One of the Forum’s core aims is to advance and promote outstanding research in diplomacy. To that end, it serves as the focal point for research on diplomacy at ANU, disseminating research through regular seminars, workshops and conferences.
We see diplomacy as both a state practice (how diplomats exercise agency and leadership through foreign ministries, embassies, and global governance fora) and a practice carried out by non-state actors. Our research therefore combines engagement with the ways in which non-state actors effect dynamics of conflict and cooperation on the one hand, with an emphasis on the critical role that states play on the other. Accordingly, we seek to advance the study and practice of ‘complex diplomacy’, an approach that views contemporary diplomacy as involving an array of diverse actors.
We have a particular interest in advancing understandings of diplomatic practice in the Asia-Pacific. Our research cuts across many of the diplomatic flashpoints in the region, including the South China Sea, the North Korean nuclear problem, Sino-US relations and the Taiwan Strait.
