A/Prof Danielle Chubb2, Prof. Maria Rost Rublee1, Natasha Karner3
1University of Melbourne, Australia, 2Deakin University, Australia, 3RMIT, Australia
Biography:
Danielle Chubb is an Associate Professor of International Relations at Deakin University. She has authored books on Australian public opinion and foreign policy, transnational activism, and inter-Korean relations. Maria Rost Rublee is Professor of International Relations at the University of Melbourne, with expertise in international security, nuclear politics, social psychology and norms, and gender and diversity in national security. Natasha Karner is a PhD candidate at RMIT University and a Junior Associate Fellow at NATO Defence College. She specializes in emerging technologies and global security, with a particular interest in Autonomous Weapons Systems (AWS) and Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Abstract:
This paper scrutinises public attitudes towards AUKUS and examines the interaction of public debate with these attitudes, including questions of social license. Drawing on what we know about public opinion from polling on attitudes towards the US alliance, China, and nuclear technology, the paper then turns its attention to the interaction of these attitudes with the broader domestic political debate, interrogating whether the landscape of public discussion has laid a fertile ground for informed attitudes on these issues, particularly around the siting of nuclear facilities.