Michael Wesley talks to Nick Feik about his timely new Quarterly Essay, Blind Spot - Southeast Asia and Australia’s Future and why our nearest neighbours might be our most important foreign relations in coming years.

Michael Wesley is Professor of Politics and Deputy Vice Chancellor at the University of Melbourne and was formerly head of the Lowy Institute and dean of ANU's College of Asia and the Pacific. His books include There Goes the Neighbourhood: Australia and the Rise of Asia, and Mind of the Nation: Universities in Australian Life.