Yesterday the Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Peter Varghese, gave a true big-picture address to the Lowy Institute on Australia's place in a changing global and regional order. To get a sense of Peter's themes, check out his op-ed in yesterday's Australian. The full recording and transcript of the address are available here, and I notice John Garnaut covered the speech for Fairfax.
Below is a short interview I conducted with Peter just before his speech. One of the most interesting parts of the speech is Peter's claim that two factors will determine whether China's rise can be managed peacefully: the first is China's own behaviour, and the second is 'the extent to which the existing international and regional order intelligently finds more space for China.' In the middle of the interview, I ask Peter what that means, in practical terms: