Event: A Changing Asia - Melbourne
At this event, East Asia Program Director Merriden Varrall, Research Fellow Aaron Connelly and Nonresident Fellow Murray McLean, will discuss how the broader Asian region is changing strategically, politically and economically with a specific focus on China, Japan and Indonesia.
Before joining the Lowy Institute, Dr Merriden Varrall was the Assistant Country Director and Senior Policy Advisor at UNDP China, where she worked for the past three years on China's role in the world, focusing on its international development cooperation policy. Merriden has spent almost eight years living and working in China, including lecturing in foreign policy at the China Foreign Affairs University and conducting fieldwork for her doctoral research. Prior to that she worked for the Australian Treasury. Merriden has a PhD in political anthropology from Macquarie University, Sydney, and the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam. Her dissertation examined the ideational factors behind China's foreign policy. She has a Masters Degree in International Affairs from the Australian National University, and completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Technology Sydney.
Prior to joining the Lowy Institute, Aaron L. Connelly worked at Albright Stonebridge Group, a commercial diplomacy consultancy headquartered in Washington. As a director at the firm, Aaron assisted companies and non-profits in understanding political risks to investments and operations in Southeast Asia. Aaron collaborated closely with the chair of the firm, former US National Security Advisor Samuel R. Berger, on foreign policy matters, conducting research for and representing Mr Berger in a variety of outside initiatives, including those regarding the US role in East Asia.
Aaron's position is supported by the Lowy Institute’s Engaging Asia Project which was established with the financial support of the Australian Government.
Murray McLean AO spent 42 years as an officer of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade until his retirement in 2012. Much of his career has been spent on the formulation of Australian policy towards Asia, with a particular focus on China, Japan and Korea. A fluent Chinese speaker, he studied Chinese language at the University of Hong Kong prior to his posting to Australia’s then newly-established Embassy in Beijing in 1973. He has served at the Australian Embassy in Beijing (twice) and in Shanghai as Consul General from 1987-1992. He also served in the Australian Embassy in Washington and as Australia’s High Commissioner to Singapore. In Canberra he was the Head of East Asia Branch and North Asia Division in DFAT. From 2002-2004, he served as a special ministerial envoy on North Korean nuclear matters visiting North Korea on several occasions. He was appointed as a Deputy Secretary in early 2004. In 2004 he was posted as Australia’s Ambassador to Japan where he remained for almost seven years until August 2011.
Following his retirement from DFAT in 2012, Murray became the Chair of the Australia Japan Foundation and a Member of the Board of the Australia Japan Business Cooperation Committee. He served as a special advisor on the preparation of the White Paper on "Australia in the Asian Century" during 2012 and is a Vice Chancellor’s Professorial Fellow at Monash University. He is also Chairman of his family company Dunmore McLean Pty Ltd.
Generously hosted by Telstra
