Our message
The Asia-Pacific Development, Diplomacy & Defence Dialogue (AP4D) creates a new dimension in Australia’s international policy-making by bringing together the development, diplomacy and defence communities.
Our mission: Encouraging better statecraft to maximise Australia’s influence in a difficult, dangerous and complex world.
Our vision: An integrated, ambitious foreign policy which can generate long-term influence and engagement with the region and the world.
Our method: Promote collaboration among development, diplomacy and defence experts and provide a platform for practical, future-facing ideas.
Timeline
Activities and Influence
The 2023-2030 Australian Cyber Security Strategy says that the government is "harnessing the whole country to tackle cyber security problems" by "shifting cyber from a technical topic to whole-of-nation endeavour."
"Cyber is no longer a technical topic but a whole-of-nation effort."
"Australia will deploy all arms of statecraft to deter and respond to malicious cyber actors."
On Wednesday 22 November AP4D hosted a public webinar on Improving Australia’s Pacific Literacy, looking at how Australia can build a better cultural understanding of and connectedness to the region.
Featuring
- Faleagafulu Inga Stünzer, Executive Producer at ABC Radio Australia
- Jesse Martin, Executive Chairman of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander International Engagement Organisation
- Ema Vueti, President of the Pacific Islands Council of Queensland
- Tess Newton Cain, Associate Professor and Senior Research Fellow at the Griffith Asia Institute
Delivering the 2023 Alfred Deakin Institute Oration, Minister for International Development and the Pacific and Minister for Defence Industry Pat Conroy emphasised the importance of development as a tool of statecraft.
"[D]evelopment policy is at the heart of our approach to statecraft.
It is not the poor cousin of orthodox diplomacy, or trade policy or defence policy.
It is an essential element of advancing Australia’s interests, shaping how our nation is perceived internationally and, most importantly, lifting people out of extreme poverty and contributing to peace and stability."
AP4D hosted a webinar to launch the options paper ‘What does it look like for Australia to be a partner for infrastructure with the Pacific and Southeast Asia'.
Featuring:
- Senator Simon Birmingham, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs
- Hayley Channer, United States Studies Centre
- Alison McKechnie, Johnstaff International Development
- Anna Griffin, Transparency International Australia
Australia's Southeast Asia Economic Strategy to 2040 sets a more active government role in promoting trade and investment links as part of a broader "whole-of-nation effort with our region".
"A coordinated ‘whole-of nation’ approach will be key to recognising and capitalising on emerging trends and opportunities."
"While we have strong people-to-people links, an enduring challenge in both Australia and Southeast Asia is limited familiarity with each other’s economies, societies, business environments and market opportunities. Addressing this challenge will require a whole-of-nation effort across Commonwealth and state and territory governments, universities, the private sector, not-for-profits and communities."
AP4D hosted a webinar to launch the options paper ‘What does it look like for Australia to be a partner on Maritime Safety with the Pacific’.
Featuring:
- Rhonda Robinson, Director of the the Pacific Community’s Geoscience, Energy and Maritime Division
- Elisa Boughton, Manager of International Engagement at the Australian Maritime Safety Authority
- David Shoebridge, Greens Senator for New South Wales
Australia's sixth Intergenerational Report was released on 24 August. Its analysis and projections are intended to inform and improve public policy settings to better position Australia for the next 40 years. Outlining several negative trends, the Report says that "unprecedented coordination between domestic and foreign policy and between economic and security settings" will be needed "to keep Australians safe and ensure our economic strength."
"Maintaining stability in the Indo-Pacific region through diplomacy, development assistance, trade and building defence capability remains Australia’s primary strategic objective framing national security funding."'
"Integrating all available tools of national power – economic, diplomatic, industrial, intelligence, cyber and military – will encourage greater flexibility and burden sharing across the national security community and strengthen its capacity to respond to new and emerging threats."
The government released Australia's new International Development Policy and Development Finance Review at Parliament House, with Minister Wong, Minister Conroy and DFAT Secretary Jan Adams offering remarks. Reflecting key themes from AP4D's submission, the policy states that:
"As one of our tools of statecraft, an effective development program is key to building regional resilience. It is in Australia’s national interest to play our part through challenging times."
