6 February 2019

Media release | USSC welcomes defence grants

The United States Studies Centre's (USSC) Foreign Policy and Defence Program has been awarded multiple grants from the Australian Department of Defence for projects that contribute to the national security debate in Australia.

Minister for Defence, the Hon Christopher Pyne MP, last week announced several think tanks and academic institutions which were recipients of the annual Strategic Policy Grants Program. The program is designed to support original initiatives that help inform Defence’s strategic policy advice, as well as support more public discourse on defence and security issues.

“I’m extremely grateful for Defence’s generous support of the policy-driven work we’re doing here at the USSC," Director of the Foreign Policy and Defence Program Ashley Townshend said.

“These grants will allow us to focus on the big strategic questions facing the United States and Australia in the Indo-Pacific, and to collaborate with colleagues across the region to develop sustainable policy solutions to shared challenges."

The grants will support the Foreign Policy and Defence Program’s projects on the United States, Australia and Indo-Pacific strategy. This two-year research initiative will develop policy recommendations for how Canberra, Washington and other likeminded regional partners can pursue a collective regional strategy to safeguard whole-of-nation interests, enhance stability and maintain a favourable balance of power in an increasingly contested region.

"The value of research and analysis from learned voices in foreign policy and defence cannot be understated given the rapid pace of change and strategic reassessment in the Indo-Pacific," United States Studies Centre CEO Professor Simon Jackman said.

"The Centre's independent scholarship is a vital resource for government, media and the public, and these grants will assist us in continuing to deepen Australia’s understanding of the United States and how our relationship with the United States can — and will — advance Australia’s interests in the Indo-Pacific."