Presentation by Dr Richard Herr
Royal Society Room
Tuesday, 4th August 2009 Commencing 8.00pm until 10.00pm
Political Scientist
About the Speaker
Professor Richard Herr taught at the University of Tasmania for more than thirty-five years and has held a variety of positions including Head of Department before he retired in July 2008. He is now an Honorary Research Associate in the School of Government. He currently holds adjunct professorial positions at the University of Fiji and at the Fiji Institute of Technology. He earned a PhD in Political Science from Duke University in the United States and, during his academic career, he has published extensively on aspects of South Pacific affairs. In addition to his academic work, Prof. Herr has an active parallel career in consultancy and community affairs. He has also undertaken 11 international consultancies for the regional organisations and governments of the South Pacific. He was awarded an Order of Australia Medal on the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in June 2007 “for service to higher education in the field of political science, as a commentator on national and international political issues, and to the community.”
Brief Abstract of the Talk
Australia has played a central role in the regional system of the Pacific Islands since it promoted the formation of the South Pacific Commission in 1947. With the end of the Cold War in 1989 Canberra, along with many other donors, has attempted to include good governance reform as a part of their aid-related objectives. This aim intensified in the post-9/11 era of the so-called
