Event and Ticketing Details
Dates & Times
Tuesday 19 March
6:15 PM - 7:15 PM
What is the role of the modern ambassador? How much influence do they really have? While the days of Argo are probably long gone, so too is a life of garden parties, cups of tea and private clubs. In a new era of security threats, changing balances of power and global roaming of every sort, what takes up the time of our foreign envoys - and where are the postings that really matter?
Join the Wheeler Centre’s ambassador-at-large, Sally Warhaft, with guests Amanda Vanstone, former politician and ambassador to Italy, and Professor Michael Wesley, international relations expert, as they discuss the work of high diplomacy, Australia’s strengths and weaknesses, and our most important engagements abroad.
Featuring
Amanda Vanstone
Amanda Vanstone is a former senior Australian politician.
Amanda was also Australia’s ambassador to Italy from June 2007 to May 2010. She was a Liberal Senator for South Australia from 1984 to 2007, and held several ministerial portfolios in the Howard Government, including Minister for Immigration and Minister for Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs from 1996 to 1997.
Michael Wesley
Michael Wesley is professor of national security at the Australian National University. His career has spanned academia, with previous appointments at the University of New South Wales, Griffith University, the University of Hong Kong, Sun Yat-sen University and the University of Sydney.
In government, he has worked as assistant director general for Transnational Issues at the Office of National Assessments. He has also been executive director of the Lowy Institute for International Policy and a non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.
Professor Wesley has also served as the editor-in-chief of the Australian Journal of International Affairs, a trustee of the Queensland Art Gallery and a board member of the Australia Television Network.
He is a non-executive member of the Senior Leadership Group of the Australian Federal Police. His most recent book, There Goes the Neighbourhood: Australia and the Rise of Asia, won the 2011 John Button Prize for the best writing on Australian public policy.
Sally Warhaft
Sally Warhaft is a Melbourne broadcaster, anthropologist and writer. She is the host of The Fifth Estate, the Wheeler Centre’s live series focusing on journalism, politics, media, and international relations, and The Leap Year ...