Soft Power Oration
Annual Orations in Memory of Bruce Allen
The Soft Power Lecture series was initiated in 2003, by the Macquarie University Centre for International Communication, in memory of the late Australian broadcaster, Bruce Allen. Bruce was a founding director of the public diplomacy broadcasting organisation Television Australia. From 2011, this important event became part of the SPARC annual calendar of events as the Annual Soft Power Lecture.
The 2022 Soft Power Oration will be announced here.
Soft power orations 2009 -
- 2021 - Distinguished Professor Emeritus Joseph S Nye Jnr.( former Dean of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government; former Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security) 10-Yr.Anniversary Soft Power Oration
- 2019 - Professor Naren Chitty AM (Foundation Chair in International Communication and Inaugural Director of SPARC at Macquarie University): "Advancing Australia through soft power: virtue and virtuosity".
- 2018 - Professor Jayantha Dhanapala (former Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament of the United Nations): "Soft Power, Hard Challenges & the Disarmament Imperative".
- 2017 - Professor Daya Thussu (Co-Director of India Media Centre, University of Westminster): "Soft Power of an Emerging India".
- 2016 - Emeritus Professor Nicholas Greenwood Onuf (Emeritus Professor of International Relations, Florida International University): "Power as Metaphor/Metaphor as Power".
- 2015 - Niels Marquardt (fomer US Consul General in Sydney and now Chief Executive Officer of the American Chamber of Commerce in Australia): "Soft Power and the US-Australian Relationship".
- 2014 - Maureen Barron AM (Chief Executive of Screen New South Wales): "The Soft Power and Public Diplomacy of Australian Film and Television".
- 2013 - Peter Varghese AO (then Secretary of Foreign Affairs & Trade, Australia; present Chancellor of Queensland University): "Building Australia's soft power".
- 2012 - Murray Green (Honorary Professor, SPARC, Rtd, Director International, ABC): "Connecting Attitudes, Aspirations and Values: Australia's Media Engagement in the Asia Pacific and Apprenticeship in Soft Power"
- 2011 - Professor Maurice Newman AC (then Chairman, ABC, Honorary Professor SPARC): "Broadcasting Australia: Antipodal Soft Power"
- 2010 - Professor Amareswar Galla, Key advisor for the UNESCO World Commission for Culture and Development :"Developing cultural heritage, alleviating poverty.
- 2009 - Mark Scott AO (then Managing Director, ABC; current Vice Chancellor of Sydney University): "A global ABC: Soft Diplomacy and the World of International Broadcasting"
Early Bruce Allen Orations on broadcasting - 2003-2008
- 2008 - The Hon Maxine McKew MP: " 'So you've crossed the Rubicon...What's it like?' A commentary on politics and the media"
- 2007 - Geraldine Doogue: "Australian Media - A SWOT Analysis".
- 2006 - Robyn Williams: "Where did they bury the skeletons? On surviving 34 years at the ABC without becoming one"
- 2005 - Peter Thompson: "The Republic of Ideas"
- 2004 - Kerry O'Brien: " Spinning the Public Sphere"
- 2003 - Stuart Littlemore QC: "Doing Favours: The Murdoch Telegraph, Tony Abbott and Pauline Hanson".
Bruce Allen
Bruce Allen made pioneering contributions to current affairs television production at:
- Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC),
- Australian Film and Television School (now AFTRS)
- Australian Broadcasting Tribunal (later the ABA).
As a member of the ABT he took a leading role in inquiries into Australian Content and Children's Television Standards. An innovator in current affairs television, he helped develop 'Monday Conference' and 'First Wednesday ' for the ABC and 'Newsday Forums' for the CBC in Canada.
He was a founding director of Television Australia, Australia's public diplomacy TV broadcaster. He directed 'Late Night Line Up' at the BBC and worked at ABC on 'This Day Tonight' and ' Four Corners'.
At the time of his death in 2001, Bruce was lecturing in communication policy at Macquarie University's Centre of International Communication.