Go8 Submission: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Soft Power Review

October 12, 2018

The Group of Eight (Go8) supports the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) in its intention to create a whole-of-government approach to ensuring that Australia builds and maintains its soft power capacity. We welcome the opportunity to contribute to this process and look forward to being actively involved in further conversations and consultations.

Please note that this submission represents the views of the Go8 network. Member universities may also make their own, more detailed submissions.

As we noted in our submission to the 2017 Foreign Policy White Paper, effective international engagement has become a fundamental hallmark of a successful, 21^st century economy. Australia has taken its place as an engaged, innovative partner across both the Indo-Pacific region and the globe.

The Go8 recognises the need for a whole of government approach to the review and exercise of soft power to ensure the compatibility of our policy suite, and supports DFAT in this approach.

The Soft Power review notes the following four points as being within scope:

Exploring the nature of attraction and influence in the changing global context, particularly in the face of rapid globalization and unprecedented technological change;
Identifying Australia’s soft power objectives and Australia’s key soft power assets and challenges;
Examining policy options to build and leverage soft power assets to promote Australia’s security and prosperity, and strengthen Australia’s reputation in an increasingly networked world;
Considering new and more effective partnerships with other governments, the private sector, development partners and civil society, drawing on examples of best practice.

Each recommendation given below is contextualized against one or more of each of these points.

Recommendations

Recommendation: That the Australian government recognise the critical importance of effective visa policy to Australia’s soft power capacity, and works to ensure streamlining of visa processes to allow Australia to continue to engage with the best and brightest around the globe (3, 4);

Recommendation: That the Australian government continue to fund bodies such as the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), as important supporters of Australia’s soft power capacity (2, 3);

Recommendation: That the Australian government continue to recognise the critical importance of Australia’s high performing universities as national soft power assets (2);

Recommendation: that the Australian government continue to cultivate effective bilateral and multilateral relationships across our region (3,4);

Recommendation: That the government continue to support successful educational programmes like the New Colombo Plan, as a critical engagement tool with our region and facilitator of the people to people relationships that form the basis of soft power (3);

Recommendation: That the Australian government consider establishing a targeted national scholarship scheme to reinforce important strategic relationships in our region, including expanding scholarship support for Pacific nations as part of our national investment in soft power (3);

Recommendation: That the Australian government continue to offer executive education programmes for mid-career level leaders across our region (3, 4);

Recommendation: that the government increase its efforts to promote Australia’s research performance as an important investment in our current and future prosperity, rather than as a cost, and as one of our greatest soft power efforts (2, 3);

Recommendation: That the Australian government increase long term funding support for research collaborations with key Indo-Pacific partners as a significant soft power initiative (2, 3);

Recommendation: That the Australian government consider targeted PhD scholarships from key strategic partners across the region, to encourage high quality PhD students to build their relationship with Australia rather than competitor nations (2, 3); and

Recommendation: That the Government take urgent steps to ensure that Australia can capitalise on the opportunity to secure a position as an associated partner in Horizon Europe, as a way of cementing our role and reputation as a key global partner in innovation and research (3, 4);

Soft Power

The Foreign Policy White Paper defines “soft power” as the “ability to influence the behavior or thinking of others through the power of attraction and ideas”.[1] A “strong economy”, “multicultural society” and “world-class institutions” are listed as fundamental to our capacity to achieve this.[2] And each of these is underpinned by substantial efforts from Go8 universities.

For example, as a collective, Go8 universities:

Contributed $66.4 billion to the Australian economy in 2016; including around $18 billion in education exports;[3]
Have educated 83% of Australia’s Ambassadors and High Commissioners;
Had 99% of our research ranked as world class or above in ERA 2015;
Are consistently the highest ranked Australian universities in the world, with all of our members ranked in the top 150, and six of our members in the top 100, of the highly prestigious 2018 Academic Ranking of World Universities;[4]
Educate one in three international students who choose to study university in Australia; and
Educate over 100,000 international students from 200 countries.

We were therefore pleased to see this reflected in the Foreign Policy White Paper in the following statements:

Our commitment to education, training and research exchanges will remain central to Australia’s soft power. These exchanges build influence, and strengthen people-to-people links and mutual understanding.[5]

and

Australia has a global reputation for excellence in science and research… Many Australian researchers are experts in their field and hold influential positions in international organisations… Our international science collaboration generates new ideas to respond to emerging research opportunities and challenges.[6]

The Go8 agrees that education and research collaborations provide a powerful mechanism for building Australia’s soft power capacity across the globe, and we have demonstrated considerable capacity for success in these areas.

