Towards a Different IR? ANU Department of IR celebrates 75th anniversary
Prof Helen Sullivan, Dean of ANU College of Asia and the Pacific, delivers her opening remarks
By Jiashu Fang.
Responsibilities towards oppressed peoples, the specificities of Pacific diplomacy, the relationship between order and crisis – these issues and more were explored at a two-day symposium in July, convened by the ANU Department of International Relations to celebrate its 75th anniversary.
The overarching theme of the symposium was “Towards a Different IR?” and the symposium covered topics central to the discipline of International Relations – order, ethics, diplomacy, history, and peace and conflict – but with a twist. The ANU IR Department explicitly set out to provide a space in the symposium for emerging academics, and to maintain a focus on the Asia-Pacific region. The symposium featured six sessions, one keynote speech, and one PhD roundtable.
The Department was delighted to be joined by Professor Neta Crawford, Montague Burton Professor of International Relations at the University of Oxford, as the keynote speaker for the symposium. In a wide-ranging talk, Professor Crawford explored the relationship between climate change and militarism, including nuclear war.
Prof Neta Crawford and Prof Toni Erskine. Photo: Olivia Wenholz
George Lawson, Head of the Department of IR, explains that the theme of the symposium, “Towards a Different IR?”, as well as the individual sessions, were intended to convene a conversation that appealed to both scholars and interested publics. The most important thing, according to George, was the inclusion of the question mark in the theme, which introduced the sense of ongoing debate:
“It's a discussion without an end and a conversation to be convened.”
Prof George Lawson, Head of the Department of IR, delivers his opening remarks. Photo: Olivia Wenholz
With this in mind, the Department explicitly provided a space for emerging academics. As George elaborates, “The first thing we [at the Department of IR] did was try to be really representative and give a space to people who don't always get an opportunity and aren’t always the loudest voices.”
Session: “International Relations as a Discipline in/of Crisis”
The department also consciously chose to convene a conversation centred on Australia and the Asia-Pacific rather than the Euro-Atlantic focus of much conventional IR. That said, it also examined a range of global issues, from atrocity prevention to climate change. This helped to create an opportunity for dialogue between colleagues from Australia, the region, and around the world.
IR 75th - Session “No History Without the Future”
Lastly, there was also a sense of discomfort when it came to discussing the responsibilities of IR scholars to pressing issues in world politics, something George finds very productive,
“When you have a major atrocity, a huge suffering, or an immense issue like climate change, what are our responsibilities as scholars to other academics and students, practitioners and the public. And conversely, what does it mean to be silent?
To what extent are we taking up this responsibility through our scholarship, our teaching, our policy practice work, our engagement with civil society groups?
What are our responsibilities and obligations as scholars in the face of some of the horrors taking place in the world?”
While there are no easy answers to these questions, the IR Department at ANU aims to sustain the legacy of the symposium by continuing to convene conversations on these – and other – issues during its 75th year celebrations, and beyond.
See the full symposium program and recordings here.