Dr Honae Cuffe is a Research Officer at the Australia and New Zealand School of Government, in the Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National University, where she contributes to a range of projects seeking to connect public servants in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand with the rigorous and practical public policy and administration research.

Working with Professor Ariadne Vromen and Dr Patrick Brownlee, Honae is currently leading a one-year research project that aims to determine the best practice approaches to knowledge brokering for research-informed public sector reform. It will include desk-based research, interviews, case study analysis, and research dissemination activities. The project will contribute to a better understanding of the research-practice gap and provide advice on how and where brokering can add the greatest value.

Honae holds a PhD in History from the University of Newcastle, where her research explored Australia’s foreign policy tradition from the interwar period until the early Cold War, focusing on the channels pursued by Australia to integrate national interests within the strategic outlooks of both regional powers and powerful friends, and the parallels in contemporary affairs.

Honae has worked in public history, teaching, and research roles across the public service and university sector.

Publications

Books

Honae Cuffe, The Genesis of a Policy: Defining and Defending Australia’s National Interest in the Asia-Pacific, 1921–57 (Canberra: ANU Press, 2021)

Book Chapters

Honae Cuffe, “Plans for Peace, Fears of War: Defending Australia in 1919,” eds. Carolyn Holbrook and Keir Reeves, The Great War: Aftermath and Commemoration (Sydney: NewSouth, 2019)

Scholarly Articles

Honae Cuffe, “Bridging Australia and Japan, Volume 2: The Writings of David Sissons, Historian and Political Scientist,” Australian Historical Studies 52, no. 1 (2021): 135–7

Honae H. Cuffe, “‘a carefully weighed plan with adequate safeguards for us’: Economic Policy and the Coordination of Australian-US Approaches to Japanese Aggression, 1939–41,” Australian Journal of Politics and History 66, no. 2 (2020): 200-13

Honae H. Cuffe, “Lend Me Your Ears: The Rise of the History Podcast in Australia,” History Australia 16, no. 3 (2019): 553–69

Honae H. Cuffe, “The Limits of Empire: Australia, Eastern Appeasement and the Drift to War in the Pacific, 1937–41,” History Australia 15, no. 4 (2018): 766–84

Honae Cuffe, Kerry Plunkett, Dianne Rayson and Michele Seah, “Constellations: NewMac 2016,” Humanity (2017): 1–4

Honae H. Cuffe. “The ‘Near North’: Issues of Empire, Emerging Independence and Regionalism in Australian Foreign and Defence Policy, 1921-1937,” Flinders Journal of History and Politics 31 (2015): 49–75

Reports

Honae Cuffe, Operation Bushfire Assist 2019-2020: The Royal Australian Navy’s Role and Response, Sea Power Series Paper 6, 2020, Sea Power Centre – Australia, Department of Defence, Commonwealth of Australia

Other Publications

Honae Cuffe, 7 September 2022, “Why outcomes-focused budgeting won’t work without adaptive leadership,” ANZSOG, https://anzsog.edu.au/news/outcomes-focused-budgeting-adaptive-leadership/

Honae Cuffe, 5 July 2022, “Book review – The secrets of emu field: Britain’s forgotten atomic tests in Australia,” Australian Policy and History Network, https://aph.org.au/2022/07/book-review-the-secrets-of-emu-field-britains...

Laura Davy and Honae Cuffe 18 May 2022,”Young people on care: A call for change,” Policy Forum, https://www.policyforum.net/young-people-on-care/

Honae Cuffe, 21 January 2022, “The Manchurian crisis and the genesis of Australian foreign policy,” ASPI Strategist, https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/the-manchurian-crisis-and-the-genesis-...

Honae Cuffe, “History in the making: AUKUS, allyship and the 1957 Defence Review,” 13 December 2021, The Interpreter, https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/history-making-aukus-allys...

Honae Cuffe, “Historical consciousness is key to good policy-making,” 8 December 2021, Policy Forum, https://www.policyforum.net/historical-consciousness-is-key-to-good-poli...

Honae Cuffe, “The Suez Canal: Its History and Significance,” Semaphore, Sea Power Centre Australia, 4 April 2021, https://www.navy.gov.au/media-room/publications/semaphore-04-21

Honae Cuffe, “The Washington Naval Conference and Australia’s Regional Security,” Semaphore, Sea Power Centre Australia, 3 March 2021, https://www.navy.gov.au/media-room/publications/semaphore-03-21

Honae Cuffe and Anna Kent, “Briefing Note: Australia’s International Broadcasting and Soft Power,” 6 November 2018, Australian Policy and History Blog, https://aph.org.au/2018/11/australias-international-broadcasting-and-sof...

Honae Cuffe, “The 1936 Trade Diversion Policy – China, the United States and Australia: A Balancing Act in Retrospect,” 4 July 2018, Australian Policy and History Blog, https://aph.org.au/2018/07/the-1936-trade-diversion-policy-china-the-uni...

Honae Cuffe, “Fears about China’s influence are a rerun of attitudes to Japan 80 years ago,” 3 July 2018, The Conversation, https://theconversation.com/fears-about-chinas-influence-are-a-rerun-of-...

Awards, Grants and Subsidies

2021 PhD Excellence Prize, Cluster of Historical, Cultural and Critical Inquiry, University of Newcastle

2021 International Australian Studies Association Early Career Researcher Publication Subsidy Scheme

2021 Australian Academy of the Humanities Publication Subsidy

2018 Australian Historical Association–Copyright Agency Travel and Writing Bursary