Experience Anu

The European project was an attempt to pursue a strategic objective by economic means: continental peace by way of coal and steel. More than 60 years on, if measured against that original set of goalposts, it has been a successful project. Indeed, the lure of European peace and prosperity has been so attractive that the EU has grown dramatically in the last two decades. Yet Europe has many detractors, who point to the challenges of monetary without fiscal union and responding to Russian aggression as failures of the supra-national model initiated by Robert Schuman. What lessons can Australia’s region, the Indo-Pacific, draw from the European experiment. Mr Varghese took up his position as Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade on 3 December 2012. Prior to this appointment, Mr Varghese was Australia’s High Commissioner to India from 2009 to 2012. Between 2004 and 2009, he was Director-General of the Office of National Assessments. Before that he was the Senior Adviser (International) to the