In 2024, we celebrate our 75th anniversary. In 1949 ANU established Australia’s first university department solely focussed on International Relations. It was one of the first three departments established in the Research School of Pacific Studies at ANU.
Leading contributions by key figures
Over the decades, members of the ANU Department of International Relations have made leading contributions to our field, including key figures such as
Our Alumni
Generations of students have studied with us at undergraduate and postgraduate levels before embarking upon careers in international affairs.
Many of our alumni have made major contributions in roles such as
- diplomats, eg Stephen Fitzgerald
- industry analysts, eg Jeffrey Wilson
- NGO workers, eg Fiona Terry
- government officials, eg foreign minister Marty Natalegawa
Networks and Visiting Fellows
As well as enjoying productive relationships with the many government officials and diplomats posted here in Canberra, the Department’s international connections run deep, having hosted hundreds of Visiting Fellows from across Asia, Europe, the Americas, and the Middle East.
Some of our discipline’s leading figures such as W.T.R. Fox, Robert Gilpin, Valerie Hudson, Richard Rosecrance, J. Ann Tickner, Susan Strange, Christine Sylvester, and Kenneth Waltz, have spent periods of study leave in the Department while completing research projects and book manuscripts.
Rich history
This rich history of scholarship, teaching and policy engagement informs the work of our discipline-defining scholars today, known around the world for the ways in which they link theory and practice with historical and contemporary analysis, with a particular focus on the Asia-Pacific region.
The Department is home to 20 permanent faculty, who work on a wide range of issue-areas, including
- the Women, Peace and Security agenda
- atrocity prevention
- war and revolution
- and changing patterns of world order.
Developing the discipline of IR in Australia
There are papers and articles about the history of the discipline of International Relations in Australia, including the central role of our department.
- An Australian Outlook on International Affairs? The Evolution of International Relations Theory in Australia by Richard Devetak
- The Australian School of International Relations by James Cotton
- Making a settler colonial IR: Imagining the 'international' in early Australian International Relations by Alexander E Davis
- International Relations in Australia: Michael Lindsay, Martin Wight, and the first Department at the Australian National University by James Cotton
PhD theses translating into ground-breaking books
Hundreds of PhD theses have been written in the Department, many of which have been subsequently published as important books on issues as varied as