In the month of March, the AIIA WA Branch had the pleasure to host three major events with a very special guest speaker, namely Perth-born AIIA Fellow Ric Smith AO PSM. At one of these events - a lunch-time public lecture hosted together with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) on Monday 26th March, 2012  - Ric Smith gave a presentation on the topic of 'The Rise of the 'New World' - Impacts on Australia' . This address was recorded and is now available for viewing (please click the link below). A transcript of Ric Smith's address on Tuesday 27th March, 2012, is available here.

Ric Smith address at Exchange Plaza, hosted by AIIA and DFAT, 26 March 2012

At the annual AIIA WA Branch Christmas Party for 2011, President Sue Boyd announced the exciting news about the establishment of the AIIA (WA) Bursary. Based on the organisation's mission of promoting understanding in international relations, this bursary has the objective of supporting students of international relations to undertake educational activity in countries of Asia. The bursaries, two of which will be awarded for the first time in 2012, are supported through donations by members of the AIIA. The amount of each bursary will be $2,000 and apply to students of international relations at Perth's five universities. Nominations will be open in early 2012.

Alexander Ninkov, was recently announced as the 2011 Winner of the AIIA Peter Sim Prize for the best first year student in international relations at the University of Western Australia. The Prize is sponsored by the AIIA WA Branch and named after Peter Sim CBE, former President of the WA Branch, in whose honour the prize is awarded annually.

Bob Bowker was invited to Perth by the AIIA and the Centre for Muslim States and Societies at UWA and gave extremely timely  and well attended talks at UWA and the WA Club on the evolving situation in Egypt and the effect on other states in the Middle East.

His recently published book may be of interest to members.

‘The situation unfolding in Egypt and elsewhere in the Arab Middle East has important implications for the future of the Arab political order. For the first time, a secular but inclusive political alternative to Islamism has emerged. It has captured the political imagination of the emerging Arab middle class. It will shape the regional security environment. Its consequences are unpredictable – but the greatest risk to the region is the marginalization and alienation of a movement that has raised and galvanized its political horizons.’
– Robert Bowker

In his book Egypt and the Politics of Change in the Arab Middle East, Professor Robert Bowker argues that if regimes fail to address effectively the demands for empowerment of its educated youth, they face the prospect of a tsunami-like current of instability and regression.

The  book