Perth USAsia Centre (University of Western Australia) partnered with Griffith Asia Institute to deliver a 3 day program for a group of young Queensland professionals on the future of the Australia-US alliance in the Indo-Pacific century.
TheAustralia-US Alliance Young Leaders Dialogue(5-7 June 2019)is the initiative of Professor Peter Dean (Senior Fellow Perth US Asia Centre and PVC (Education), University of Western Australia) and was generouslysponsoredby the US Embassy.The Dialogueinvolvesthree regional workshops to be held in 2019 that seek to engage young Australian professionals as the next generation of alliance leaders.
Spanning 2 years, the Program will include leadership lectures, policy workshop sessions, meetings, and networking opportunities to allow for collaborative learning, creating an ongoing network of emerging leaders engaged with alliance issues. The Program workshops will encourage the participants to identify the strategic interests that the US and Australia share and summarise them in final joint statements for public release.
The Brisbane Program was the first workshop andinvolved a group of 15 young professionals (postgraduate, alumni and industry)participatinginsessions led by academics and policy makers on topics including:
- The Australia-US strategic relationship
- Shared values and democratic principles
- Australia-US trade and economic cooperation
- Regional geopolitical issues and emerging security challenges
The final workshop sessions saw participants produce a joint statement on what they saw as the current and future issues for Australia-US cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region. Brisbane participants highlighted non-traditional security concerns, changing trade and economic conditionsand soft diplomacy initiatives as the key issues for the alliance going forward.
A selection of Brisbane workshop participants will have the opportunity to attend the Canberra workshop in 2020, and from that cohort, a final group will be chosen to attend the capstone workshop in Washington, DC the same year.
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