Understanding Australia's Foreign Policy

Deepen your understanding of the complex foreign policy environment and how to be agile and adaptable in advancing Australia’s interests internationally with our Understanding Australia’s Foreign Policy online course.

This is a 4-week, interactive, self-paced course, will give you a clear sense of the international and domestic operating environments in which foreign policy is developed and delivered; and the role you play in working across whole of government to deliver good policy.

Bringing together staff from DFAT’s global network and other Australian agencies working on international issues, this course looks at how policy is developed as it makes its way though the machinery of government and explores the key skills you need to provide excellent advice and help ensure Australian Foreign Policy is delivered successfully.

The 2023 iterations of this course have been updated to reflect the new Government and their priorities. They also feature video input from a number of significant Government figures – you will have to attend to find out who!

This course will be delivered three times in 2023:

• 6 March – 2 April
• 22 May – 18 June
• 14 August – 10 September

Learners will need to commit to approximately 6 hours of study per week.

Innovative delivery method

Understanding Australian Foreign Policy is delivered as a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) and is an interactive and immersive learning experience where learners engage directly with learning instructors and peers.

Different to a standard online course, MOOC participants are encouraged to provide input and comments in our open forums which promote rigorous exchange and debate, adding to the richness of the learning opportunity.

Visit Understanding Australia’s Foreign Policy on Lumi, our Learning Management System, to learn more or enrol today!

If you don’t have a Lumi account, register for one using your .gov.au email address.

Working as a Multilateral Diplomat

If multilateral diplomacy is more your thing, check out our Working as a Multilateral Diplomat course.