Michael Wesley

School of Political Science

University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

Michael Wesley is a Lecturer in School of Political Science at the University of New South Wales and a Visiting Fellow at the Asia‑Australia Institute, University of New South Wales. He holds a Ph.D. in International Relations from the University of St. Andrews, in Scotland and a Bachelor of Arts with First Class Honors from the University of Queensland.

He has previously worked as a Teaching Fellow at Griffith University and the University of St Andrews and a Policy Adviser in the Cabinet Office with the Queensland Government.

Dr Wesley's research and teaching specializes in the areas of international institutions, regional organization, Asia‑Pacific politics, and Australian foreign policy. He currently teaches in the area of international institutions, Asia‑Pacific politics, and international relations theory.

His recent publications include Casualties of the New World Order: The Causes of Failure of UN Missions to Civil Wars (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1997); "Wild Colonial Ploys? Currents of Thought in Australian Foreign Policy", Australian Journal of Political Science, Vol 35, No. 1, March 2000; "The Asian Crisis and the Adequacy of Regional Institutions", Contemporary Southeast Asia, Vol. 21, No. 1, April 1999, pp. 1‑20; and "The Politics of Exclusion: Australia, Turkey, and Definitions of Regionalism", The Pacific Review, Vol. 10, No. 4, 1997, pp. 523‑555.

Forthcoming publications in 2000‑2001 include "Globali5ation and Australian Nationalism" in Leo Suryadinata (ed) Nationalism and Globalization: West and East, Singapore: ISEAS, 2000; "International Relations: The Interweaving of Political and Economic Security" in Michael Keating and Glyn Davis (ed), The Future Governance of Australia: Challenges, Capacities and Outcomes, Melbourne: Macmillan, 2000, (with Allan Gyngell); "The Cambodian Waltz: The Khmer Rouge and United Nations Intervention" in Sorpong Peou (ed) Change and Continuity in Contemporary Cambodia, Singapore: ISEAS, 2000 and "Australia and the Regional Crisis" in James Cotton and John Ravenhill (eds) Australia in World Affairs 1996‑2000, (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 2001),

Dr Wesley is a regular commentator on the news media. He has written various newspaper articles for The Australian; and The Sydney Morning Herald, appeared on television (SBS News; CNBC News) and done radio interviews with ABC PM; ABC AM; SBS Radio on issues relating to the UN, multilateralism, Asia‑Pacific politics, and Australian foreign policy.

He is a member of the Australian Member Committee of the Conference for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific (AUS‑CSCAP); the Eastern Hemisphere Research Institute Network, (EHRIN), and the Asia Pacific Public Affairs Forum (APPAF).

He is currently working on two books, one examining international‑domestic bargaining dynamics within Australia over trade, the environment, and human rights; and the other on how Australian foreign policy is made. He is also working on an edited volume on change to regional institutions in the Asia‑Pacific.