Asia & the Pacific

The success of China’s grand plan depends on Australia and others signing on in the spirit of multilateral engagement.

At a recent address to ANU College of Asia & the Pacific students, Marshall Islands President Hilda C. Heine spoke about the importance of women in leadership in the Pacific.

As the first female President of a Micronesian country and only one of three women serving in the Marshallese parliament, President Heine told the audience she was not a natural leader, but had to learn through life experience.

The Trump administration’s announcement will undermine the rights of women and girls to control their bodies. Make no mistake, warns Associate Profesor Sharon Bessell, for some, the decision will be a death warrant.

 The birth of a child is usually a cause for celebration; a moment of wonder, as a new tiny life enters the world. This celebration plays out across the world every day when a wanted child is born to a woman who is supported on the journey to motherhood.

Linguists from The Australian National University (ANU) have used data from a popular online game to find out why people confuse one language with another.

The study's lead author, ANU PhD candidate Hedvig Skirgård, said she was surprised to find the geographic proximity mattered more than how related the two languages were.

"It was unexpected, people are more likely to confuse a language with one from a neighbouring region than one with a shared language history," Ms Skirgård said.

One of the world’s most respected figures in intelligence and security will join The Australian National University (ANU) as visiting Vice-Chancellor’s Distinguished Professor.

James R. Clapper AO, the former US Director of National Intelligence, will commence in June with an initial four-week term at the ANU National Security College that will include public lectures on key global and national security issues including the future of Australia’s alliance with the United States. 

The research of Associate Professor Sharon Bessell from the ANU Crawford School of Public Policy focuses on addressing inequality and poverty. Together with Associate Professor Janet Hunt, Dr Bessell is developing a new measure of multi-dimensional poverty that is sensitive to gender.

This ground-breaking research is being carried out in partnership with the International Women’s Development Agency and the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, with the aim of having the Individual Deprivation Measure (IDM) ready for global use by 2020.

Professor Sharon Friel, Director of the School of Regulation and Global Governance (RegNet) is celebrated as one of the world’s most influential female leaders in global health.

Professor Friel is the chief investigator on current major research collaborations in governance, public policy, trade and health inequities, including working as the Co-Director the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Centre for Research Excellence on the Social Determinants of Health Equity.

The ANU will partner with the International Women's Development Agency and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in a new $9.5 million project to develop a world-first gender-sensitive and multidimensional measure of poverty.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop launched the Individual Deprivation Measure (IDM) during her opening speech to the 2017 Australasian Aid Conference at ANU.

In the face of declining trust in our political leaders, public policy schools have a key role to play in restoring empathy, integrity and expertise to our democracies, writes Helen Sullivan.

Taking the helm of the country’s leading public policy school would be daunting in the best of circumstances. Doing so in the current context as longstanding policy challenges combine with global political turbulence may appear foolish, overly optimistic, or in the euphemistic phrase of Yes Minister, courageous.