Australia’s overseas aid program is a highly effective, if underutilised and underappreciated, soft-power asset. That claim might sound strange coming from someone who works for an international development NGO, known more for challenging conceptions of …
The Foreign Affairs team conducting Australia’s soft power review has been travelling the country to invite a national conversation about influence and persuasion. In Hobart, for example, interlocutors ranged widely from public, commercial and educational …
How could it be that many foreigners simultaneously love American films, music and fashion, yet, as Peter van Ham writes, they judge Washington so harshly as to say the US ‘got what it deserved on …
Seeing Australia’s foreign minister and their opposition counterpart arguing international affairs on the same stage is a rare thing. The federal parliament is the nation’s great clearinghouse for all arguments, but big set-piece foreign policy …
Last week, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop launched Australia’s first-ever review of soft power. It’s a bold move, flagging a new reality that Australia must engage more strategically through official and public diplomacy if it is …
