Cain Roberts

I am currently completing a PhD at the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne.

My research is understanding the advantages of applying public policy frameworks when analysing foreign policy. I believe this approach may be analytically useful particularly when we consider that the foreign policy making process in Australia centralises decision making power in the executive yet at the same time, the policy environment in which foreign policy decisions need to be made is increasingly complex.

This complexity brings a series of domestic based policy actors into play, particularly in the non-traditional areas of foreign policy such as the international environment, human rights and transnational crime. It is the relationship between these domestic actors, the executive and the structures of foreign policy making in Australia that is at the core of my research.