About the Department

The study of International Relations

The Department of International Relations is one of the leading centres for the study of international and global politics in the world, and the only department of its kind in Australia. International Relations is the study of political relations among states and non-state actors that transcend the territorial boundaries of sovereign states, and the exploration of the political forces that created, and may now be transforming, modern international society and the emergent system of global governance. As a field of study long concerned with the political roots of peace and security, the management of the world economy and economic development, and global justice, it has been drawn toward questions of international and global continuity and change. In pursuing these concerns, international relations scholars draw upon, and contribute to, knowledge in other fields, such as political science, sociology and anthropology, law, economics, and philosophy. Their interest in questions of continuity and change has encouraged the development of diverse empirical analyses of contemporary international and global politics, and also strong traditions of scholarship in international history, normative enquiry, and critical theory.

A leading and unique department

The Department of International Relations at the ANU is unique in combining the general theoretical and empirical study of international and global politics with a focus on political dynamics and developments in the Asia-Pacific region. In developing theoretical insights, its researchers reach beyond European experience to learn from the rich array of Asian historical and contemporary institutions, processes, and practices. And by remaining cognizant of general developments in the international and global political system, they are attuned to the ways in which global phenomena - from changes in American foreign policy and shifts in the strategic balance of power, to evolving international norms and globalisation - condition political developments in the region. In bringing the global and the regional into dialogue, the Department benefits greatly from its location in the ANU's College of Asia and the Pacific, the world's largest concentration of expertise on the Asia-Pacific. It has strong links with other units in the University that address aspects of world politics, particularly the Centre for Strategic and Defence Studies in RSPAS, the Centre for International and Public Law in the Faculty of Law, the Political Science and Social and Political Theory Programs in the Research School of Social Sciences, and the Department of Political Science and International Relations in the Faculty of Arts.

An enduring and dynamic contribution to the study of International Relations

Because the Department is located outside of the predominant North American and British scholarly communities, its researchers are able to draw on the intellectual strengths of both of these traditions, to critique their respective weaknesses, and to proffer new perspectives on world politics, often making pivotal interventions in the discipline's central debates. Two of the definitive contributions to 'The English School' were written by former members of the Department - Hedley Bull's The Anarchical Society, and John Vincent's Nonintervention and International Order. The Department's researchers have also made significant contributions to the development of critical perspectives on international relations, with David Campbell's Writing Securit and Jim George's Discourses of Global Politics both having been written initially as PhD dissertations in the Department. Recently, members of the Department have published significant works on a wide range of topics, including Len Seabrooke's The Social Sources of Financial Power (2006), Kathy Morton's International Aid and China's Environmen (2005), John Ravenhill's The Global Political Economy (2004), Chris Reus-Smit's American Power and World Orde (2004) and The Politics of International Law (2004), Lorraine Elliott and Graeme Cheeseman's Forces for Good (2004), Paul Keal's European Conquest and the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2003), Heather Rae's State Identities and the Homogenisation of Peoples (2002), Jacinta O'Hagan's Conceptualizing the West in International Relations (2002), John Ravenhill's APEC and the Construction of Pacific Rim Regionalism (2002), William Tow's Asia-Pacific Security Relations (2001), and Greg Fry and Jacinta O'Hagan's Contending Images of World Politics (2000).

A vibrant research program

The Department currently has fourteen academic staff, all of whom are dedicated to advanced research and graduate training. Their expertise covers core areas of the field, particularly international theory, international security, and international political economy, as well a broad range of other issue areas, including human rights, the environment, people movements, state formation, indigenous peoples, culture and civilization, global civil society, international institutions and organizations, regionalism, human security, alliance politics, and Australian foreign policy. In all of its research the Department seeks to integrate general international theory and the study of global politics with a focus on the international relations of the Asia-Pacific region. It has particularly strong expertise on Northeast Asia (especially China) and the Southwest Pacific, and a broad engagement with issues in Southeast Asia..

