This course introduces students to contemporary foreign and security policies and the key domestic and regional debates that define them. It focuses on Australia's interests in its fundamental area of geostrategic emphasis, the Asia-Pacific.

Using theoretical approaches from both international relations and global security, the course aims to develop your critical understanding of contemporary foreign policy, Australia's international interests and the ways in which those interests are pursued. ??

You will explore the actions and interests of key regional powers (US, China, Japan, India and Indonesia) and regions (Pacific Islands, Southeast Asia, Northeast Asia) and assess how these impact Australia's interests.?

The non-traditional and transnational dimensions of security and foreign policy will also be surveyed, including terrorism, transnational crime, human security, environmental challenges, emerging technologies, and great power politics and tensions in the region.?

You will explore the process of foreign policy through key institutions and processes, and actors and examine the most important foreign policy events in recent times as well as strategies, trade-offs and key policy debates that define the foreign policy process in the Indo-Pacific context.?