Lecture: Niro Kandasamy on Indian Ocean Entanglements

The post-9/11 ‘War on Terror’ remains central to determining security outcomes across the world. Within this shifting landscape, Australia has positioned itself as both a regional peacebuilder in the Indian Ocean and enforcer of border control, acting as a supporter of postwar ‘reconstruction’ efforts in Sri Lanka while simultaneously deterring asylum seekers and refugees fleeing that same violence.

In this talk, historian Niro Kandasamy situates Christopher Kulendran Thomas’s Safe Zone within the Australian context by uncovering the longer history of Australia’s security relations with the Sri Lankan state and its citizens. The Australian government and diaspora communities have together shaped the island’s political and humanitarian outcomes through key motivations: colonial legacies, the Cold War, natural resources, and unsevered family and community ties. Drawing on examples from United Nations peace efforts to refugee activism, the talk brings much needed historical perspective to Australia’s engagement with our Indian Ocean neighbour and the enduring entanglements that link the two countries.

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