In addition to metric based measures, such as global rankings, university activities also help deliver tangible and ongoing benefits to communities across the Indo-Pacific. A project by the University of Sydney in Timor-Leste, for example, is working to address significant rates of malnutrition – estimated to impact up to 50% of children – by improving the health and productivity of poultry and the empowerment of village women. Since November 2014 alone, the number of households in Timor-Leste who are raising poultry has increased by 13% in communities vaccinating against Newcastle Disease (ND). This is then having a range of other flow on benefits, as the involvement of women as community assistants in the research is leading to important changes in attitudes among men towards women and their role in society. The significant soft power benefits that research such as this brings, funded by the Australian Government through bodies such as the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), must not be overlooked. Australia should look to invest, wherever possible, in international development research programmes across the region, particularly those focused on achieving sustainable development in the region.

However, despite our considerable successes we cannot afford to become complacent. As noted in the Foreign Policy White Paper, Australia is “facing the most complex and challenging geostrategic environment since the early years of the Cold War [and we] cannot assume that prosperity and security just happen by themselves”.[7]

Australia must take active measures to ensure we remain a stable, trusted partner, able to work in collaboration with our Indo-Pacific neighbours to maintain a secure, prosperous region. This includes effective visa policies that allow high performing Australian academics and researchers to engage and collaborate with the best and brightest in the world, to the benefit of our research and knowledge economies.

Recommendation: That the Australian government recognise the critical importance of effective visa policy to Australia’s soft power capacity, and works to ensure streamlining of visa processes to allow Australia to continue to engage with the best and brightest around the globe.

Recommendation: That the Australian government continue to fund bodies such as the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), as important supporters of Australia’s soft power capacity.

Education

Australia has an advantage in the strength and resilience of our high performing international education export sector, which is not only our third largest export sector – with activity from Go8 universities alone estimated to contribute $18 billion to the economy[8] – but which continues to provide Australia with one of its most potent soft power levers.

Education exports provide people from all over the world the opportunity to experience our culture and build life-long relationships, while obtaining the foundational knowledges and skills they will need for their future careers.

And Australia provides the opportunity to do this within one of “the most successful multicultural society in the world”.[9] In an era of globalisation and global talent mobility, providing students with the opportunity to access a world class education, in a successful, peaceful, diverse society should not be underestimated.

The strength of our international education market, supporting over half a million students across all sectors as of June 2018,[10] attests to the attractiveness of Australia’s offerings. Our capacity to nurture the future leaders and professionals of the Indo-Pacific region, while building deep and lasting interpersonal connections, is one of the nation’s greatest soft power assets. It must be recognised as such, and supported to continue providing this strategic asset into the future.

Australia must also get better at re-connecting with, and utilizing these alumni networks that Go8 and other Australian universities have built across our region.

The Go8 therefore urges the government to recognise that our high performing universities are an asset to the nation, and critical to our future wellbeing and prosperity. It is crucial that we maintain our status as a preferred destination for international students.

Government can assist in this process by emphasizing the importance with which we view our relationships with our Indo-Pacific neighbors, and our commitment to long term prosperity in the region, regardless of external factors or tensions that may arise from the changing global context.

Programmes such as the highly successful New Colombo Plan (NCP) assist us in this endeavor, demonstrating our international outlook by encouraging domestic cohorts to engage with our region, and develop cross-cultural perspectives and competencies. This could be supplemented by increased efforts to encourage the uptake of foreign language study in Australian schools and universities, with a particular focus on the Asia-Pacific region.

At the same time, the sheer scale and success of our international education sector has positioned Australia as a key provider of educational services to the next generation of leaders across the Pacific, although there would be benefit in the government and education sector working to increase the diversity of the student body across key markets in Asia.

The combination of encouraging our domestic students to develop ties across our region, and welcoming future leaders to spend their formative years in Australia while furthering their education, places us in a prime position to build and exercise our soft power capacity.

Building on the success of the NCP by expanding it into a multilateral programme, whereby it supports mobility both into and out of Australia, could further strengthen the people to people networks and build mutual understanding and knowledge. The European Erasmus program could provide the basis for developing such a program.

