The Centre for International Governance and Justice (CIGJ) hosts a vibrant community of scholars dedicated to the study of complex and interconnected 21st century challenges.

The Centre was established in 2005 by Professor Hilary Charlesworth. During her tenure as director, CIGJ was home to Hilary’s ARC Federation Fellowship on ‘Building Democracy and Justice after Conflict’ and Laureate Fellowship on ‘Strengthening the International Human Rights System: Rights, Regulation and Ritualism’, along with a host of other research projects, including ‘Peacebuilding Compared’.

In 2021, Hilary was appointed as a Judge to the International Court of Justice and Professor Anthea Roberts became the new director of CIGJ.

Drawing together a range of scholars at RegNet and beyond, CIGJ is currently focusing on three areas:

• Geoeconomics through the ANU Geoeconomics Working Group (GWG)
• Complexity and Resilience (CR)
• Conflict, Violence and Justice (CVJ)

Scholars in each node meet regularly to explore new topics and exchange ideas.

• GWG hosts bimonthly meetings online
• CR hosts bimonthly reading groups
• CVJ hosts bimonthly reading groups

If you are interested in signing up for these meetings and reading groups, please email the centre’s Project Officer, Aishwarya (aishwarya.aishwarya@anu.edu.au) to be included in our mailing lists.

Geoeconomics Working Group (GWG)

The GWG node is the institutional home for geoeconomics and focuses on the increased convergence of economics fields (such as trade, investment and technology) and security risks.

Accelerated by intensifying US-China rivalry, the world is witnessing a greater focus on relative economic gains and heightened concerns about the security risks posed by economic and digital interdependence. This geoeconomic competition is also evolving into a struggle for technological leadership, creating the growing prospect of bifurcated technology ecosystems. These shifts are leading to a significant restructuring of the institutions that govern international trade and investment, as well as posing new and challenging dilemmas for policymakers seeking to balance economic and security priorities.

This node evaluates the risks at the nexus of economics, security and technology, and explores strategies for building resilience and developing integrated policymaking responses.

GWG is currently home to the following projects:

• ‘Navigating the Emerging Geoeconomic Order: Integrating Economics, Security and Technology’
• Australian Defence Department grant funded project on ‘Navigating the Emerging Geo-Economic Order: Integrating Economics, Security and Collective Defence through 2040’
• National Foundation for Australia China Relations grant on ‘Engaging with private sector on the intersection of economics, security and technology’
• DFAT grant on ‘The geoeconomics of critical technology standards in Southeast Asia’
• Defence Strategic Policy Grant funded project on ‘Disruptive technologies: Model-based scenario analysis of decarbonisation and national security risks in the Indo-Pacific’
• RegNet funded seed project on ‘Change and continuation in global governance in a contested world’
• CIW Research Support Grant on ‘Measuring and mapping the health of the Australia-China relationship’

Complexity and Resilience (CR)

The CR node brings together scholars and practitioners who are exploring new methods for understanding and engaging in complex systems, as well as developing new approaches to governing in a complex and uncertain world.

In the 21st century, humanity is facing complex and interconnected risks stemming from climate change, pandemics, rising inequality, and great power rivalry. These cannot be understood or managed from the perspectives of a single discipline as domains, that were previously kept relatively separate, are now colliding. Governance regimes at the national, regional and global scales are multiplying, fragmenting, and overlapping in a bid to grapple with these challenges.

Understanding these dilemmas requires integrative thinking and multidisciplinary approaches. Faced with increasing complexity and uncertainty, resilience thinking is also becoming more influential in policy-making and governance. This node focuses on developing new frameworks, tools and techniques for approaching complexity and resilience.

CR is currently home to the following projects:

• ‘Governing in Complexity’
• Work on a new Risk, Rewards, and Resilience framework
• ARC funded project on ‘Community Rulemaking in the Pacific as Regulatory Innovation’
• DFAT funded project on Reforming the Investment Treaty System
• ‘Dragonfly Thinking’ book project by Anthea Roberts
• RegNet funded seed project on ‘Critical Systems Thinking, Adaptive Governance, Complexity and Change’

Conflict, Violence and Justice (CVJ)

The CVJ node draws together scholars from multiple disciplines who engage with the drivers and inhibitors of diverse forms of violence and conflict around the globe. The contemporary era is characterised by volatility, ambiguity and uncertainty, which generates new forms of violence and conflict and amplifies existing ones. Scholars in this node interrogate the pursuit of justice, order-making and peacebuilding under these shifting social and political conditions, both within and beyond formal institutions. As a problem-driven research collaboration, they seek to uncover and promote the burgeoning innovation across multiple scales to prevent and respond to the harms caused by violence and conflict.

CVJ draws together scholars working on a range of themes including political violence, the far right, grievances, inclusion and exclusion, extremist attacks, post-conflict peacebuilding and state-building, transitional justice, reconciliation, memory politics, violence in Melanesia, global human rights law and transnational legal phenomena.

CVJ is currently home to the following projects:

• ARC funded project on ‘Peacebuilding Compared’
• ARC Future Fellowship Project on ‘Local Responses to Missing Persons and Post-Conflict Peacebuilding’
• ARC Discovery Project on ‘Heritage and Reconciliation’
• DFAT funded project on ‘Overcoming Sorcery Accusation related violence’
• ARC Discovery Project on ‘Democratic Resilience: The Public Sphere and Extremist Attacks’
• ‘Extreme Far Right and the Mainstream in Australia’
• ‘Translating Global Human Rights Law into Local Justice’