Source — AITW Ep089 — Democracy Summit; S. Korea Visit; Olympic Boycott; Communicating Foreign Policy¶

Episode Metadata¶

Field	Value
Episode number	89
Title	Ep. 89: Democracy summit; S. Korea visit; Olympic boycott; communicating foreign policy
Publication date	2021-12-17
Recording date	Thursday, 16 December 2021
Guests	None (Allan and Darren only)
Allan present	Yes
Format	Multi-topic news episode (four items). Final episode of 2021. Reading segment at close.

Summary¶

The last episode of 2021 and, given that structure, a quietly revealing one. The standout biographical disclosure is Allan's casual mention of having spent "a couple of years" working at a space launch company run by a Korean Australian — slipped in while discussing the South Korea visit and then abandoned as "another story." It is the most unexpected career fragment in the corpus to this point and the most direct evidence that Allan's working life between the Keating government's fall (1996) and the Lowy Institute (~2003) is more varied than the formal record suggests.

The episode also contains one of his clearest and most personal statements on what he believes public foreign policy communication should be: "an informed and engaged public is the best way of ensuring that we have a foreign policy and national security policy that works for our times." He applies rigorous textual close reading to Morrison's Olympic boycott announcement — counting speeches, quoting exact words, comparing Morrison's language to the US statement — and finds both the substance and the framing wanting.

The closing reading recommendation, 4,000 Weeks by Oliver Burkeman, draws Darren's immediate good-natured taunt ("You, Allan") about workaholism. Allan accepts the teasing with a simple "Thank you" — one of the warmer exchanges in the series.

Key Quotations¶

"A space launch company as it happens, but that's another story"¶

"I once worked for a couple of years with a company run by a Korean Australian. It was actually a space launch company as it happens, but that's another story. And I greatly enjoyed it. It was a fun place to be around."

— [00:19:28.960 --> 00:22:30.620]

The most unexpected biographical fragment in the corpus. Allan drops a private-sector period — "a couple of years" at a space launch company run by a Korean Australian — in the course of making a point about Australian-Korean cultural similarities, then moves on without elaboration. "But that's another story" is characteristic: he opens a door and declines to walk through it. The timing is unconfirmed but the most plausible placement is the 1996–2003 gap between the Keating government's fall and the founding of the Lowy Institute, a period which now begins to look considerably more varied than the curriculum vitae suggests. A Korean Australian–run space launch company in Australia in the late 1990s is a distinctive enough organisation to be traceable. The fact that he "greatly enjoyed it" and found it "a fun place to be around" suggests something genuinely outside the Canberra policy world.

"A binary democracy-authoritarian division of the world is just idiotic"¶

"I don't think I've ever claimed that Democracy promotion doesn't have a role in the foreign policy of a government like ours. We are doing it effectively in Solomon Islands at the moment, for example... But I do think that a binary Democracy authoritarian division of the world is just idiotic."

— [00:08:39.160 --> 00:10:50.020]

Allan opens by defending his own intellectual record — "I don't think I've ever claimed" — before delivering the sharper point. The self-correction is important: he is scrupulous about not letting a characterisation of his views harden into a caricature. "Just idiotic" is one of the stronger epithets he applies to a policy framework in the corpus, and it is followed immediately by a structural explanation (Freedom House ratings, the EIU Democracy Index, the difficulty of drawing the line) rather than mere assertion. He is not against democracy promotion; he is against binary frameworks that substitute a moral division of the world for actual strategic analysis.

Correcting Blanchett on Xi's "system"¶

"Although Jude Blanchett is one of the experts I really listen to on China and I admire his work a lot, my sense is that the system she is talking about is not of the broader world division we saw during the Cold War or even the authoritarian Democracy contest many of our commentators currently see, but something that's more specific and endogenous to each country — that you'd have to speak Mandarin to know whether that was right or not."

— [00:08:39.160 --> 00:10:50.020]

A characteristic combination: genuine admiration for the scholar ("one of the experts I really listen to"), followed by a careful and precise disagreement. The Mandarin qualification at the close is not a deflection — it is Allan holding himself to his own epistemic standard: he cannot fully assess a Chinese-language text in translation and says so. He suspects the word "system" in Xi's usage refers to something internal and endogenous rather than a global ideological contest, which is a substantively different reading from Blanchett's. The intellectual honesty of "you'd have to speak Mandarin to know" is entirely consistent with his general practice of marking the limits of his own knowledge.

