Jul 9, 2026 12:30 - Jul 9, 2026 13:15
Online
Pathways to Power: Women in International Law and Global Justice

Dr. Gillian Triggs AC, Board member of the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, Ambassador for Australians for UNHCR, Patron of Justice Connect and advisor to the Australian Government on digital health and privacy; Imogen Kenny-Bartlett, Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer

Jul 9, 2026 17:30 - Jul 9, 2026 19:00
Level 13, 356 Collins Street 356 Collins Street Melbourne VIC 3000
Kickoff: The World Cup, World Order, and What Comes Next

John Didulica, Director of Football at A-League club Melbourne Victory FC; Professor Emma Sherry, Dean of the School of Management at RMIT University; Clare Murphy, Council member of the Australian Institute of International Affairs Victorian Chapter

Jul 15, 2026 17:30 - Jul 15, 2026 19:00
Level 13, 356 Collins Street 356 Collins Street Melbourne VIC 3000 Australia
Ordering the New Global Disorder

Graeme Dobell FAIIA, Journalist

Jul 15, 2026 19:00 - Jul 15, 2026 20:00
AIIA ACT Branch Hybrid Event

Video and Audio

Ep. 183: Hormuz–the new nuclear
22 Apr 2026
Ep. 183: Hormuz–the new nuclear
Who’s Building the Subs? | Indo-Pacific Briefing
09 Jul 2026
Who’s Building the Subs? | Indo-Pacific Briefing
Ukraine at a Crossroads | A Panel Discussion
05 May 2026
Ukraine at a Crossroads | A Panel Discussion
50:44
Michael J Green: Carney or Takaichi? How Allies are Managing the US
22 Apr 2026
Michael J Green: Carney or Takaichi? How Allies are Managing the US
38:58
Towards the AIIA Centenary

100 Years of International Affairs

The AIIA was founded in 1933 by member organisations that date back to the 1920s. The AIIA as a whole celebrates those founding branches as they reach 100 years of advancing knowledge and exchange on international affairs.

Australian Outlook

09 Jul 2026
In its Maritime Domain Awareness report launch in Jakarta on 7 July 2026, the Indonesia Ocean Justice Initiative (IOJI) findings show that Indonesia’s maritime domain is increasingly concerning in at least three key
09 Jul 2026
Australia’s mobilisation of its ‘amplified middle power diplomacy’ has been a feature as of late, with new agreements signed with nations across the Pacific. But as these agreements come through,
09 Jul 2026
Japan’s family law reform now allows joint custody after divorce, but for Australian parents separated from children for years, a new legal option is not the same as a working
09 Jul 2026
In early August 2025, a photograph circulated widely on Cambodian social media. It showed a woman sitting on her luggage at the Daung border crossing in Battambang province, staring at
09 Jul 2026
Peace rankings remain valuable measures of domestic stability. But do they capture Australian partnerships that keep the Indo-Pacific’s shared waters safe and secure? After the Philippines ranked 102nd in the

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Publications

Authored by Rebekah Baynard-Smith, Illustrated by Rohit Rao
Baogang He, David Hundt, Danielle Chubb (eds)
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AIIA News

PRAGUE–Australian Institute of International Affairs Chief Executive Officer Dr Bryce Wakefield attended the GLOBSEC 2026 Forum last week, joining political leaders, policymakers, military officials, and strategic thinkers from across Europe […]

CANBERRA—The Australian Institute of International Affairs (AIIA) marks a leadership transition this month, with Gary Quinlan AO FAIIA assuming the role of national president as Dr Heather Smith PSM FAIIA […]

BALI–Dr Bryce Wakefield, Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Institute of International Affairs (AIIA), has once again contributed to regional policy discussions at the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific (AOIP) […]

TOKYO, ISHINOMAKI, MINAMISANRIKU, KOBE, and KYOTO–The 2026 cohort of the Australian Institute of International Affairs–The Japan Foundation Indo-Pacific Cooperation Network (IPCN) has completed the first stage of its program with […]

TOKYO and CANBERRA–The Australian Institute of International Affairs (AIIA) and the Japan Foundation are pleased to announce the selection of the latest cohort for the Indo-Pacific Cooperation Network (IPCN), a […]

MUNICH – The Australian Institute of International Affairs (AIIA) partnered with the Munich Security Conference (MSC) to host a panel on “Minilateralism and Security in the Indo-Pacific” at the Public […]

04 Feb 2026

PERTH – The Australian Institute of International Affairs Western Australia (AIIA WA) hosted a special dinner event in partnership with the Embassy of the Republic of Angola at the Duxton […]

30 Dec 2025

CANBERRA–The Australian Institute of International Affairs (AIIA) is pleased to announce the appointment of seven distinguished Australians as 2025 AIIA Fellows. The Fellows award, established in 2008 to mark the […]