"Australia’s development program cannot deliver the outcomes we seek in isolation. All elements of our national power must be deployed to respond to the needs of our region—integrating development with our diplomatic, trade, economic, defence, immigration, sporting, cultural, scientific and security efforts."
On Tuesday 4 July AP4D hosted a NAIDOC Week panel discussion – ‘Values of First Nations Australians and Pacific connections’ – focused on the contribution and cultural knowledge First Nations people bring to foreign policy discussions and international engagements.
Featuring
- Justin Mohamed, Australia’s inaugural Ambassador for First Nations People
- Salā Dr George Carter, Director of The Pacific Institute at The Australian National University
- Jane Bastin-Sikimeti, Director, Pacific Gender Section at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
- Lieutenant Colonel Eileen Hall, Command Cultural Adviser with the Australian Army
Speaking at the Griffith University event 'Statecraft in Uncertain Times', Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong outlined the need to respect, resource and "apply all elements of Australian power, Australian statecraft, to advancing our interests".
"If you read the Defence Strategic Review... it actually talks about why foreign policy and foreign affairs needs resourcing and needs deployment. So I think that's something we're very aware of, and how we try to approach the challenges we face is to ensure that all of these aspects of our capacity to influence the world are there."
AP4D hosted a webinar to launch the options paper ‘What does it look like for Australia to enhance coordination with France in the Indo-Pacific’.
Featuring:
- Natalie Sambhi, Executive Director at Verve Research
- Anna Gibert, Internaional Development Consultant
- Dr Kate O’Shaughnessy, Research Director at the Perth USAsia Centre
- Zoe McKenzie MP, Deputy Chair of the Parliamentary Friends of France
In his keynote address at the 2023 Shangri-La Dialogue, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese emphasised the importance of all elements of statecraft in contributing to regional stability and prosperity:
"We are committing to a whole-of-nation effort. That’s my Government’s focus in Australia. Investing in our capability and investing in our relationships. Strengthening our deterrence and our diplomacy. And bringing both to our presence in this region."
Speaking the following day, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence Richard Marles spoke of Australia's:
"renewed commitment to responsible, nuanced and effective statecraft: a determination to harness all arms of national power to not only ensure Australia’s security but, crucially, to help shepherd our Indo-Pacific region through a profound period a strategic change and contest... For Australia, diplomacy will always be the front line of our engagement with the world."
AP4D hosted a webinar to launch the options paper ‘What does it look like for Australia to be a strategic partner on women, peace and security with the Pacific’.
Featuring:
- Sharon Bhagwan-Rolls, Pacific Regional Representative at Shifting the Power Coalition
- Anna Gibert, International Development Consultant
- Dr Nicole George, Associate Professor at the University of Queensland
- Jane Bastin-Sikimeti, Director, Pacific Gender Section at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
A joint media release on budget night from Ministers Wong, Conroy and Farrell said that “The Albanese Government’s approach in the Budget will make Australia more influential in the world, by investing in all elements of our statecraft including diplomatic power, trade and development.”
"Australia’s region faces increasing strategic competition, including rising risks of military escalation or miscalculation. Australia’s response to this changing environment requires new investments in diplomacy, development, defence and national security."
Speaking at the Australian Institute of International Affairs, Minister for International Development the Pacific and Minister for Defence Industry Pat Conroy said that the Albanese government's approach to statecraft:
"is about using all the elements of state power at our disposal …We need to harness all our national assets in pursuit of Australia’s interests in the world... one of the best tools of statecraft that can be deployed to advance our interests and values, and those of our partners, is our international development program."
Blue Security hosted a webinar to launch the AP4D paper ‘What does it look like for Australia and Southeast Asia to develop a join agenda for maritime security’.
Featuring:
- Dr Bec Strating, Director of La Trobe Asia
- Melissa Conley Tyler, Executive Director of AP4D
- Aristyo Darmawan, Lecturer at Universitas Indonesia
- Dr Charmaine Misalucha-Willoughby, Associate Professor at De La Salle University
AP4D hosted a webinar to launch the options paper ‘What does it look like for Australia to shape a shared future with Timor-Leste’.