"Big claim, Darren… I encourage you"¶

"Big claim, Darren. Yeah, wait for the response to that one. I was surprised that you went as far as that. That's good. I encourage you."

— [00:17:20.380 --> 00:17:34.380]

Darren has just said "Welcome to multipolarity" as a summary of the Biden era. Allan signals mild disagreement — it is, he implies, too close to Beijing's own framing — but chooses encouragement over rebuttal. "I encourage you" is dry and generous simultaneously: he will not crush the argument but he is watching it carefully. The next exchange confirms his concern: "It's just something that the Chinese are saying relentlessly at the moment." He plants the flag without turning it into a debate.

Close reading Morrison's Olympic boycott — "that's a really far cry"¶

"He said, 'We have been very critical... the Chinese government has consistently not accepted those opportunities for us to meet about those issues. So it is not surprising, therefore, that Australian government officials would therefore not be going to China for those Games'... That's a really far cry from the White House Press Secretary's words that the US boycott was a reaction against 'the PRC's ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang and other human rights abuses'."

— [00:26:26.340 --> 00:29:46.500]

Classic Allan close reading: he quotes the PM exactly, then quotes the US statement exactly, then names the gap between them without editorialising further. The contrast does the work. He also notes the context of the press conference (called to discuss youth mental health in a Sydney high school, which "just sort of suddenly morphed into an Olympic boycott") and the absence of a separate press release. He has read the official text; he has checked the setting; he has compared it to allied equivalents. This is the analytical discipline of the intelligence assessor applied to public political communication.

"An informed and engaged public is the best way"¶

"If like me, you believe that an informed and engaged public is the best way of ensuring that we have a foreign policy and national security policy that works for our times, then I think the trajectory is heading in the wrong direction. I don't know what you can do about this trend except complain about it. But to bring us back to the beginning — in a Democracy, we can enthusiastically do that."

— [00:36:10.820 --> 00:38:35.420]

One of the plainest statements of Allan's animating belief in the corpus. The podcast itself is an application of this principle: the point is to inform and engage. "I don't know what you can do about this trend except complain about it" is honest about the limits of his influence — and the closing joke about democratic complaining is genuine, not merely rhetorical. The data he marshals is precise: Marise Payne gave 10 speeches in her first full year as Foreign Minister; Julie Bishop gave 80 in her last. That kind of empirical specificity — he clearly looked it up — is the mark of how seriously he takes the argument.

Payne vs Bishop — the speech count¶

"For whatever reason, we have a Foreign Minister who delivers far fewer speeches and makes far fewer statements than her predecessor — in Julie Bishop's last full year as Foreign Minister, she gave 80 speeches; Marise Payne gave 10 in her first full year."

— [00:36:10.820 --> 00:38:35.420]

The 80-to-10 comparison is the sharpest empirical claim in the episode and suggests Allan went and counted. It is not a partisan point — he frames it as a concern for the public record regardless of which party is in government. He also identifies structural causes for the decline (social media, the news cycle, the falling-off of parliament as a forum) rather than attributing everything to ministerial laziness. But the numbers are stark and he lets them stand.

4,000 Weeks — "the sort of workaholics who deliver and listen to this podcast"¶

"It's the time of the year to sit and reflect and gaze out at the sea. So it's time, I think, for Oliver Burkeman's 4,000 Weeks: Time and How to Use It. 4,000 weeks turns out to be a normal human lifetime. And Burkeman, who's a British journalist, draws entertainingly and usefully on many different philosophical traditions to reflect on the good life and the importance of understanding that we can't do everything. And I think that's an especially good message for the sort of workaholics who deliver and listen to this podcast."

— [00:40:41.540 --> 00:41:23.580]

The "workaholics who deliver and listen to this podcast" is Allan's self-implicating joke — he places himself first in the category. Darren immediately confirms it: "You, Allan." Allan's response — "Thank you" — is a single two-word acceptance of the teasing. The recommendation itself belongs to a type that appears once a year in the corpus: the end-of-year stepping-back book, chosen not for policy content but for philosophical reflection on how to live and work. "Gaze out at the sea" is the only spatial-relaxation image in the corpus so far — a small window onto what rest might look like for him.

