Focusing on Northern Australia’s location in an ‘arc of instability’

Australia’s place in the world changed on 12 October 2002. Arguably, this was felt most acutely in Northern Australia when once again we were forced to confront the complexities and uncertainties of our region.

Unlike most Australians, Territorians have not been geographically insulated from the dramatic unfoldings of world events in recent times.. For Northern Australians, the East Timor crisis in 1999 and the terror attacks in Bali in 2002 were direct and personal. While trucks rolled down the streets of Darwin en route to Timor, elsewhere in Australia the quandary was whether to march or not to protest Australia’s role.

Yet while Territorians have been directly and personally involved in reacting to these world events, as a community we have not taken the time to ask critical questions about our changed environment and our place in it. We now have both an opportunity and a responsibility to show national leadership on the emergent strategic and regional security, moral and humanitarian, residential and geo-political policy issues that our location in an ‘arc of instability’ suggests.

This is the purpose of the third Charles Darwin Symposium.

For the first time, military and geo-political thinkers will explore with members of the public the regional security issues that have arisen since the commencement of the ‘War on Terror’ and the attack in Bali. Darwin’s place as the ‘Eye of the Storm’ and our related responsibilities as moral leaders to the rest of Australia, will be central considerations. We will also be asking very personal questions about what happens to us as residents, in the event of war. What are the plans for locals given our location in the region, and our role as the principle support base for Australia’s northern defences?

In conjunction with this seminar a short workshop, on north Australian regional security, will be conducted for fee-paying participants. The workshop to follow will focus exclusively what these global issues mean in relation to north Australia and enable government policy makers and security specialists the opportunity to interact with acknowledged experts in the field of defence and security.

Charles Darwin Symposium Three Convenor
Dr Bill Wilson
Lecturer, Law Business Arts
Northern Territory University
Tel: (08) 8946 6843
E-mail: bill.wilson@ntu.edu.au