Asia: A View from Down Under

TRAVERSE CITY —  Continuing its spring focus on Asia, the International Affairs Forum will present a look at the region from the vantage point of its most Westernized neighbor - Australia-- at the next IAF lecture, set for 6 p.m. March 20 in Milliken Auditorium.

For much of the 20th century, Australia remained separate from its Asian neighbors — a literal island of European culture in an alien sea. During decades of instability in southeast Asia, Indonesia, Burma and Malaysia, Australia clung to its British roots.Today, Australia is adapting to new realities, including the rise of China to regional superpower status, record numbers of asylum seekers, and the increasing financial and people-to-people ties with its Asian neighbors. Speaker Nicole Forrester, an Australian native and director of the Young Leaders Program at the Pacific Forum Center for Strategic and International Studies in Hawaii, will speak on "Asia: A View from Down Under."

At the Pacific Forum Forrester carries out research into the role of social media on next generation attitudes toward international issues.  She has written extensively on Australian foreign policy, Australia-U.S. relations, and on how the U.S. alliance system in the Asia-Pacific region is adapting to change.  In 2011, she was awarded the East-West Center’s Asia-Pacific Leadership Fellowship.

She previously served as Consul at the Australian Consulate General in Los Angeles and as senior international and government relations advisor to the Australian Industry Group — Australia's leading industry association representing 60,000 firms employing over 1 million people. Forrester holds a Bachelor of Social Science and Master of Public Health from Queensland University of Technology, where she also lectured.

Advance tickets are $10 and available through NMC Extended Educational Services at (231) 995-1700. All current educators and students are admitted free.  

The eight-part IAF series brings diplomats, policy makers, journalists and others from all over the globe to Milliken Auditorium. All programs begin with a reception in the Sculpture Court of the Dennos Museum Center at 5:15 p.m. and are followed at 6 p.m. by the lecture and a discussion period in Milliken Auditorium.

The next lecture is set for March 20. The four lectures scheduled from February through May all will focus on Asia, culminating in a two-day conference on China in June 2014. Read more »

For lecture series memberships or more or information, call NMC Extended Educational Services at (231) 995-1700.

Release date: March 6, 2014

For more information:

Jack or Karen Segal, IAF board members
jsegal_kpuschel@yahoo.com
(231) 421-5424