The international community is busy coming to terms with the re-election of President Trump, but he is a symptom of American malaise, not its cause. Americans are neither willing nor able to save themselves from themselves – in a fundamental sense, America is down and out. But it has enormous resilience, which it needs to empower, and it has close friends, like Australia, that can offer practical assistance in designing and implementing the political and social reforms that are necessary if America is to become truly great. Join Allan Behm, Emma Shortis and Nick Bryant in conversation with chair Natasha Mitchell.

SPEAKERS:

Allan Behm is Special Advisor, International Political Affairs at The Australia Institute in Canberra. He specialises in international and security policy analysis and development. In 2022 he published No Enemies No Friends: Restoring Australia’s Global Relevance, a critical examination of what limits Australia as an actor on the international stage. His latest book, The Odd Couple, offers a similarly challenging take on the Australia–United States partnership. 

Nick Bryant has come to be regarded as one of the BBC’s finest foreign correspondents over a career spanning almost 30 years. He has been posted in Washington, South Asia, Australia and, most recently, New York, where he covered Trump’s first term. His writing has appeared in The Economist, The Washington Post, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Monthly and The New Statesman, and he broadcasts regularly on the BBC and ABC. The Forever War is his new book on America’s internal conflict. 

Emma Shortis is Director of The Australia Institute’s International & Security Affairs program. She is a historian and writer focused on the history and politics of the United States and its role in the world. Emma’s first book, Our Exceptional Friend: Australia’s Fatal Alliance with the United States, was published by Hardie Grant in 2021. She also appears regularly on Australian radio and television. 

Prudence Flowers is a Senior Lecturer in US History at Flinders University and the current President of the Australian and New Zealand American Studies Association. Her historical research focuses on social movements and activism, modern conservatism, and gender and sexuality, particularly the politics of abortion. Her forthcoming book The Reagan Revolution analyses the Reagan presidency and the history of conservatism in the United States from the 1960s to the 2020s.  She is author of The Right-to-Life Movement, the Reagan Administration, and the Politics of Abortion (Palgrave 2018).

Natasha Mitchell is a multi-award-winning journalist, radio presenter, podcaster and documentary maker. She is host of ABC Radio National’s Big Ideas program, was founding host and producer of the radio show and podcast All in the Mind, hosted the ABC’s daily social affairs program Life Matters, and was founding host and producer of Science Friction.

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