We also need to ensure that our foreign policy framework is able to adapt, as new technologies and challenges drive regional change. As noted in our submission to the Foreign Policy White Paper, a 2012 OECD analysis estimated that the global middle class will rise from 1.8 billion in 2009 to around 4.9 billion by 2030, and the bulk of this growth will come from Asia.[11] As competition for students increases, it would be strategic for Australia to consider establishing targeted national scholarship schemes to ensure ongoing relationships, including expanding scholarship support for Pacific nations as part of our national investment in soft power. The recent establishment of a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership with Indonesia, for example, could be strengthened through such a scheme.

We should also ensure that we continue to engage with current leaders, as well as building relationships with those of the future. Executive education, supported by the federal government, is another way of providing links with mid-career leaders in our region. The Go8 strongly supports the continuation of these programmes.

But in building new connections, we cannot allow our existing relationships to fade. We must ensure that we maintain good relationships with traditional allies, such as the United States, Europe, the United Kingdom, Canada and New Zealand.

In fact, the strength of Australia’s relationships with these traditional allies, combined with our growing connections across the Indo-Pacific region, and strengthened by our diverse and successful multicultural society, puts Australia in the unique position of potentially being able to provide a model to the rest of the world as to how to successfully negotiate the challenges of a changing geo-political context. This would confer to Australia a significant soft power advantage in our relations with many countries, not just those in our immediate geographical area.

Recommendation: That the Australian government continue to recognise the critical importance of Australia’s high performing universities as national soft power assets.

Recommendation: That the Australian government consider establishing a targeted national scholarship scheme to reinforce important strategic relationships in our region, including expanding scholarship support for Pacific nations as part of our national investment in soft power.

Recommendation: That the Australian government continue to offer executive education programmes for mid-career level leaders across our region.

Recommendation: that the Australian government continue to cultivate effective bilateral and multilateral relationships across our region, while maintaining relationships with key traditional allies.

Recommendation: That the government continue to support successful educational programmes like the New Colombo Plan, as a critical engagement tool with our region and facilitator of the people to people relationships that form the basis of soft power.

Research

But the soft power capacity of universities is not limited to educational exports. Research and research collaborations also contribute through multiple mechanisms, eg:

Building strong people to people relationships. International research collaborations often involve ongoing contact across diverse teams for extended periods of time. Australia’s two bilateral research funds, the Australia-India Strategic Research Fund (AISRF) and the Australia-China Science and Research Fund (ACSRF), provide collaborative funding for up to three years, during which time strong connections can be formed. However, the quantum of funding available can have a significant impact on the duration of collaborative efforts beyond the initial project. The capacity to offer ongoing funding would cement our ability to continue ongoing relationships with key regional partners.

By demonstrating the exceptional quality of our research. Producing high quality research brings multiple benefits. These include improving Australia’s performance in international ranking systems, and helping to cement our reputation for expertise with respect to issues of global interest and significance, such as health and medical care, quantum computing, crop and pasture production, counter-terrorism measures, and so on.
By affecting real change in global communities: The Go8 publication Excellence in India provides a number of case studies outlining successful projects funded by the AISRF, that have not only forged strong connections across international teams, but have resulted in findings with a meaningful application for both countries. Examples include protecting wheat crops from rust, a disease that is devastating food crops world-wide, and developing renewable biofuels from cow manure.[12] The application of results such as these, resulting in effective solutions to issues that improve people’s lives, helps to promote Australia’s international reputation as a high quality provider of research findings and innovative solutions.
Attracting high quality PhD students to study in Australia and boost our research capacity even further. The stronger Australia’s international reputation for research quality, the greater our capacity to attract the best and brightest minds of the future to come to Australia, and build their careers here to the benefit of our nation. Including PhD students in collaborative projects, such as those funded by the AISRF and ACSRF, can also help to create longevity, building expert subject matter expertise and professional connections at an early career stage to ensure that these continue into the future. Providing targeted scholarships for PhD students from key regional partners can assist in attracting the highest quality students to Australia. Australia already offers some of these, through the Hadi Soesastro and Allison Sudradjat Prizes for Indonesian students, for example, but could consider adjusting the Australia Awards programme to recognise other key Indo-Pacific region partners. Although universities are permitted, under the new Research Training Program (RTP), to use a small proportion of their funding (up to 10%) for international students,[13] providing some flexibility, the overall quantum available is not sufficient to provide a significant pool to attract high quality and strategic talent, given global competition for talent. Without addressing the significant structural funding challenges within the university sector, Australia will always be limited in its capacity to capitalise on the significant soft power potential of our education and research efforts.

