We have to be able to build a society in which we can peacefully disagree with each other and build bridges rather than walls so as to benefit from each other's experience and enrich us collectively as opposed to just a portion of us.

My name is John Renouf I'm a lecturer in politics and international relations here at Southern  Cross University and over the past 15 years I have been working as an international aid worker and as a researcher in complex environments.

I spent a few years working in places like Afghanistan, Iraq, North Korea, Congo, Yemen, Haiti etc. etc.

I believe that nowadays is more than any time in history it is critically important to understand what's happening at a global level. What's happening in New York what's happening in Syria what's happening in China is affecting us in Australia.

So I'm trying to bring in those global events into the classroom through analysing them, understanding them using concepts using theory but also real-life, real people's experiences in order to shed some clarity on these complex matters.

If you want to make sense of what's happening out there if you want to have a positive impact on the planet, on people's lives everywhere, you need to understand how the world works.

If you like travelling if you like interacting with people from other cultures if you're open to learning and studying international relations will bring you all of these.