The oldest department of international relations (IR) in Australia was established at the Australian National University in 1949. Today, according to 2023 QS World University rankings by subject, the ANU is ranked #1 in Australia and #10 in the world for politics. To mark the 75th anniversary since the establishment of ANU's IR department, global scholars of politics and international studies gathered in Canberra on 18-19 July 2024 convene discussions about the most pressing issues of our time: war and diplomacy in the 21st century (with a particular focus on the Gaza conflict), Pacific affairs, climate change, law and politics.
Professor George Lawson, the current Head of Department of IR, asked the question whether we, as Australians, need to forge a "different International Relations"? Former heads of department, such as Professor Chris Reus-Smit (who is known as the "father" of Constructivism in IR), and other notable scholars (such as Associate Professor Jacinta O'Hagan and Professor Neta Crawford from the University of Oxford) gave their own contributions to this question.
What was special about this gathering, doctoral candidate and a Research Fellow in Indigenous Diplomacy at the Coral Bell School for Asia-Pacific affairs James Blackwell said, 75 years since the department's establishment, was the fact that indigenous scholarship and lessons from our tens of thousands of years old Australia's indigenous history are finally being recognised as part of mainstream disciplines. In 1949, Blackwell reminded, indigenous scholars were not allowed to study at the ANU nor to enter its buildings. Blackwell's own research looks at how Australia's First Nations practices and knowledges can be better utilised in IR theory and foreign policy practice.
The conference ended on a positive and forward-looking note, bringing a multi-disciplinary perspective to the question of what kind of IR is being envisaged for the future.
