The Royal United Services Institute of New South Wales

 
International Dialogue 2015

INSTITUTE FOR DEFENCE AND SECURITY STUDIES NSW

3^rd International Defence and Security Dialogue
"Australia, Indonesia and Regional Security"

Australia's longstanding partnership with Indonesia is our most important regional defence relationship. Australia and Indonesia have many strategic interests in common on which they could cooperate to mutual advantage - such as maritime security, terrorism and China's regional dominance. Were they to do so, it would raise their relationship to a new strategic level. An international expert panel will explore opportunities for strategic cooperation between Australia and Indonesia.

CLICK HERE to download Brigadier David Leece PSM RFD ED's paper introducing the dialogue.

Air Vice-Marshal Brent Espeland AM (Retd) National President of the Royal United Service Institution introduced the Dialogue

The keynote address was the 2015 Blamey Oration
"The Strategic Outlook for the Indo-Pacific Region"
The Oration commemorates Field Marshal Sir Thomas Blamey, Australia's most senior ranking service-person

The international expert panel was:

The 2015 Blamey Orator
Mr Dennis Richardson AO
Secretary of Defence, Australia

Dennis Richardson became Secretary of the Department of Defence on 18 October 2012, prior to which he was Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. He was Australia's Ambassador to the United States from 2005 to 2009 and prior to that Director-General of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (1996-2005). A career diplomat and public administrator who graduated from the University of Sydney with a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in 1968, he has served in various senior public service roles in the Departments of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, and Prime Minister and Cabinet; and has held diplomatic postings in Nairobi, Port Moresby and Jakarta. He was appointed an Officer in the General Division of the Order of Australia in 2003.

CLICK HERE to hear Mr Richardson's address.
CLICK HERE to download paper.

Lieutenant General Agus Widjojo (Ret'd)
Senior Fellow, Centre for Strategic and International Studies, Indonesia

Agus Widjojo, a Senior Fellow of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, Indonesia, is regarded internationally as one of the Indonesia's leading strategic thinkers. He is a former Vice Chairman of the People's Consultative Assembly and a Chief of Territorial Affairs of the Indonesian National Army (TNI). During an earlier appointment as Commandant of the TNI Command and Staff College, the TNI think tank, he was responsible for restructuring the political and security doctrine of the TNI. He also serves as a member of the Indonesia-Timor Leste Commission of Truth and Friendship; was a Visiting Senior Fellow of the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies in Singapore; and an advisor on the Board of the Institute for Peace and Democracy, Udayana University, Bali. He has written numerous articles on security issues in the Asia-Pacific Region.

CLICK HERE to hear General Widjojo's address.
CLICK HERE to download paper.

Professor Damien Kingsbury
Director, Centre for Citizenship, Development and Human Rights,
Deakin University

Damien Kingsbury holds a personal chair in the School of International and Political Studies at Deakin University, Melbourne, where he specializes in political development and conflict resolution in Southeast Asia. A former print and radio journalist who for several years was the Radio Australia correspondent in Asia and the South Pacific, he was awarded a PhD (Monash) in 1997 for a thesis on Cultural and Political Issues in Australian Reporting of Indonesia 1975-1993. In 2005, he was adviser to the Free Aceh Movement in the Helsinki peace talks. In 2007 and 2012, he coordinated election observer missions to Timor-Leste. In 2013, he brokered a peace agreement to end a long-running conflict between three armed factions in Nagaland, north-east India. He has written and edited several books and is a frequent media commentator on regional political affairs.

CLICK HERE to hear Professor Kingsbury's address.
CLICK HERE to download paper.

Professor Peter Leahy AC
Director, National Security Institute
University of Canberra

Peter Leahy has been the Foundation Director of the National Security Institute, University of Canberra, since October 2008. He has research interests in security relationships with Indonesia and also in national security, defence and terrorism. He is a retired Australian Army lieutenant general, whose military career culminated with his appointment as Chief of the Army from 2002 until 2008, the longest serving incumbent of the position since General Sir Harry Chauvel the 1920s. He was appointed a Companion in the Military Division of the Order of Australia in 2007. He is also a director of Electro Optic Systems Holdings Ltd; a member of the Defence South Australia Advisory Board; a director of the Kokoda Foundation; and chairman of the board of the wounded veterans charity, Soldier On. He provides occasional media commentary on defence and national security matters.

CLICK HERE to hear Professor Leahy's address.
CLICK HERE to download paper.

CLICK HERE to download Brigadier David Leece PSM RFD ED's paper on the dialogue's conclusion.

The proceedings have been published in "United Service" the journal of the Institute Spring 2015.