A new webinar on 16 October (09.00 UK time) will bring together representatives from Rethinking Security and a new peer network, the Australian Peace and Security Forum, founded last year.
Join us to unpack why our networks formed, what issues they are trying to address or highlight, and how they seek change in a largely hostile political and media environment. Discussion will also focus on some of the transnational and geopolitical issues that unite the UK and Australia, including climate breakdown, the AUKUS pact, and managing relations with the Trump administration.
We welcome participants from RS, APSF and other similar networks as well as anyone unaffiliated and curious. We hope to learn from others’ experiences and inspire action in other countries.
Joanna Frew is the Outreach Coordinator for the Rethinking Security network. She is an activist and researcher who has been involved in global economic justice, climate justice and anti-militarism work for over 20 years. She is also a community gardener, historian of the British empire and lives in community with refugees and asylum seekers in north London.
Albert Palazzo is an Adjunct Professor at University of New South Wales –Canberra in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences. He was formerly the long-serving Director of War Studies for the Australian Army. He has written more than twenty books and monographs, including The Australian Army and the War in Iraq and Climate Change and National Security: The Implications for the Military. He is currently writing a book that examines what is wrong with Australia’s defence policy and explains how to fix it
Richard Reeve has been the Coordinator of the Rethinking Security network since 2019. He has worked in peace and conflict research in the UK, Africa, Southeast Europe and Western Asia for over 25 years, including as Chief Executive of Oxford Research Group, Head of Research at International Alert, research fellow at King’s College London and Chatham House, and editor/analyst at Jane’s Information Group. He is a non-resident fellow of BASIC and a board member of NATO Watch.
Major General Michael G Smith AO (Ret’d) served for 34 years in the Australian Defence Force, including numerous command and senior staff positions. He served in Papua New Guinea, Cambodia and Timor-Leste. His civilian career was as CEO of Austcare (now Action Aid Australia), founding Executive Director of the Australian Civil-Military Centre, and service with the United Nations in Libya, Myanmar, Nepal, and Yemen. Mike is the Development Advisor for the Calleo Indigenous Community Fund, Chair of the Gallipoli Scholarship Fund, a Non-Executive Director of the Institute for Economics and Peace and the Australian Respiratory Council, and is Public Officer for the APSF. He is a past National President of the United Nations Association of Australia.
Enyseh Teimory (Chair) is Head of Policy at the United Nations Association – UK (UNA-UK) and a member of the Rethinking Security Council and Steering Group.