Paul Buchanan To Deliver Public Lecture To AUT University's Pacific Media Centre

International relations and security analyst Dr Paul Buchanan is returning to New Zealand for a month and will deliver a public lecture focussing on South East Asia and South Pacific geopolitics and security.

The lecture is open to the public and is hosted by AUT University's Pacific Media Centre.

Most recently a Visiting Associate Professor at the National University of Singapore, Dr. Buchanan was one of New Zealand’s most recognized experts on international affairs prior to his departure overseas on extended research leave in 2007.

While in New Zealand Dr. Buchanan will be researching New Zealand security policies after 1990 as part of his book project titled Security Politics in Peripheral Democracies.

Dr. Buchanan will also be offering a lecture on Western Pacific geopolitics at the AUT Pacific Media Centre in Auckland where he will focus on South East Asia and the South Pacific through the lens of US-China competition in the region. He will also host a series of informal discussions on contemporary international issues with interested parties in Auckland and Wellington.

Public Lecture: AUT University, Pacific Media Centre, All Welcome

Title: Democratic Fragility, Authoritarian Persistence and Strategic Competition in the Western Pacific Rim

Topic: SE Asia and the South Pacific through the lens of US China competition in the region

Where: AUT University lecture room – WE230

When: Friday, February 12, 5pm to 6.30pm.

Click here for an AUT campus map showing the location of the lecture.

Dr. Buchanan has most recently written the first full-length article solely devoted to New Zealand foreign policy published in a leading US academic journal (“Lilliputian in Fluid Times: New Zealand Foreign Policy after the Cold War,” forthcoming 2010 in Political Science Quarterly), and has produced a contemporary survey of China’s expanded presence in the South Pacific and the US response that has received significant international coverage (Gauntlet Magazine, V.1, N.1, October 2009, which was also serialized in two parts in Scoop in September 2009).

With his attention increasingly focused on Western Pacific geo-strategic dynamics, Dr. Buchanan's next article project will analyse the evolution of the “3rd generation” Singaporean Armed Forces in light of its changing security environment and the long process of social and political liberalization currently underway. He is also writing a book chapter on the security implications of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) now being negotiated by New Zealand.

Dr. Buchanan is widely published in New Zealand and globally, his work often sparking debate from all corners of the political spectrum. Recently, Dr Buchanan argued in an article published on Scoop.co.nz that New Zealand must commit defence personnel to Afghanistan to sustain its reputation as a strong voice for United Nations-backed humanitarian-driven missions: “... the mission in Afghanistan is not simply a matter of New Zealand abandoning principle in order to cozy up to the US in pursuit of a free trade agreement. There is much more at stake than that, and it is for that reason that New Zealand has volunteered its troops,” Dr Buchanan wrote. Scoop.co.nz - Why The NZDF Is In Afghanistan, January 2010.

Raised in Latin America, previously analyst and consultant to the US Defense Department and other security agencies, Dr. Buchanan has an MA from Georgetown University and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. His “Word from Afar” column appears regularly on www.scoop.co.nz and he is a member of the www.kiwipolitico.com weblog collective.

He has held Fulbright, Heinz, Tinker, Council on Foreign Relations and Association of Pacific Rim Universities (representing the University of Auckland) fellowships, plus numerous smaller awards. Beyond his extensive editorial dossier and media commentary, he has written 3 books and over 50 articles, chapters, reviews and monographs on issues in international and comparative politics.

People can contact Dr Buchanan at this email address: paulgbuchanan (at) gmail.com.

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