Asia–Pacific College of Diplomacy: Anticipating New Agendas

Members of the College's first Master of Diplomacy class receive their degrees. Clockwise from the left: Professor William Maley (Director), Mr Khasan Ashari, Mr Eamon Parker, Mr Made Priyadi Sentanajaya, Ms Mietani Chauke, Dr Pauline Kerr (Director of Studies), Mr Peter Trebilco, Centre: Ms Kaye Eldridge (Executive Officer).
Photograph by Geoff Comfort

The four offices housing the Asia–Pacific College of Diplomacy (APCD) are located along one of the pristine second-floor corridors of the Coombs Extension building. Like the Coombs Extension, the APCD is a relative newcomer at the ANU, having been established in 2003 to foster high-level education, research and dialogue regarding transnational diplomacy in the Asia–Pacific region. Professor William Maley am, the foundation Director of the College, has had a long and distinguished teaching career, including stints at the University of New South Wales, the Russian Diplomatic Academy, and the Australian Defence Academy, as well as holding Research Fellowships at the University of Strathclyde and Oxford University. He is also a Barrister of the High Court of Australia, a member of the Executive Committee of the Refugee Council of Australia, and a member of the Australian Committee of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific (CSCAP).

Professor Maley is justly proud of the achievements of the College during its first year.

'We graduated our first Master of Diplomacy students at the 29 July graduating ceremony, which was a very exciting development given that we only commenced operations on the 1st of July 2003. We make use of the summer semester at the ANU, teaching in late December/January in a way that few other units at the ANU at this moment do. In 2005, also, we'll start teaching in January and continue in a semi-intensive mode right through to early June.'

The students came from varied backgrounds: three from Indonesia, two from Australia and one from Zimbabwe.

'We had an exceedingly happy and amicable group of students to start with. The Indonesian and Zimbabwean students were officers of their own countries' Foreign Affairs departments. One of the Australians came from the Master of Strategic Affairs degree and is now looking for a position after completing his two ANU Masters. The other had served in an Australian embassy in an earlier career. So we were able to use the students themselves as resources in a number of ways. That's one of the advantages we have here: although diplomacy is a major focus of academic studies, it is also a practical undertaking, so people who have had experience in the field are useful to us.'

There were no problems due to tension between more and less-experienced students; quite the contrary.

'It worked exceptionally well from a cooperative point of view. Different people bring different perspectives to bear. I think that at a graduate level if you can have as diverse a class as possible it adds to the quality of the discussion, because different people bring different perspectives. In addition to teaching activities in the formal classes we also conducted a number of exercises run by friends of the College, people who had been senior diplomats or analysts in earlier careers, who were happy to come along and run informal elements of the programme to expose students to some of the bread-and-butter issues that arise in real-life diplomacy. For example, the former Chair of the Board of the International Atomic Energy Organisation, who is an experienced Australian diplomat, and who has just done an excellent new book called Multilateral Conferences, came and ran an exercise for all the students on what is actually involved in negotiating the terms of a multilateral treaty.'

One of the characteristics of the Master of Diplomacy degree is that it is only offered as part of a combined degree program. To be admitted to the Master of Diplomacy course a student has to have completed the requirements for the award of a relevant ANU Masters in another area. Professor Maley sees this as one way of fostering partnerships with other areas of the ANU.

'We're quite deliberately not setting out to be competitors with other parts of the university system, but to add value to what is being done by a number of other strong parts of the ANU. We do that through the combined degree system, to which we have recently added new combinations in Public Administration and Diplomacy, Environmental Planning and Management and Diplomacy, and Asia–Pacific Studies and Diplomacy. The great advantage we have is that since we are located at the ANU, which has great strengths in the areas of international affairs, we're in a position to draw on the skills and expertise of many people in different parts of the university. We've done that, by bringing in people as guests for particular activities. I prefer that kind of co-operative approach.'

In the teaching courses, the APCD deliberately sets out not to duplicate what foreign affairs ministries in different countries have in their internal training programs.

'There's no point in doing that because you have idiosyncratic variations between countries, so what might be interesting to students from one state might be irrelevant to students from another. Rather, what we are trying to do is give students a sense of the cutting-edge issues in diplomacy, and of the ways in which diplomacy itself may be changing as an activity in terms of the actors with whom professional diplomats may need to engage. We help them to consider the kinds of issues that concern professional diplomats, particularly insofar as they may be called upon to become involved in the internal affairs of other states. For example, like the RAMSI exercise in the Solomon Islands, where you have Nic Warner, who is an Australian diplomat, in effect becoming almost pro-consular in some of his activities.'