At present, the Department's research program focuses on the nature and sources of continuity and change in global politics, with particular emphasis on the interconnections between human and planetary well-being, the viability and legitimacy of the contemporary system of sovereign states, the development of international institutions, and complex interplay between all of these concerns in the Asia-Pacific region. Within this broad framework, staff are currently engaged in research on the dynamics of alliance politics; American power and world order; the role of rights politics in the development and transformation of the international system; the changing relationship between politics and international law; the connection between state formation and people movements; the nature of humanitarianism and the development of international humanitarian norms; regional environmental governance and human security; the nature and development of cosmopolitan militaries; state and human security in Asia; the development of international society and the rights of indigenous peoples; civil society in transitional states; culture and identity in international relations; the political economy of Northeast Asia; the domestic origins of international financial order; weapons proliferation and security on the Korean Peninsula; the international politics of legitimacy; and the impact of global change on security, development, governance and cultural identity in the South Pacific.

The Department's research expertise is recognized internationally, and its academic staff serve on the editorial boards of many of the world's leading journals and book series. Chris Reus-Smit is the Series Editor (with Nicholas J. Wheeler) of the Cambridge Studies in International Relations book series, and William Tow is editor of the Australian Journal of International Affair and the Routledge Asia-Pacific Security book series.

A commitment to excellence in PhD education

As part of the ANU's prestigious Institute of Advanced Studies, the Department is not only committed to advanced research but also to excellence in graduate training. It has long been the premier site in Australia, and one of the leading in the world, for the education of PhD students in international relations, and its graduates have gone on to academic positions around the world, including Chairs at the London School of Economics, the University of Wales at Aberystwyth, Oxford University, and the ANU. An impressive number of its PhD dissertations have been published as books by leading presses, and many of these have gone on to shape debate within the field. This record of success stems in part from the intellectual diversity and broad ranging expertise of the Department's researchers (which encompasses different theoretical and methodological orientations, and covers the major sub-fields of the discipline), in part from its commitment to combining the study of global politics with expertise of the Asia-Pacific region, in part from the ability of its researchers to provide sustained and systematic supervision, and in part from the fact that PhD students are integral members of the Department community.

A renowned Graduate Studies in International Affairs program

The Department's commitment to graduate training also finds expression in its internationally regarded Graduate Studies in International Affairs program (GSIA), which offers a Graduate Diploma in International Affairs, a Master of International Affairs, and the long established Master of Arts in International Relations. The program also offers a specialization in Peace and Conflict Studies taught jointly with the prestigious Peace Research Institute of Oslo. The GSIA program is distinguished by its thirty year history, advanced graduate courses, and face-to-face seminar teaching with internationally recognized experts in the field.

Because of the Department's broad ranging profile, students can select from a wide variety of courses, spanning everything from 'Global Governance' and 'The Evolution of the International System' to 'Asia-Pacific Security' and 'International Political Economy'. Admission to the Program is competitive, but the returns for students are high. Graduates have gone on to positions in ministries of foreign affairs and government departments across the region, in non-governmental organisations and international organisations, in the private sector, and on to PhD studies at leading universities. As a result, the Program has a strong and extensive alumni network, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region.

Our national role

Consistent with the mission of The Australian National University, the Department has long played a national role in advancing the study of international relations in Australia. By educating a significant number of Australian academics in the field, the Department has played a key role in constituting and reconstituting the discipline in this country, and by welcoming Visiting Fellows it has provided opportunities for academics at other universities to have intensive periods of focused research, cultivating their knowledge in new areas, thus enhancing their research productivity, as well as their capacity to teach at the forefront of knowledge. In an effort to connect the Australian scholarly community to the discipline internationally, the Department has been energetic in bringing leading scholars from around the world to spend time at the ANU and to visit other universities. These visits have often been associated with the Department's busy program of conferences and research workshops, the proceedings of which have provided the basis for a vigorous publishing program. These activities, in combination with the Department's broad ranging expertise in the field, have been a magnet for visiting graduate students, with the Department hosting students from across Australia and the world, some of whom come as National Visiting Fellows, some of whom come under Departmental exchange agreements (such as the agreement with the Department of International Relations at Aberystwyth), and others who come as Departmental Visitors. All of this is complimented by the Department's strong commitment to public engagement on issues of national importance, particularly in the areas of the international politics of the Asia-Pacific, Australian foreign policy, multilateralism and international law, and other themes in contemporary global politics. Several of the Department's staff have served terms on the Australian government's Foreign Affairs Council.