Is Australia’s security most directly determined by our regional neighbours?

On this week’s Afternoon Light Georgina Downer speaks with Michael Wesley about how Southeast Asia has become a ‘blind spot’ of Australian diplomatic relations. Discussing whether Australia’s most immediate and important regional relationships have taken a back seat to great power struggles, in a manner that has left us unnecessarily isolated and vulnerable.

Michael Wesley is Professor of International Relations and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Global, Culture and Engagement) at the University of Melbourne. His research focuses on three key themes: Australian foreign policy, particularly in relation to the Asia-Pacific; security competition and geopolitics in the Asia-Pacific region; and state-building interventions. His work on Australian foreign policy began with a collaboration with Allan Gyngell on Making Australian Foreign Policy (Cambridge, 2003; second edition 2007), an influential study of how Australian foreign policy is formulated. He has also examined traditions of thought in Australian foreign policy, comparative approaches to foreign policy under Labor and Coalition governments in The Howard Paradox: Australian Diplomacy in Asia 1996–2006 (ABC Books, 2007), and the objectives, techniques and challenges of Australia’s engagement with Asia in There Goes the Neighbourhood: Australia and the Rise of Asia (NewSouth Books, 2011). His latest output is the 2026 Quarterly Essay ‘Blind Spot: Southeast Asia and Australia’s Future’.