{"id":6950,"date":"2020-03-06T08:30:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-05T22:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/?p=6950"},"modified":"2023-05-04T14:57:28","modified_gmt":"2023-05-04T04:57:28","slug":"when-it-comes-to-the-pacific-the-feeling-is-mutual-how-do-australian-diplomats-and-their-academic-counterparts-see-each-other","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/when-it-comes-to-the-pacific-the-feeling-is-mutual-how-do-australian-diplomats-and-their-academic-counterparts-see-each-other\/","title":{"rendered":"When it comes to the Pacific the feeling is mutual: How do Australian diplomats and their academic counterparts see each other?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>There are some moments which focus into sharp relief only\nmonths later. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I experienced one of them after taking on a new role as the\nABC\u2019s Pacific affairs reporter in mid-2018. Not long after that, I found myself\nsitting in an auditorium, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, at the Australian\nNational University\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/dpa.bellschool.anu.edu.au\/our-projects\/state-pacific-2018\">State\nof the Pacific<\/a> conference. ANU Distinguished Fellow James Batley, who had a\nstoried career as Australia\u2019s High Commissioner to several Pacific island\ncountries (including Fiji and Solomon Islands), commanded the stage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Batley told the crowd he was looking forward to a robust\nsession. But he also had a plea: he hoped the discussion would be textured. Most\nimportant, he hoped it would not descend into \u201cPacific good, Australia bad.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A small ripple went through the crowd. A cohort of academics\nsitting next to me groaned quietly and shared a surreptitious eye-roll. But\nothers nodded in seeming agreement; <em>\u201cthank God someone has said it.\u201d<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I didn\u2019t realise it then, but Batley had exposed a fault\nline which runs through the relatively small community of Australians who have dedicated\ntheir professional lives to the Pacific, whether through development work,\nacademic study or diplomacy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019ll put it bluntly. Many Australian diplomats in the\nPacific believe their counterparts in academia are na\u00efve, ideologically rigid,\nand utterly indifferent to Australia\u2019s national interest. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yes, this is a simplification. No, it\u2019s not a universal\nview. But in the twelve months after that conference I spoke to many Australian\nofficials in the region (as well as in Canberra) in the course of my work. I\nwould often ask them what they thought of Australian academics working on Pacific\nissues, and whether DFAT could draw more heavily on academic expertise. They\nwere almost universally dismissive. Their main complaints: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Academics relentlessly criticise Australia\u2019s\nclimate change policies but do not seem to grasp just how difficult it is for\nAustralia to make the transition away from fossil fuels and heavily polluting\nindustries.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>They do not give the Australian Government\nsufficient credit for its big investments in climate change adaptation in the\nPacific.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>They accuse Australian officials of paternalism or\ncultural insensitivity, but actually have a hopelessly romanticised view of\ntraditional cultures in the region. This means they are too quick to ignore the\nway corruption and patronage networks cripple local economies.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Their misguided obsession with the West\u2019s\ncolonial legacy in the Pacific distorts their view of the Australian\nGovernment\u2019s Pacific Step Up. We are dealing with the real world. Grievance is\nno substitute for policy.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Is the contempt mutual? I spoke to fewer academics on this\nsubject, and views were more varied. But some common beliefs still emerged: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Australian government\u2019s policies on climate\nchange are morally indefensible, and our refusal to cut emissions means we are\ncontributing to an existential threat facing the Pacific.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Australian diplomats might feel professionally obliged\nto defend these policies but they should realise their words ring hollow in the\nPacific. They have a responsibility to work within DFAT to champion the view of\nPacific island nations. They must press their political masters to change tack\non climate policy. But many DFAT officials instead seem more intent on\nprotecting their careers. <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Australian diplomats (and contractors) <em>are<\/em>\noften unforgivably ignorant of local conventions and display a patronising\nsense of superiority towards Pacific leaders and officials. They are quick to\ndismiss Pacific island expertise and sometimes impose solutions hopelessly\nmismatched to needs on the ground. <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Diplomats (and Australian politicians) often view\nPacific island nations as pieces in a grand geopolitical game of chess. This\ndenies the agency of Pacific Island countries and is deeply counter-productive.\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Of course, there are exceptions. After all, Batley \u2013 once a\npillar of the foreign policy establishment \u2013 has himself made the jump into\nacademia. (I clearly remember one DFAT official once remarking \u201cthank God he\u2019s\nthere!\u201d) And some Australian diplomats and staffers (particularly more junior\nones who worked for AusAID before it was swallowed up by DFAT) are anguished by\nthe current government\u2019s climate policies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Still, the broad cleavage I\u2019ve outlined is real, and it\u2019s\nstark. Perhaps it\u2019s unremarkable to long-term Pacific watchers. But as a\nnewcomer to this intellectual space (I still am) I was struck by it. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Of course, \u201cboth sides\u201d (if you like) have stores of\nammunition they can draw on. Academics and advocates point out that many\nPacific island communities share their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.devex.com\/news\/new-report-shows-australia-failing-in-pacific-engagement-96589\">deep\nfrustration<\/a> with Australian Government policies and attitudes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Diplomats point out that in the end Australian political\nleaders and citizens are their masters, not Pacific island communities. And\nthey are a running a substantial (and growing) development program in the\nPacific at a time when many voters are increasingly sceptical of foreign aid. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Does the gulf between the two matter? I\u2019m not sure. Perhaps\nthis tension between practitioners and theoreticians is healthy. And it\u2019s not\nsurprising that different world views form in different institutions which, after\nall, have radically different purposes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But there was a fairly constant refrain on the sidelines of\nthe 2018 State Pacific conference: both practitioners and academics should look\nfor \u201cnew ways\u201d to cooperate, share resources, share information, share\nexpertise. With the Pacific facing intensifying threats &#8211; climate change, geopolitical\ncompetition, unemployment &#8211; collaboration was more vital than ever. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And it is difficult to see how this will happen if diplomats and academics look across to the other side and see only caricatures staring back at them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"author label\">AUTHOR<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>St<\/strong><em><strong>ephen Dziedzic<\/strong> has covered federal politics, the Pacific, and Australian foreign policy for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. He\u2019s currently on leave from the national broadcaster and is living in Singapore, where he writes on geopolitics in the Asia Pacific.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are some moments which focus into sharp relief only months later. I experienced one of them after taking on a new role as the ABC\u2019s Pacific affairs reporter in mid-2018. Not long after that, I found myself sitting in an auditorium, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, at the Australian National University\u2019s State of the Pacific conference.<a href=\"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/when-it-comes-to-the-pacific-the-feeling-is-mutual-how-do-australian-diplomats-and-their-academic-counterparts-see-each-other\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"sr-only\">&#8220;When it comes to the Pacific the feeling is mutual: How do Australian diplomats and their academic counterparts see each other?&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":6951,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1757,1021,248,1056,524],"tags":[969,1050,990],"class_list":["post-6950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-geopolitics-diplomacy","category-pacific-outlook","category-png-and-the-pacific","category-politics","category-public-diplomacy","tag-pacific-islands","tag-pacific-outlook","tag-pacific-step-up"],"acf":[],"modified_by":"Jill Moriarty","yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>When it comes to the Pacific the feeling is mutual: How do Australian diplomats and their academic counterparts see each other? | Griffith Asia Insights<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"There are some moments which focus into sharp relief only months later. 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