Biographical Fragments¶

Evidence type: New

Space launch company — Allan spent "a couple of years" working with a company run by a Korean Australian that was a space launch company. He enjoyed it and found it "a fun place to be around." Timing unconfirmed but likely the 1996–2003 gap or post-ONA (~2013/14 onward). This is the first confirmed private-sector employment outside government and think-tank roles. (Ep089)

Evidence type: Reinforcing

Workaholic — Darren explicitly tags Allan as a workaholic in response to the 4,000 Weeks recommendation. Allan accepts it without objection. Consistent with his intensive output of writing, speaking, podcasting, and AIIA commitments. (Ep089)
Close reader of official texts — Allan quotes Morrison's Olympic boycott press conference verbatim, having evidently read the transcript carefully and compared it to the US statement. Consistent with his general practice of treating speeches as primary sources. (Ep089)
Empirical researcher — He has the Payne/Bishop speech count (10 vs 80) ready, implying he went and checked. Consistent with his habit of citing precise figures when making evaluative claims. (Ep089)

Style and Method Evidence¶

"But that's another story": opens a biographical door and declines to walk through it — characteristic Allan move when personal detail is incidental to the analytical point being made.
"I don't think I've ever claimed": intellectual record-keeping; he is careful about how his views have been characterised, and corrects mischaracterisations of his own positions.
"Just idiotic": rare use of strong dismissal, reserved for frameworks that substitute moral categorisation for analytical rigour. Compare "razzle-dazzle PR drama" (Ep087) and "dud deal and a dud contract" (Ep087).
"You'd have to speak Mandarin to know": marks the limits of what he can assess from translation; intellectual honesty about the reach of his own competence.
"Big claim, Darren… I encourage you": the dry pedagogical register — not quite endorsing, not quite rebutting, watching to see where the argument goes.
Speech counting: he has checked the data (80 vs 10); the empirical specificity is itself an argument.
"Thank you" (to Darren's "You, Allan"): two words accepting a joke about himself, without deflection. Warmth without performance.
Season close: "have a happy and a safe Christmas, Darren, and the same to all our listeners" — the warmth is simple and unadorned.

Reading, Listening and Watching¶

Allan — Oliver Burkeman, 4,000 Weeks: Time and How to Use It

"It's the time of the year to sit and reflect and gaze out at the sea. So it's time, I think, for Oliver Burkeman's 4,000 Weeks: Time and How to Use It. 4,000 weeks turns out to be a normal human lifetime. And Burkeman, who's a British journalist, draws entertainingly and usefully on many different philosophical traditions to reflect on the good life and the importance of understanding that we can't do everything. And I think that's an especially good message for the sort of workaholics who deliver and listen to this podcast."

— [00:40:41.540 --> 00:41:23.580]

Burkeman's book is a meditation on finitude and the impossibility of doing everything, drawing on Stoic, Buddhist, existentialist, and other traditions. Allan is drawn to the philosophical breadth ("many different philosophical traditions") and to the central lesson: that acknowledging what we cannot do is not defeat but wisdom. The recommendation arrives at the end of the year, described as a time "to sit and reflect and gaze out at the sea" — one of the very few moments in the corpus where Allan describes, however briefly, what rest and reflection look like for him. The self-implicating workaholic joke confirms the book is as much a prescription for himself as a recommendation for listeners. Compare with The National (Ep020), where he identified with an album about exhaustion; the two recommendations form a small pattern of Allan acknowledging, at year's end or at points of stress, the cost of sustained intensity.

Open Questions¶

The space launch company: "a couple of years" working with a Korean Australian–run space launch company. When? The 1996–2003 gap is the most likely window, but the post-ONA period (~2013/14 to ~2018) cannot be ruled out. Is this company traceable? Were there Australian space launch ventures in the late 1990s with Korean Australian principals?
"Gaze out at the sea" — where does Allan spend Christmas? He is based in Canberra (landlocked) but Victoria is his home state. Does any other episode place him at the coast at year's end?
His correction of Blanchett's reading of Xi's "system" language — does he return to this distinction in later episodes as the competition-of-systems framing becomes more mainstream in Australian policy discourse?
The Payne (10 speeches) vs Bishop (80 speeches) data — does Allan return to DFAT's public communication deficit once the Albanese government appoints Penny Wong as Foreign Minister? Does Wong's speech output change his assessment?
"In a Democracy, we can enthusiastically complain" — is this the clearest statement Allan makes of the podcast's purpose as a democratic act? Does he return to the public-communication theme in the lead-up to the 2022 election?