In early 2017 the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade made a call for public submissions into an upcoming Foreign Policy White Paper. The AIIA has pursued a three part process:

• Encouraging individual members to put in their own submissions;
• Holding forums for AIIA members to give input to the White Paper Taskforce; and
• An AIIA submission focusing on foreign policy capacity

The AIIA does not pronounce on policy as a collective and is committed to maintaining its constitutionally mandated non-partisan independence. Consequently the AIIA submission narrowed its focus on one question from the the call for public submissions. Furthermore the views tendered concentrated on the processes facilitating debate and decision-making in Australian foreign policy—rather than on the merits of specific policies. To this end the AIIA recommended Australia’s strategy focus on building capacity in three broad areas:

1. Improving Australia’s diplomatic capacity;
2. Engage the world through public diplomacy; and
3. Building Australians’ skills and understanding of international affairs

The AIIA’s submission (PDF) to the 2017 Foreign Policy White Paper can be found here.