The importance of national security and careers in national security policy

Crawford School of Public Policy | National Security College

Event details

Public Seminar

Date & time

Thursday 29 August 2019
1.30pm–3.30pm

Venue

Deakin University, Room DD2.203 75 Pigdons Road Waurn Ponds, VIC 3216

Speaker

Professor Rory Medcalf, Dr Sue Thompson

Contacts

Farnaz Salehzadeh

Since the end of the Cold War, the global security landscape has changed rapidly. Challenges to traditional security structures have seen governments reassess their policies. They encompass old and new challenges – from managing new technologies and outside interference to transnational issues such as crime, terrorism, and climate change. As a result, national security is an integral part of contemporary domestic and foreign policy concerns and there is now an expanding landscape of security policy-focused employment options.

Security remains the first duty of government. But it is a concept often maligned and misunderstood. Is national security just an excuse for official secrecy and extraordinary powers? Is it a distraction from other priorities and at odds with efforts to build a more cooperative future?

In this seminar, ANU National Security College academics will share their insights into these challenges and discuss options for those interested in a career in this field.

Professor Rory Medcalf is head of the National Security College at the Australian National University. His career has ranged across intelligence analysis, academia, diplomacy, think tanks and journalism.

Dr Sue Thompson has extensive experience in academia, government, the media, and the non-government sector. In academia, Dr Thompson has taught a range of history and politics courses at ANU and the University of Canberra. Her research specialisation examines the history of regional cooperation in Southeast Asia during the Cold War with a focus on foreign and defence policy influences in the post-war evolution of Southeast Asian regionalism.

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