USSC Live

The United States Studies Centre and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) hosted a special event to hear from leaders across the region about the state of play for democracy and how aligned countries can work together. The event featured a keynote address followed by a panel discussion.

Keynote address

Australian economist Professor Sean Turnell spent much of his professional career studying the Myanmar economy and moved there to advise the State Counsellor of Myanmar Aung San Suu Kyi. After the February 2021 coup d’état toppled the democratically-elected government and the military assumed control of the country, Turnell was detained and imprisoned for nearly two years along with almost 6,000 others while more than 800 people were killed in the violent uprising.

Panel discussion: Regional approaches to supporting democracy

• Ambassador Yukio Takasu, Chair, Future of Democracy Study Project and Former Permanent Representative of Japan to the United Nations
• Dr Sook Jong Lee, President Emeritus, Senior Fellow and Professor of Public Administration, Sungkyunkwan University
• Dr Henry Ivarature, Deputy Director, Strategic Engagement, Australia Pacific Security College, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University
• Moderated by Dr Michael Green, CEO, United States Studies Centre

The panel reported on the Sydney round of the Sunnylands Initiative co-sponsored by the NED and USSC to assess the state of democracy in the Indo-Pacific and identify pathways to strengthen democratic partnership. Other participants in the conversation included representatives of Freedom House, the International Republican Institute, the National Democratic Institute, and thought leaders from across the Indo-Pacific.

The United States and Australia both followed circuitous routes to marriage equality. When US Ambassador to Australia John Berry (ret'd) first arrived in Australia in 2013, he was the first openly-gay US ambassador to a G20 country. However, not only was same-sex marriage not legal in Australia, it was not yet legal in all of the United States. In Australia, Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce AC was one of the most influential voices in the marriage equality campaign. How have these influential leaders seen LGBTQ+ rights advance in their lifetimes? How did the journey to marriage equality compare between the United States and Australia? What work still needs to be done, and what role can the close US-Australia relationship play?

As Sydney welcomes WorldPride 2023, the United States Studies Centre was honoured to welcome Qantas CEO Alan Joyce AC and former US Ambassador to Australia John Berry in conversation with the ABC’s political commentator Annabel Crabb.

Alan Joyce AC was appointed Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Qantas in 2008. Most recently he has led the Group’s recovery from the COVID-19 crisis, which had a devastating impact on the global aviation industry. As a senior business figure in Australia, Alan is well known for championing inclusion and diversity. He was named a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) in the Queen’s Birthday 2017 Honours List for his contributions to gender equity, inclusion and diversity, and a supporter of Indigenous education, as well as for his contribution to tourism and aviation. He is a Patron of the Pinnacle Foundation, providing educational scholarships, mentoring and opportunities for young LGBTQ+ people, and is a founding member of Pride in Diversity.

Ambassador John Berry is President of the American Australian Association. He served as United States Ambassador to Australia under President Obama from 2013 to 2016, the first openly-gay person to be appointed and confirmed as US Ambassador to a G20 Nation. Berry led former President Obama’s successful LGBT strategy and was the first openly-gay person confirmed by a Republican-controlled Senate as well as the highest-ranking openly-gay person in US history at the time when he was confirmed as Director of the Office of Personnel Management in 2009.

At his inauguration more than two years ago, President Biden promised that America was back, ready to resume its leadership role in world affairs. But, as a multitude of crises present increasingly complicated policy problems for world leaders, how can the Biden administration hope to manage these tumultuous international relations? What is the United States trying to accomplish in its foreign policy? And why is it that the world seems so constantly unstable and in flux? Understanding US foreign policy and strategy has never been more important.

To discuss these questions the United States Studies Centre was delighted to host foreign policy expert and esteemed academic, Walter Russell Mead in conversation with USSC Professor of US Politics and US Foreign Relations, Brendon O’Connor.

Walter Russell Mead is the Ravenel B. Curry III distinguished fellow in strategy and statesmanship at Hudson Institute, the James Clarke Chace professor of foreign affairs and humanities at Bard College, and the "Global View" columnist at the Wall Street Journal. From 1997 to 2010, Mr Mead was a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, serving as the Henry A. Kissinger senior fellow for US foreign policy from 2003 until his departure. He is a member of Aspen Institute Italy. Mr Mead writes on a wide variety of subjects ranging from international affairs to religion, politics, culture, education and the media. He has contributed to a wide variety of leading American journals ranging from Mother Jones to GQ and frequently appears on national and international radio and television programs.

Price tag aside, one of the biggest obstacles to the success of AUKUS is export controls. Stakeholders in all three AUKUS countries are increasingly concerned that the United States International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) present a significant challenge to the timely sharing of equipment, information, and technology between the three countries. These challenges are not new, but the stakes have never been higher. Realising the full potential of AUKUS hinges on timely ITAR reform. Indeed, ITAR reform is essential to the delivery of Australia’s nuclear-powered submarines under AUKUS Pillar I and fostering genuinely trilateral collaboration on advanced capabilities under AUKUS Pillar II.

How might ITAR provisions hamper the implementation of the AUKUS agreement? Why did previous efforts to reform US export controls for Australia and the United Kingdom fall short? What sorts of revisions are being considered across the US system? Is the best route to enduring ITAR reform through legislative action or an executive order?

In a report released prior to this webinar, non-resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, Dr William Greenwalt and USSC Research Fellow in the Foreign Policy and Defence program Tom Corben tackled these questions and provided a roadmap towards reforming ITAR to realise the full potential of AUKUS. The Centre hosted a webinar with the authors, along with USSC non-resident fellow Jennifer Jackett, for a discussion on reforming US export controls to realise the potential of AUKUS.

The AUKUS countries are on the verge of an historic moment. Over the past twelve months, lawmakers and officials in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States have made notable progress in harmonising their respective defence trade control regimes in the service of accelerating AUKUS technology cooperation. These reforms, once implemented, will mark a significant step towards the creation of a ‘defence free-trade zone’ between the three partners. At the same time, there is disagreement across the Australian and US defence communities about the extent to which these reforms will enable AUKUS projects across the board, or what more might be required to ensure that they deliver their intended effects. Notwithstanding important work to date, maximising the benefits of AUKUS defence trade harmonisation will require the three countries to address a range of legal, political, and technical challenges, both new and old, at the national and trilateral level.

How did export control debates within Australia and the United States unfold over the last 18 months, and what were the consequences? What sorts of revisions might be required in order to ensure that these reforms truly enable AUKUS projects, especially those under Pillar II? Is this the first step in a wider project of wider AUKUS regulatory reform?

In a new report, AUKUS enablers? Assessing US and Australian defence export control reforms, non-resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, Dr William Greenwalt and USSC Research Fellow in the Foreign Policy and Defence program Tom Corben assess progress towards the creation of an AUKUS “defence free trade zone,” and the challenges – old and new – posed to its full realisation. This report is the successor to the authors’ highly influential May 2023 report, Breaking the Barriers: reforming US export controls to realise the potential of AUKUS. For this webinar event, the authors spoke about defence export control reforms in Australia and the United States, and what these might mean for the future of AUKUS.