In this career spotlight we have the pleasure of speaking with recent Bachelor of Politics, Philosophy and Economics graduate Kupakwashe Matangira about her experience working at the Australian Human Rights Commission and at Oxford University, her transition from university to full-time work, and her recent achievements as a finalist for the NSW Young Woman of the Year 2024 and recipient of the 2024 Youth Medal. Kupakwashe Matangira is a youth empowerment activist and social entrepreneur.    Kupakwashe’s goal is to ensure all young people enjoy a lived experience of their rig ..read more

Isha Desai | Indo Pacific Fellow U.S. Navy aircraft assigned to Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 5 fly above the aircraft carrier USS George Washington (CVN 73) in the South China Sea June 24, 2014. Image credit: U.S. Department of Defense via Wikimedia Commons. The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) released a paper in February 2024 claiming that the outbreak of war was a ‘real possibility’ in the Indo Pacific. Ultimately, war in the Indo Pacific would be a proxy conflict between the powers of the United States (US), China and Russia. Whilst these global superpowers could catalyse conflict ..read more

Michaela Gyasi-Agyei | Africa Fellow Flags of the Commonwealth flying in Parliament Square, London. Image credit: Foreign and Commonwealth Office via Wikimedia Commons. The Commonwealth of Nations spans more than 20 per cent of the world’s landmass and includes approximately 2.5 billion people. Despite this, some have questioned the role of the Commonwealth in modern geopolitics. Africa is the continent with the greatest number of Commonwealth member states, several of which chose to retain their membership after gaining independence from British rule. Other African states have joined t ..read more

Grace McClenahan | Australian Foreign Policy Fellow Image credit: Naser Jafari via Wikimedia Commons. Australia's recent move to suspend humanitarian aid to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) sparked a series of debates and raised significant questions about Australia’s diplomatic positioning in the Middle East. Against the backdrop of escalating tensions between Israel and Hamas, Australia's decision carries immense implications for regional stability and humanitarian efforts in Gaza. In January, Australia, along with more than a doze ..read more

Kyla Raby Photo of Kyla and son Harry (third from left) with other attendees at the ASEAN-Australia Special Summit 2024. Image credit: Luis Enrique Ascui/ASEAN via Flickr. In March every year, it has become customary for our social media feeds to be filled with posts about issues impacting women and 2024 was no different. The official theme of International Women’s Day (IWD) this year was ‘Invest in women: Accelerate progress’. This led to several of the people and organisations that I follow posting about women and work, with many debating what it means for women to ‘have it all’ (i.e., bot ..read more

Yige Xu | East Asia Fellow Image credit: Makoto Lin via Flickr. In 2017, former South Korean president Moon Jae-in campaigned on a promise to ‘become a feminist president’. But not five years later, in 2022, President Yoon Suk-yeol ran on an anti-feminist campaign accusing feminists of reverse sexism and pledging to abolish the gender equality ministry — and won. How did this regression transpire so quickly? And how does the role of feminism in South Korean politics compare to other East Asian democracies? While South Korea, Japan and Taiwan share cultural roots of Confucian patriarchal hiera ..read more

Fiona Hurrey Image credit: Harley Kingston via Flickr. Australia is the only ‘developed’ country with a trend of net deforestation. The impact visible on our already-declining biodiversity and ecosystems alone is reason enough to act. The threat deforestation poses to climate, resilience, and thus to human security is another. Now, as environmental priorities rise on the international agenda, this bygone practice threatens our international reputation and trade interests.   We have a deforestation problem. In 2021, Eastern Australia was identified as one of the world’s 24 hottest “defore ..read more

Verena Youssef | Middle East Fellow Image of Popular Mobilisation Forces- an Iraq sponsored organisation composed of Katai’b Hezbollah and other militia. Image credit: Mohammad Mehdi Dara via Wikimedia. On the 28th of January 2024, a drone attack claimed the lives of three United States (US) service members, and injured approximately ,,,34 more at Tower 22, an American military base located near the demilitarised zone that borders Jordan and Syria. Shortly after, a U.S official announced that the,,, incident carried the "footprints" of Kataib Hezbollah (KH), a radical ,,Iraqi Shiite ..read more

Isha Desai | Indo Pacific Fellow 2024 Indonesian Election candidates list in Banten. Image credit: VulcanSphere via Wikimedia Commons. On 14 February 2024, Indonesia held the largest one-day election in the world to choose their new president. The election marked a turning point in Indonesian politics, signalling whether the country would move forward with newfound democratic ideals or step backwards towards an authoritarian style of leadership. Indonesia transitioned to a democracy in 1998, when the Asian financial crisis amassed public opposition towards authoritarian dictator Suh ..read more

Hannah Hains | Latin America Fellow Nayib Bukele and Gabriela Rodríguez de Bukele in the Legislate Assembly of El Salvador. Image credit: Casa Presidencial , El Salvador via Wikimedia Commons. El Salvador, the Central American nation of 6.3 million people, recently re-elected president Nayib Bukele, the self-proclaimed “world’s coolest dictator”. Bukele leads his own political party, is incredibly active on social media, implemented bitcoin as a legal tender, and overturned the constitution to be re-elected for a second term. Most notably, throughout his time as president, one of the highest ..read more