On behalf of the Griffith Asia Institute (GAI), I had the pleasure of hosting Dr Ramos Horta at the Integrity 20 Conference in Brisbane on Tuesday 26 October 2016. Dr Ramos Horta was invited by GAI to give a keynote presentation at the annual Integrity 20 conference which spotlighted some of the thorniest global issues in our ‘age of insecurities’ – human displacement; conflict and terrorism; censorship and free speech; the rapid rise of intelligent machines; destabilised democracies; politics, prosperity and inequality; corruption and rule by thieves.<\/p>\n
In his speech, Dr Ramos Horta approached the conference theme from the perspective of his experience and work with reference to some of the core Integrity 20 themes. Dr Ramos Horta spoke about both the relationship between physical and economic security within the context of East Timor\u2019s problems with traditional physical security (invasion, independence, and conflict) and economic security (poverty, lack of development, and devastation left by the pro-Indonesian militias).<\/p>\n
As UN Secretary General as Special Representative of the Secretary General to the African nation of Guinea-Bissau, Dr Ramos Horta spoke of the challenges associated with war and cross border conflict between states, and more broadly about the chronic insecurity. From the great world wars and existential insecurity of the Cold War to civil wars, genocide, economic and environmental crisis.<\/p>\n
As with the case in Guinea-Bissau and worldwide, by both sovereign states and proxies, today the greatest sources of physical insecurity are not the conflicts between states but those within them, particularly civil war and terrorism. Each year, millions of people become refugees fleeing their own countries out of a ‘well founded fear of persecution.’ Somewhat ironically, some exhibit a sense of fear and insecurity because refugees have sought security within their borders.<\/p>\n
The former president concluded with remarks on the bilateral relationship between Australia and Timor Leste in relation to the issue of maritime borders in the Timor Sea. He said relations between the two countries were admittedly sensitive on this issue, but he also predicted that an international court would rule in his country’s favour on the maritime boundary. The contentious issue is currently being decided by Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, and Dr Ramos Horta indicated he was pleased that meetings between the two countries have so far been positive and productive.<\/p>\n
Article by Dr Kathleen Turner, Manager Strategy, Griffith Asia Institute.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On behalf of the Griffith Asia Institute (GAI), I had the pleasure of hosting Dr Ramos Horta at the Integrity 20 Conference in Brisbane on Tuesday 26 October 2016. Dr Ramos Horta was invited by GAI to give a keynote presentation at the annual Integrity 20 conference which spotlighted some of the thorniest global issues […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":2855,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[471,543,544,545,478,440],"class_list":["post-2853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dr-kathleen-turner","tag-dr-ramos-horta","tag-guinea-bissau","tag-integrity-20-conference","tag-timor-leste","tag-united-nations"],"acf":[],"modified_by":"Christine Kowalski","yoast_head":"\n