Kevin Rudd in conversation

The Honourable Kevin Rudd AC. Mr Rudd was first elected as Prime Minister in 2007. Early initiatives of his government were the signing of the Kyoto Protocol, A Parliamentary Apology to the Stolen Generations, and the 2020 Summit. During the term of his government Labor also managed to keep Australia out of recession, despite the Global Financial Crisis, as well as commencing the roll-out of the National Broadband Network and the introduction of nationwide early childhood education, amongst many other programs. Since leaving office Mr Rudd has written two volumes of his autobiography but has also stayed active in politics. He is senior fellow of the JFK School of Government at Harvard where he leads research into US-China relations. In addition he is the chair of numerous boards such as the International Peace Initiative. He is the current president of the Asia Society. Now, when, last year, we first invited Mr Rudd to Outspoken it was to speak about his timely pamphlet, The Case for Courage, a call, no, an exhortation, for resistance to the egregious and ubiquitous power of News Corp, but also a commensurate call for a revitalisation of Australia on many different fronts; a shout-out to the Labor party to not just propose policies for a better, fairer Australia but also to tear down the myths of the Liberal party as the natural party of government, to stop shying away from giving them the criticism they deserve for the corruption and destruction of the norms of government that have occurred on their watch. Well, several months passed, and now he’s here to talk about The Avoidable War, an extraordinary work which really should be required reading for every politician in the western world, regardless of affiliation. Lots of books get called important. This one really is, because of its depth of geopolitical understanding, but also because of the case it puts for avoiding war.