Kevin Rudd was the Prime Minister of Australia from 2007–2010 and in 2013. He was also the nation's foreign minister between 2010 and 2012. After leaving government, Rudd became a senior fellow at the Kennedy School at Harvard University, where he researched U.S.-China relations. In 2015, he became president of the Asia Society Policy Institute. Today, he is the president and CEO of the Asia Society, and based in New York. Rudd graduated from the Australian National University and is fluent in Mandarin. In this lightly edited interview from late March, we discussed Ukraine, Xi Jinping and his recently published book, "The Avoidable War: the Dangers of a Catastrophic Conflict between the U.S and Xi Jinping's China."
Kevin Rudd.Illustration by Lauren Crow
Q: In the wake of the joint statement made by Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping in Beijing in February, followed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and what would appear to be Beijing’s tacit support of Putin, how should the world