Australia is in the fortunate position of having an asset network of high performing research-intensive universities that punch above their weight on the world stage.

As noted above, 99% of the research produced by Go8 universities in the latest ERA ranking was rated at being world class or above. Also as noted above, six Go8 universities are ranked within the top 100 universities globally, and all are within the top 150. This places Australia third in the world as measured by the ARWU, behind only the United States (45 institutions) and the UK (8 institutions). For an economy and country of our size, this is a truly astonishing achievement, and a significant – and frankly, underappreciated – asset in our soft power repertoire.

As noted by the 2018 Go8 Chair, Professor Ian Jacobs, our research performance, and the funding that supports it, is an astute investment in the future of our nation.

Yet much of the public rhetoric regarding research and research funding often refers to it as cost, or worse, a drain on national resources.

In 2018 we live in a world where information can no longer be contained by borders. Public statements made in Australia do not always stay in Australia. The rest of the world is watching and listening, and may well take us at face value. If we under value our research performance, we may well start to find that the rest of the world does too.

And if that happens, we will have significantly damaged one of our greatest soft power advantages for no appreciable benefit or reason.

The Go8 therefore urges the government to be mindful of the implications of the messages we send about ourselves to others.

Recommendation: that the government increase its efforts to promote Australia’s research performance as an important investment in our current and future prosperity, rather than as a cost, and as one of our greatest soft power efforts.

Recommendation: That the Australian government increase long term funding support for research collaborations with key Indo-Pacific partners as a significant soft power initiative.

Recommendation: That the Australian government consider targeted PhD scholarships from key strategic partners across the region, to encourage high quality PhD students to build their relationship; with Australia.

The Go8 urges that Australia should be seeking to capitalise on opportunities to maximise our influence in key international research collaborations or processes. This helps to boost our global reputation as a key partner in innovation and research partnerships, with flow on effects to our reputation in the Indo-Pacific region.

Fortunately, one such opportunity is currently available, which the Go8 urges the government to consider.

Horizon 2020 is the largest European Union Research and Innovation programme ever developed. Due to finish in two years, it provided nearly €80 billion of funding over 7 years (2014-2020).[14] Although primarily targeted at EU members, Go8 universities participate in 41 Horizon 2020 projects, in areas including quantum dynamics, sensor research, a range of health areas, in projects focused on infrastructure, autonomous vehicles, materials science and global navigation systems.

Discussions are now underway in the European Parliament regarding a replacement programme, Horizon Europe, with a proposed budget of €97.9 billion. Plans for Horizon Europe have included consideration of opening the programme to ‘associated’ (i.e, non-European) countries able to demonstrate “a similar level of excellence”.[15] Canada and Australia were specifically mentioned in this context.

The Go8 believes this presents a significant opportunity for Australia to secure itself a place in “the potential nucleus of a global programme for open and science and open innovation, exporting good regulatory practices and improving international trading and investment conditions”. [16] To miss this opportunity would see Australia potentially shut out of one of the most significant international collaborative research programmes of current times.

The Go8 therefore urges the government to urgently consider ensuring that Australia can capitalise on the opportunity to secure a position as an associated partner in Horizon Europe.

Recommendation: That the Government take urgent steps to ensure that Australia can capitalise on the opportunity to secure a position as an associated partner in Horizon Europe.

The Go8 looks forward to being involved in further consultations about this important strategic area. We welcome any further opportunities to contribute to this important process.

Yours sincerely

VICKI THOMSON

CHIEF EXECUTIVE

[1] Foreign Policy White Paper, p.109

[2] P.110

[3] London Economics report, p.iii, vii

[4] http://www.shanghairanking.com/ARWU2018.html

[5] FPWP, p.111

[6] FPWP, p.111

[7] FPWP, p. iii

[8] London Economics

[9] https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/LifeinAustralia/Documents/MulticulturalAffairs/english-multicultural-statement.pdf