National Security At The Breakfast Table With General Peter Cosgrove

ABC Celebrates 50 Years of Boyer Lectures

The 50th anniversary series of the Boyer Lectures will be presented by General Peter Cosgrove AC MC (Retired), commencing with a live presentation at the ABC's Ultimo Centre today.

General Cosgrove's Boyer Lecture series, entitled A Very Australian Conversation, includes six lectures focusing on national security, the politics of 'ordinary' Australians and important challenges facing our country's - and global - future.

In his first lecture 'National Security at the breakfast table?', General Cosgrove makes mention of all the wars that we have been involved in since WW2, and their place in the Australian psyche. They might have been considered other people's wars, but we knew intuitively that they were ours as well. Australian's are willing to commit their young men and women if the stakes are high enough, even if our own immediate welfare is not under threat. What is it exactly that 'ordinary Australians' understand about war? And what does that mean for our national security in an increasingly complex, interconnected world? General Cosgrove tells it as he knows it.

Subsequent lectures are titled:
Lecture 2: Australia's Regional Relationships
Lecture 3: Leading in Australia
Lecture 4: The Politics of Ordinary Australians
Lecture 5: From Nino Cullotta to Hazem El Masri
Lecture 6: Australia's Future: Paying it Forward

General Cosgrove's address will be recorded in front of a live audience at the ABC's Ultimo Centre and heard first on ABC Radio National's Big Ideas at 5pm. The lectures will also be available as transcripts, audio on demand and to download to computer and mp3 player at abc.net.au/rn/boyerlectures. ABC Fora will televise the first lecture on 19 November at 5.30pm on ABC2. ABC Books will publish the collected lectures in early-2010.

The Boyer Lectures is a series of talks by prominent Australians chosen by the ABC Board to present ideas on major social, scientific or cultural issues. Since 1959 the lectures have been broadcast on ABC Radio National and have stimulated thought, discussion and debate in Australia on an astonishing range of subjects great minds examining issues and values.

A complete list of previous speakers and lecture titles is available here.

Media contact and for a copy of the first Boyer Lecture transcript,

Contact Nicola Fern,
Marketing Manager ABC Radio National,
Telephone: 0418 494 252

SOURCE: ABC Radio National