Responding to a request from the Solomon Islands prime minister in late April 2003, Australia began a strategy of 'cooperative intervention,' and the Regional Assistance Mission in the Solomon Islands (RAMSI) commenced operations in Honiara on 24 July 2003, with the objectives of restoring law and order and assisting in the recovery and rebuilding of the country's economy and governing institutions. The position of the head of RAMSI is held by an Australian diplomat, the first of whom was Nic Warner.

'RAMSI is engaged in activities that previously one would have said were completely irrelevant to diplomats because these activities involve interference in the internal affairs of another state. The fact that diplomats are being called upon in this way suggests that it may be important to ensure that they have the necessary training and background skills.'

In this sense, the College's programme anticipates the demands that are likely to be placed upon diplomats in the near future.

'For example, we're having a big conference in November, with visitors from universities in different parts of Australia and overseas. It's not a public conference, but rather a dialogue between policy makers and selected people with an interest in international affairs, who might be good at identifying

over-the-horizon issues in the Asia–Pacific region that will be of concern to diplomats in the next ten to fifteen years. We're trying to spot the new agendas and get people thinking.'

Professor Maley is satisfied that the administration of the centre and courses has run smoothly in the first sixteen months of the College's life, and attributes it largely to the quality of the staff.

'We have a terrific team. Our Director of Studies Pauline Kerr and our Executive Officer Kaye Eldridge are everything you would want in occupants of such positions.'

Dr Pauline Kerr is also a Fellow of the APCD. Before joining the College, she had served as Academic coordinator for the Diploma of Foreign Affairs and Trade, at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and as Academic Adviser at the Australian Defence College. She also held a Research Fellowship in International Relations at the ANU. Ms Kaye Eldridge lived in Thailand for ten years, involved mainly in education, and her most recent appointment was with IDP Education Australia, where she was responsible for the management of IELTS testing and AusAID's Australian Youth Ambassadors for Development Program in Thailand.

When discussing administration, Professor Maley stresses that the College can only benefit from its close connections with other areas within the ANU.

'We're an independent centre within the university but our mandate charges us to work cooperatively with a wide range of other units across the campus, particularly our colleagues in RSPAS.

'By "independent", I mean that the College is constituted as a distinct university centre by a resolution of the Council of the University, so it's not part of either the faculties or the research schools. It received a block grant from the Vice-Chancellor to get things going and is also a beneficiary from the Commonwealth grant of 8.8 million dollars for the International Centre of Excellence in Asia–Pacific Studies and Diplomacy. But that is largely made up of a capital component of about 2.7 million that we'll use for a new building. The running expenses of the college come from the income that we earn, which is students fees for our Masters programme and short course income. We have been actively involved in short courses. We're well positioned because of our contacts within the ANU and in other universities to draw on extremely skilled people. For example, we have just finished a five-week short course programme for AusAID, for a group of Iraqi diplomatic cadets. We do other short courses around town as well, for government agencies. That's a rewarding activity, because it also puts us in contact with people who may have an interest in coming back at some stage to do the Masters courses. And we have a mandate to run a customised course programme and public lectures, of which we've done quite a number.'

The only thing that Professor Maley feels needs to be improved upon are the rather cramped conditions. At present, the College operates out of four rooms in the Coombs Annex. More space would allow optimal use of funds, for Visiting Fellows, for example.

'At present, we could fund Visiting Fellows to come to the College, but we couldn't house them at what I think would be an appropriate standard. This problem is symptomatic of the wider pressures on space at the ANU. We are of course aware that funding is there, but it's just a matter of coping during the time lag between when you begin to conceive of a new building, and when it's actually ready to be occupied.'

I left Professor Maley preparing for an interview on Hong Kong radio, and for a trip to Afghanistan later in the week.

'I'm going to Kabul on Monday next week from Delhi for the Afghan presidential elections on the 9th of October. They have a category of "special guest" of the joint electoral management body, and the Foreign Affairs Department has nominated myself and a colleague, a professor in the Faculty of Arts. We're official observers in the sense that we're accredited by the joint electoral management body, and they may also register the college as an observer organisation.'

It was a reminder that the schedule of the Director of APCD, like the courses in the college's degree program, combines the practice of diplomacy as well as its teaching.