Australian Institute of International Affairs

The institute's primary mission is to promote "interest in and understanding of international affairs, including politics, economics and international law".[2] The current National President of the AIIA is Allan Gyngell AO. The current National Executive Director is Dr Bryce Wakefield.[3]

The institute is a registered association with charity status. It is a membership organization with a federal structure and branches located in the capitals of seven Australian states and territories. Each branch of the institute has its own constitution, maintains a local membership and council and in turn is a "member" of the national body. A representative from each branch, usually the branch president, sits on the National Board, the governing body of the institute, along with other directors. The National Office of the institute, headed by a National Executive Director answerable to the board, coordinates the branches, organizes research, and directs the institute's activities with federal and international partners. The National Office is located at Stephen House in Deakin, Canberra, which was built specifically for the institute in 1987. The Victoria Branch is located at Dyason House in Melbourne, the New South Wales Branch is located in the Glover Cottages, Sydney, and the Australian Capital Territory Branch also operates out of Stephen House.

The origins of the institute can be traced to the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 that followed the First World War. Participants at that conference believed public opinion was vital in the development of foreign policy. To help create an informed public debate a number of organisations, including the American Council of Foreign Relations and the Royal Institute of International Affairs in the United Kingdom, were established to promote an understanding of international affairs.[4] Richard Boyer, an early president of the AIIA, stated that "international affairs have ceased to be the sole preserve of foreign offices and specially trained diplomats, and have become not only the concern but the responsibility of the people of the world, and most directly of the people of the democracies".[5]

The institute was formed in the 1920s as an affiliate of the Royal Institute of International Affairs. It became a federal body in 1933 and was established to provide an "objective, scientific study of international affairs. Its purpose is to stimulate interest in and promote understanding of international affairs, including politics, economics and international law".[6] The institute adopted the Chatham House Rule to encourage free and frank discussion. In the early decades of its existence, the AIIA received significant research funding from the Institute of Pacific Relations (IPR), an American non-governmental organisation that provided a forum for the discussion of political issues facing the countries of the Pacific rim. Some AIIA members were concerned that the IPR was "a vehicle for American influence which, in zero-sum terms, was assumed would displace that of Britain".[7]

Prior to the separation of the Department of External Affairs from the Prime Minister's Department, the institute "filled a gap by providing a forum for the discussion of Australia's external interests. Accordingly, the 1930s and 1940s were the period of greatest influence for the AIIA".[8]

During the 1970s, when Australian foreign policy and the Asia-Pacific region were undergoing considerable change, the institute failed to expand. Gough Whitlam, the Australian Prime Minister at the time, wrote a message to the institute in 1972 that actively encouraged it to help inform public opinion on the rapid changes underway in Australia's neighbourhood.[9]

• ACCESS
• Australian Institute of International Affairs Victoria