Featuring:
- Philippa Venning, Vice President at Abt Associates
- Héctor Salazar Salame, The Asia Foundation's Timor-Leste country representative
- Parker Novak, Nonresident Fellow at the Atlantic Council's Global China Hub
- Luke Gosling OAM, Federal Member for Solomon
AP4D hosted a webinar to launch the options paper ‘What does it look like for Australia to be an effective partner in combatting illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing’.
Featuring:
- Pat Conroy, Minister for International Developnment and the Pacific and Minister for Defence Industry
- Dr Michael Heazle, Adjunct Professor at the Griffith Asia Institute
- Dr Camille Goodman, Senior Lecturer at the Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security
- Keith Twyford, Global Lead - Sustainable Fisheries at theMinderoo Foundation
Addressing the National Press Club, Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong said that Australia's strategic circumstances "require a response of unprecedented coordination and ambition in our statecraft".
"[A] region that is open, stable and prosperous... doesn’t simply exist organically. It demands our national effort... That effort cannot be left to one or another arm of Australian Government."
"Our foreign and defence policies are two essential and interdependent parts of how we make Australia stronger and more influential in the world."
"Our decision is to use all elements of our national power to shape the world in our interests, and to shape it for the better."
AP4D hosted an in-conversation event with AP4D Co-chair Professor Michael Wesley to discuss the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands intervention as an example of Australia using all tools of statecraft in practice.
Former RAMSI Special Coordinators James Batley and Nicholas Coppel also shared some fascinating insights.
AP4D gave evidence to the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Inquiry into supporting democracy in our region, drawing on a submission
Watch a video recording of proceedings at the Parliament of Australia website.
In an address to the Australian Leadership Retreat, Chief of Army Lieutenant General Simon Stuart outlined why the all elements of statecraft needed to be brought to bear.
"So what’s changed in terms of our strategic circumstances is that in an era of great power competition, competition, crisis and conflict are a national endeavour – not something for the military element of national power to deal with.
And in prosecuting a national endeavour, for me statecraft is really the aim for national leadership.
That’s the mobilisation and orchestration of all elements of national power."
Speaking at the Raisina Dialogue, Chief of the Australian Defence Force General Angus Campbell spoke of the important role that each of the constituent elements of statecraft play.
"The most complete expression of a nation's interests in the world is through statecraft, which engages all of its elements of national power in a fashion that comprehensively seeks to build security, stability and prosperity. If we find ourselves in a setting in which more and more of national wealth is expended more narrowly in the military space, that sense of statecraft is weakened, and it's statecraft that builds peace and prosperity. It's inclusive of military capability that is the hard edge of deterrence and credibility, but it's not exclusively that, and that I think is the key question: what is that proportion of resource that's being applied across the breadth of a nation's capacity to influence the world around it."
The unclassified version of the Defence Strategic Review includes a chapter on ‘National Defence – A Whole-of-Government Approach’ that explicitly outlines the importance of respecting and resourcing all tools of statecraft and echoes the language and messaging from AP4D’s submission:
"Australian statecraft now requires a consistent and coordinated whole-of government approach to international affairs and the harmonisation of a range of domestic and external national security portfolios."
"Statecraft also requires the utilisation of all elements of national power, the alignment of all supporting government policy, economic resilience and a consistent strategic narrative."
"Statecraft must be driven and directed by a clear sense of national strategy and be coordinated across government through a clear and holistic national strategic approach."
Speaking at the Raisina Dialogue, Prime Minister Albanese said "national security demands a whole-of-nation effort" and that "Australia’s international engagement is an essential part of our Government’s approach to national security".
AP4D launched the options paper ‘What does it look like for Australia to use all tools of statecraft in practice’, which maps out Australia’s tools of statecraft and outlines a vision and pathways to coordinate them, drawing from consultations with more than 50 government and non-government experts across Australia’s international policy communities.
