After Unipolarity: Where is the Asian regional order heading, and what should we be doing about it?
Professor Hugh White AO
5.30pm-6.30pm, Wednesday 7 August 2024
National Office
Old Government Buildings Lecture Theatre 1, Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington, 55 Lambton Quay, Pipitea Wellington 6011
This event is now at capacity and a wait list applies.
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In essence, Australia’s commitment to AUKUS is a vote to help preserve Asia’s US-led unipolar strategic order. But what are the alternatives? What kinds of new regional order might emerge to take the old order’s place if it cannot be preserved? And how would we fare in them?
Hugh White’s presentation will explore these questions, looking at the global context as shaped by the war in Ukraine and the alignment between China and Russia. It asks if the global Rules Based Order fails, what will take its place – authoritarian hegemony or politically diverse multipolarity? And what would it mean for Asia, and more particularly for Australia and New Zealand?
Professor White’s address will be followed by additional expert discussion from John Mckinnon, Chair of New Zealand-China Council and Senior Fellow at the Centre for Strategic Studies at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington.
Attendance is free. Pre-registration is required.
This event will be filmed and subsequently placed on NZIIA's Youtube channel.
About Professor Hugh White AO
Hugh White AO is Emeritus Professor of Strategic Studies at the Australian National University. His work focuses primarily on Australian strategic and defence policy, Asia-Pacific security issues, and global strategic affairs especially as they influence Australia and the Asia-Pacific. He has served as an intelligence analyst with the Office of National Assessments, as a journalist with the Sydney Morning Herald, as a senior adviser on the staffs of Defence Minister Kim Beazley and Prime Minister Bob Hawke, and as a senior official in the Department of Defence, where from 1995 to 2000 he was Deputy Secretary for Strategy and Intelligence, and as the first Director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI). In the 1970s he studied philosophy at Melbourne and Oxford Universities. He was the principal author of Australia’s 2000 Defence White Paper. His major publications include Power Shift: Australia’s future between Washington and Beijing, [2010], The China Choice: Why America should share power, [2012], Without America: Australia’s future in the New Asia [2017], and How to defend Australia [2019].
About John McKinnon
John McKinnon was educated in New Zealand at Nelson College and at Victoria University of Wellington, and in the United Kingdom at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He joined the then Ministry of Foreign Affairs in New Zealand in May 1974. In 1975 he was sent to Hong Kong to undertake two years of Chinese language training, following which he was assigned to the New Zealand Embassy in Beijing as second secretary.
His subsequent overseas assignments with the New Zealand foreign service were in Washington, Canberra and New York. John McKinnon was the Director of the External Assessments Bureau in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet from 1995 to 2000.
John McKinnon served twice as New Zealand ambassador to China and Mongolia, the first time from 2001 to 2004; the second time from 2015 to 2018. In between these two postings he was successively a senior official in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Secretary of Defence, and Executive Director of the Asia New Zealand Foundation. John McKinnon is now Chair of New Zealand China Council and a Senior Fellow of the Centre for Strategic Studies, Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington. In 2019 he was awarded a CNZM.
This event is now at capacity and a wait list applies.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
In essence, Australia’s commitment to AUKUS is a vote to help preserve Asia’s US-led unipolar strategic order. But what are the alternatives? What kinds of new regional order might emerge to take the old order’s place if it cannot be preserved? And how would we fare in them?
Hugh White’s presentation will explore these questions, looking at the global context as shaped by the war in Ukraine and the alignment between China and Russia. It asks if the global Rules Based Order fails, what will take its place – authoritarian hegemony or politically diverse multipolarity? And what would it mean for Asia, and more particularly for Australia and New Zealand?
Professor White’s address will be followed by additional expert discussion from John Mckinnon, Chair of New Zealand-China Council and Senior Fellow at the Centre for Strategic Studies at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington.
Attendance is free. Pre-registration is required.
This event will be filmed and subsequently placed on NZIIA's Youtube channel.
About Professor Hugh White AO
Hugh White AO is Emeritus Professor of Strategic Studies at the Australian National University. His work focuses primarily on Australian strategic and defence policy, Asia-Pacific security issues, and global strategic affairs especially as they influence Australia and the Asia-Pacific. He has served as an intelligence analyst with the Office of National Assessments, as a journalist with the Sydney Morning Herald, as a senior adviser on the staffs of Defence Minister Kim Beazley and Prime Minister Bob Hawke, and as a senior official in the Department of Defence, where from 1995 to 2000 he was Deputy Secretary for Strategy and Intelligence, and as the first Director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI). In the 1970s he studied philosophy at Melbourne and Oxford Universities. He was the principal author of Australia’s 2000 Defence White Paper. His major publications include Power Shift: Australia’s future between Washington and Beijing, [2010], The China Choice: Why America should share power, [2012], Without America: Australia’s future in the New Asia [2017], and How to defend Australia [2019].
About John McKinnon
John McKinnon was educated in New Zealand at Nelson College and at Victoria University of Wellington, and in the United Kingdom at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He joined the then Ministry of Foreign Affairs in New Zealand in May 1974. In 1975 he was sent to Hong Kong to undertake two years of Chinese language training, following which he was assigned to the New Zealand Embassy in Beijing as second secretary.
His subsequent overseas assignments with the New Zealand foreign service were in Washington, Canberra and New York. John McKinnon was the Director of the External Assessments Bureau in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet from 1995 to 2000.
John McKinnon served twice as New Zealand ambassador to China and Mongolia, the first time from 2001 to 2004; the second time from 2015 to 2018. In between these two postings he was successively a senior official in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Secretary of Defence, and Executive Director of the Asia New Zealand Foundation. John McKinnon is now Chair of New Zealand China Council and a Senior Fellow of the Centre for Strategic Studies, Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington. In 2019 he was awarded a CNZM.
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