Public Diplomacy Programs
The Alliance, AUKUS and a Changing Climate: Engaging Younger Western Australians
2024/25 – The Alliance, AUKUS and a Changing Climate: Engaging Younger Western Australians
UWA DSI was honoured to receive a grant from the U.S. Embassy to deliver the project The Alliance, AUKUS and a Changing Climate: Engaging Younger Western Australians. As part of this initiative, UWA DSI hosted a three-day workshop that brought together 16 emerging leaders and analysts from diverse sectors across Western Australia, along with one international participant from the Philippines. The workshop aimed to deepen participants’ understanding of the U.S.–Australia alliance, AUKUS, and the strategic challenges facing our region.
Throughout the program, participants engaged with a range of experts including academics, government officials, and military personnel from both Australia and the United States. The workshop featured eighteen guest speakers and included a special visit from Captain Brent Spillner, Commanding Officer of the USS Emory S. Land.
Workshop discussions centred on the role of emerging leaders in the future of the alliance, climate and energy policy, the U.S.-Australia alliance in a Western Australian context, and AUKUS-related shipbuilding in WA. Participants developed five policy briefs offering fresh perspectives on key challenges including climate resilience, democratic security, and regional cooperation.
Participants also created 30-second video statements on critical strategic themes including:
- Clean Energy Supply Chains
- Regional Maritime Security Cooperation
- The Mission for Hearts and Minds: AUKUS Social Licence in an Age of Misinformation
- Bolstering Democratic Resilience in the ‘Year of Elections’
- Enhancing Economic Resilience: AUKUS as a Catalyst for Infrastructure, Education, and Research Development
In addition to the three-day workshop, DSI hosted four private roundtable discussions with experts from the UK, U.S., and Australia, and a major public event on WA’s Growing Strategic Importance: A Deep Dive into AUKUS and the Surface Fleet Review. These engagements provided meaningful dialogue between visiting experts, WA senior business leaders and emerging leaders, deepening understanding of the U.S.-Australia alliance and the Indo-Pacific’s evolving geopolitical environment.
As part of the broader project, UWA DSI collaborated with the United States Studies Centre and the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre at ANU to support national engagement efforts, with visiting speakers also travelling to Sydney and Canberra to continue discussions.
Two Black Swan Strategy Papers were produced through the grant: On Its Own Two Feet: Advancing the Australia-Japan Defence Agenda by Tom Corben, which focused on advancing the Australia–Japan defence agenda; and Targeted Interoperability: A New Framework for Australia in South East Asia by Jennifer Parker, which proposed a new framework for strengthening military partnerships with Southeast Asia, particularly in the face of climate change.
This grant was a major success, enhancing policy dialogue, strengthening international collaboration, and empowering the next generation of strategic thinkers in Western Australia.
‘Roadshow’ Dialogue series
In collaboration with the USSC and ANU, UWA DSI hosted visiting experts from across the UK and US, as well as Australia.
25 June 2024 – Dr Zack Cooper, Senior Fellow, American Enterprise Institute and Co-Director, Alliance for Securing Democracy and Adjunct Professor, Centre for Security Studies. Dr Cooper unpacked the US-Australia alliance in the context of Western Australia, delving into AUKUS and Submarine Rotational Forces-West specifically.
26 June 2024 – Professor Alessio Patalano, Professor of War and Strategy in East Asia, Director, King’s Japan Program, King’s College, London. Professor Patalano discussed the growing role of the UK in Western Australia with the establishment of Submarine Rotational Force-West and the future co-design and build of SSN-AUKUS. He also reflected on the UK’s increased maritime focus on the Indo-Pacific, and what this means for Australia and the region more broadly.
19 August 2024 – Jennifer Parker, Expert Associate at the National Security College, ANU. Jennifer discussed how in the absence of formal alliance structures in Southeast and East Asia, the US, Australia and their allies and partners have adopted a latticework approach to developing relationships, an approach which comes with specific challenges. She also investigated the rising importance of minilaterals, such as the Quad, to the Indo-Pacific’s security architecture.
6 March 2025 – Tom Corben, Research Fellow in the Foreign Policy and Defence Program at the United States Studies Centre. Tom delved into how recent Australia-Japan defence and security arrangements have paved the way for deeper operational alignment, and how the two should continue to focus on the bilateral relationship.
The series was preceded by a scene setting event on 25th June 2024 entitled: WA’s Growing Strategic Importance: A Deep Dive into AUKUS and the Surface Fleet Review.
U.S. – Australia Alliance Next Generation Leaders
This two-year program involved regional workshops in Perth, Brisbane and Adelaide in 2020–2021. These workshops seek to engage young professionals in Australia with the potential to be the next generation of alliance leaders. The participants will help shape the future of U.S.–Australia relations in the Indo-Pacific century.
The U.S. – Australia Alliance Next Generation Leaders Program Hawai’i brought together the ten most outstanding scholars from the two iterations of the program in 2022.
Next Generation Leaders Honolulu, Hawai’i 2022
Regional Workshop Perth 2020
U.S. – Australia Alliance Network
Australia’s relationship with the United States remains one of the most important partnerships available for Australia across defence, security, geopolitics, energy, environment, Trade and investment.
The Alliance Network, supported by the Embassy of The United States of America and the UWA Defence and Security Institute, is designed to bring together influential leaders currently specialising regional security, economics or public policy to discuss the state of the relationship and to explore new areas of knowledge.
The Defence and Security Institute is an initiative by The University of Western Australia.
The University of Western Australia acknowledges that its campus is situated on Noongar land, and that Noongar people remain the spiritual and cultural custodians of their land, and continue to practise their values, languages, beliefs and knowledge.