Featuring:
- Nicola Rosenblum, Executive Director of the Australian Civil-Military Centre
- Richard Maude, AP4D Advisory Group, Executive Director, Policy at Asia Society Australia and Senior Fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute
- Bridi Rice, AP4D Founding Co-convenor and CEO of the Development Intelligence Lab
- Susannah Patton, Director of the Lowy Institute's Southeast Asia Program
- Dr William Stoltz, Lecturer & Expert Associate at the ANU National Security College
Delivering the Sydney Institute's Annual Dinner Lecture, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence Richard Marles said that "sober, responsible, and clear-eyed statecraft has never been more important".
"The idea that Australia has to choose between diplomacy and defence – or, as some critics would have it, between cooperation and confrontation – is a furphy, and a dangerous one at that."
"We must marshal and integrate all arms of national power to achieve Australia’s strategic objectives. Australia has done this in rare periods of crisis. But in the future we will need to do so systematically."
Following the success of AP4D’s inaugural program, the Australian Civil-Military Centre funded AP4D to undertake Stage II of ‘Shaping a Shared Future’.
The objective of the 24-month program remains the same: to generate more effective approaches to advancing Australia’s influence in Southeast Asia and the Pacific through improving the integrated application of development, diplomacy and defence perspectives.
AP4D was successful in securing funding from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade as part of the Blue Security Program - a collaboration between AP4D, La Trobe Asia, Griffith Asia Institute, University of New South Wales Canberra and University of Western Australia’s Defence and Security Institute,
Following the success of AP4D’s inaugural program, the Australian Civil-Military Centre funded AP4D to undertake Stage II of ‘Shaping a Shared Future’.
The objective of the 24-month program remains the same: to generate more effective approaches to advancing Australia’s influence in Southeast Asia and the Pacific through improving the integrated application of development, diplomacy and defence perspectives.
AP4D hosted a webinar to launch a series of papers that outline a vision for how Australia can put an integrated approach to foreign policy into practice in the Pacific.
Minister for International Development and the Pacific and Minister for Defence Industry Pat Conroy delivered a message at the Symposium, as did Simon Birmingham, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs.
Following the success of AP4D’s inaugural program and the consonance between AP4D’s integrated statecraft focus and the Office of the Pacific’s whole-of-government remit, a 24-month grant agreement was signed with the Department of Foreign Affairs in June 2023 to establish the program ‘Strengthening Australia’s Pacific Engagement through Development, Diplomacy & Defence Dialogue’.
The program contributes to integrated policymaking and delivery of programs in the Pacific by providing a platform for the Office of the Pacific to efficiently consult, develop and test ideas with non-government experts from the development, diplomacy and defence communities in Australia and the Pacific.
AP4D hosted a webinar to launch a series of papers that outline a vision for how Australia can put an integrated approach to foreign policy into practice in Southeast Asia.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Marise Payne delivered a message at the Symposium, as did Pat Conroy, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific and Shadow Minister Assisting for Defence .
In an address to the Australian National University's National Security College, then Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong said that "in a time of great uncertainty" Australia "need[ed] to use all the tools we have" to "maximis[e] our influence."
"Military capability matters… But we need more than that. We need to deploy all aspects of state power – strategic, diplomatic, social, economic… Foreign policy must work with other elements of state power to succeed – in this the whole is greater than the sum of the parts."
On 6 April AP4D signed a contract with the Australian Civil-Military Centre to undertake the inaugural program: Shaping a shared future – deepening Australia’s influence in Southeast Asia and the Pacific.
AP4D's first public event featured Bridi Rice, Melissa Conley Tyler, Allan Gyngell and Hugh White discussing how the principal elements of Australia’s international engagement — diplomacy, development and defence — could be better integrated to deal with the strategic challenges, opportunities and choices likely to arise in a post-COVID world.
AP4D launched with a meeting of leading Australian thinkers in November 2019.
Founding partners were the Australian Council for International Development, Australian National University, International Development Contractors Community and the Institute for Regional Security. The inaugural Co-convenors were Richard Moore and Bridi Rice.