Re-thinking Australian science policy in a changed world

In this episode of the National Security Podcast, Paul Harris — Adjunct Fellow at the Center for Security and Emerging Technology at Georgetown University — joins Katherine Mansted to discuss the need to re-think how the Australian science system engages with the rest of the world and delivers value to the nation.

The global science and technology system has undergone massive change since 2000 and is now a key site of geoeconomic competition between states. For the first time in Australia’s history, its most significant partner for science collaboration will be a country other than our principal ally, the United States. Australia’s successful model for science has relied upon uncommonly high levels of international engagement, but in this new world that model also brings new risks. There is a need to systematically re-think how the Australian science system engages with the rest of the world and delivers value to the nation.

In this episode of the National Security Podcast, Paul Harris — Adjunct Fellow at the Center for Security and Emerging Technology at Georgetown University — joins Katherine Mansted to discuss this need, which he has written about in the latest Policy Options Paper published by the ANU National Security College, Clever Country in a Changed World: Re-Thinking Australian Science Policy. Policy Options Papers are the flagship publication from the ANU National Security College and offer short, evidence-based and forward-looking insights and recommendations for policymakers on topical national security issues facing Australia. Every paper in the series is informed by consultation and reviewed by practitioner and academic experts. This paper is available as an audiopaper and a PDF.

Paul Harris is the Director of The Australian National University’s North American Liaison Office in Washington DC and an Adjunct Fellow at Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology.

Katherine Mansted is a senior adviser at the ANU National Security College and non-resident fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. Previously, she was a commercial solicitor with King & Wood Mallesons, a ministerial adviser to the federal government, and served as an Associate in the High Court of Australia.

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