Advance diaspora diplomacy in a networked world

ABSTRACT

The role of diaspora in cultural exchange, international affairs and in economic development is now well established. What is new is the increasing proliferation of national strategies to harness them actively for public diplomacy. This article addresses the rise of Australia’s only formal, global diaspora network: Advance – Australia’s Global Community which has acted self-consciously to become an instrument of public diplomacy. Emerging from a small base in New York, Advance sought to ‘open doors’ for Australians in the world’s biggest market. Cultivating a strong membership base of well-connected individuals in the arts, commerce and professions, Advance developed its network centrality by building partnerships with state governments, Australian universities and federal government agencies. As an elite organisation of high-profile Australians overseas, Advance has developed into a global organisation communicating Australian culture and economic achievements to both Australian national audiences and foreign constituencies.

Abbreviation: AAA - Australian American Association ACOLA - Australian Council of Learned Academies AWNY - Australian Women in New York BHP - Broken Hill Propriety CEDA- Committee for the Economic Development of Australia CEO - Chief Executive Officer DC - District of ColumbiaDFAT - Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade ICJP - International Journal of Cultural Policy ICT - information and communications technology KEA - Kiwi Expatriate Organisation MFA - Ministry of Foreign Affairs MIT - Massachusetts Institute of Technology NGO - non governmental organisationNISA - National Innovation and Science AgendaNZ - New Zealand SBS - Special Broadcasting Service TIE - The Indus Entrepreneur UN - United Nations US - United States USA - United States of America YAPA - Young Australian Professionals Association

KEYWORDS:

• Diaspora
• diplomacy
• discourse
• network centrality
• transnational communities

Disclosure statement

Elena Douglas was a former employee and Chief Executive Officer of the case study organisation Advance.

Notes

1. Keith Murdoch was the father of Rupert Murdoch, the current CEO and Chairman of News Corp.

2. Pratt is an Australian billionaire and Executive Chairman of Visy Industries and Pratt Industries United States, the world’s largest privately owned packaging and paper company. Lachlan Keith Murdoch is executive co-chair of News Corp and 21^st Century Fox and mass media heir to Rupert Murdoch. Peter Lowy was at the time, joint Co-Chief Executive Officer of Westfield Corporation, a world’s leading shopping centre company.

3. Tony Abbott: http://advance.org/patrons-ambassadors/#sthash.CBR4V8Iy.dpuf .

4. Malcolm Turnball, Remarks at the 2016 Advance Global Australian Awards Ceremony, 21 October 2016, Sydney: https://www.pm.gov.au/media/2016-10-21/remarks-2016-advance-global-australian-awards-ceremony.

5. Elevate 61 https://home.kpmg.com/au/en/home/services/innovate/elevate61.html accessed 17 June 2018.

6. https://www.advance.org/salons Access 17 June 2018.

7. A complex body of thinking best depicted in Global Networks: A Journal of Transnational Affairs: http://www.transcomm.ox.ac.uk/wwwroot/gnjournal.htm .

8. All web links accessed17 June 2018 except where otherwise noted.

Additional information

Funding

This work has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 693799 as part of the ‘European Leadership in Cultural, Science and Innovation Diplomacy’ (EL-CSID) project. It does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the EU.

Notes on contributors

Diane Stone

Diane Stone is a Centenary Professor, Institute of Governance and Policy Analysis at the University of Canberra plus a Professor of Politics and International Studies at the University of Warwick.

Elena Douglas

Elena Douglas is the CEO and founder of Knowledge Society, an Australian innovation agency. She is also Research Associate, PerthUSAsia Centre and Social Innovation Fellow, Centre for Social Impact at the University of Western Australia. From 2002, she was the founding CEO of Advance working with the organisation until 2007.