AIIA in the Media

27 May 2026
At a leading European security and policy conference in Prague, Latika buttonholes one of Australia's top political scientists to interrogate an unusually upbeat, even optimistic, mood. Is it that Europe's leaders are getting used to dealing with Donald Trump? Or could it be Ukraine fending off the Russians, with increasing success? The answer is worth a listen.
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20 May 2026
Bryce Wakefield, CEO of the Australian Institute for International Affairs said the difference in Mr Macron’s position then and now was notable. “Australia’s absence is striking because Canberra had effectively become a regular invitee to recent G7 summits alongside countries like India and South Korea, reflecting its growing role in Indo-Pacific strategy and economic security,” he said. "Given the summit’s focus on critical minerals and online child safety, two issues where Australia sees itself as a policy leader, the omission is diplomatically awkward. "Critics may well interpret this as a sign that Macron has lingering doubts about Australia after France was dumped for AUKUS. The bigger question, however, is whether the trans-Atlantic powers are losing focus on the Indo-Pacific.”
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11 May 2026
Australian Institute of International Affairs chief executive Bryce Wakefield said an in-person meeting with Mr Trump could be a hazardous undertaking, particularly given the crisis in the Middle East... Dr Wakefield said the US’s major allies had responded in their own way to Mr Trump’s “confrontational approach to foreign policy”. “In the Indo-Pacific, Canada’s Prime Minister (Mark) Carney has tended to confront Trump directly, Japan’s (Prime Minister Sanae) Takaichi has cautiously embraced Trump, while Australia’s Albanese has largely tried to stay off Trump’s radar,” Dr Wakefield said. “That is a wise approach. The challenge for Canberra is to remain in Washington’s good graces without drawing attention to its discomfort with the current US position in the Middle East.”
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5 May 2026
Bryce Wakefield, CEO of the Australian Institute for International Affairs who has lived in Japan and is fluent in Japanese, said Ms Takaichi’s trip appeared time to coincide with Japan’s week of national holidays known as Golden Week. “Takaichi’s visit was more about convenience and relationship management than coming up with anything new. It’s the typical mode of diplomacy favored by Japanese politicians at this time of year, when a series of national holidays at home gives them space to travel abroad,” Dr Wakefield told The Nightly.
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17 April 2026
Bryce Wakefield, CEO of the Australian Institute for International Affairs, welcomed the change in France’s influential position... “If France cannot build domestic support for prioritising the strategic value of cooperation with like-minded partners over narrower sectoral pressures, its ambitions for greater global influence will remain out of reach. This shift in attitude is therefore as good for France as it is for Australia.”
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15 April 2026
Watch AIIA ACT Branch President Dr Claude Rakisits' analysis of Pakistan's role in negotiations between Iran and the United States on Pakistan TV digital.
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14 April 2026
According to AIIA ACT Branch President Dr Claude Rakisits "In many ways, Pakistan was an obvious choice as convenor. Islamabad has good relations with Washington today—which wasn’t always the case, and a workable one with Iran, with which it shares a 900 km-long border."
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10 April 2026
“The Albanese government’s foreign policy has been quite smart in prioritising its own neighbourhood,” said Bryce Wakefield, head of the Australian Institute of International Affairs and an expert on Japanese foreign policy. “The relationships forged with Indonesia, with Japan, have given the Australians a way in to cooperate with those countries.”
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3 April 2026
Dr Pierre Pahlavi's 13 January 2026 piece in Australian Outlook quoted in Heraldo USA: "Disrupting [global] order—even at the cost of diplomatic friction—is therefore not an unintended consequence of Trump’s foreign policy, but one of its central objectives."
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2 April 2026
Read a long interview AIIA CEO Dr Bryce Wakefield gave during the Munich Security Conference in February, exploring differences in how Europe and Australia and other nations in the Indo-Pacific were viewing geopolitical developments (in Japanese).
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26 March 2026
Read AIIA CEO Dr Bryce Wakefield's analysis in German of the Free Trade and Defence and Security Agreements concluded by Canberra and Brussels.
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26 March 2026
Japan must “continuously reinforce its indispensability” through deeper defense integration, expanded access to facilities and robust spending, defense analyst Daiki Tsuboi wrote in a January 2026 essay published by the Australian Institute of International Affairs.
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18 March 2026
Bryce Wakefield, CEO of the Australian Institute of International Affairs said that Trump risked making a bad situation even worse. “Uniquely among US allies, Japan might play a proactive diplomatic role in ending the conflict, as Tokyo has very productive, pragmatic ties to Iran — in fact it is already engaged in talks with Tehran,” Dr Wakefield said.
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18 March 2026
Lowy Interpreter Editor Daniel Flitton quotes Penny Wong's speech to the AIIA Gala Dinner in November 2025 to illustrate how Wong's statements are "premised not on America alone but an active America, providing trusted partnership and pledges."
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4 March 2026
Australian Institute of International Affairs chief executive Bryce Wakefield said Mr Carney’s take on the breakdown of the rules-based order “may be a bitter pill for some in Canberra to swallow”. But he said that the practical relations between small and middle powers that Mr Carney was calling for was already the reality in much of the rest of the world, including Australia’s immediate region.
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4 March 2026
View video from Japan's national broadcaster of the AIIA-Japan Foundation Indo-Pacific Cooperation Network's visit to Minamisanriku, one of the locations devastated during the March 11, 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami.
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Read a front page article in a local newspaper about the AIIA-Japan Foundation Indo-Pacific Cooperation Network's visit to Ishinomaki, one of the locations devastated during the March 11, 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami, and their discussion with local leaders who experienced the disaster.
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