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Addressing the Australian Parliament, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the world sees Australia at the cross-currents of the dynamic Asia Pacific and Indian Ocean region, and he welcomes our nation’s growing role “in driving this region’s prosperity and shaping its security”.

The US ‘pivot’ to Asia adds an extra dimension to the potential for forging mutually beneficial relationships, and the UWA-based Perth USAsia Centre is working to advance this confluence of interests. “The stars are aligned,” says the Centre’s CEO Gordon Flake, a phenomenal networker who is bringing together “the best of the best” from governments in the region, the private sector and academia.

Gordon Flake was raised on the isolated Navajo Indian reservation in Arizona where his father was a school teacher, but he always set his sights on the world beyond the desert and beyond the United States. As a 19-year-old completing his freshman year at college, his future career began to be shaped by two years spent as a missionary in South Korea. It was 1986 and South Korea’s dramatic democratisation movement was gathering force.

“I was exposed to the amazing demonstrations on campuses and in the streets across Korea – inhaling enough tear gas to last a lifetime!” recalls the CEO. “There was this surge of people power plus international pressure – even threats to withdraw the ’88 Seoul Olympics – so I witnessed the transition from military to democratic rule and a country on the cusp of becoming one of the ‘tiger’ economies.

“I learned the language rapidly because I was speaking it night and day on the streets – the best language program in the world. I came away with a deep love of the language and culture, and a determination to become a Korea specialist.”

Returning to Utah’s Brigham Young University to complete his Masters at the David M. Kennedy Centre for International Studies, he then headed to Washington DC with his wife and baby daughter.

“I pounded the pavements for two months, getting to know everyone who had anything to do with Korea – so they knew I was good at networking and I was hungry!” he recalls. “The result was three job offers, and the one I took was with a Washington think tank, the Korea Economic Institute. Today I joke that after 23 years in Washington and jobs at two other institutions I’ve never had a ‘real’ job – I’m a professional think tanker! While think tanks aren’t academic, government, military or private sector institutions, they interact at the intersection of all of the above. Essentially, their role is to inform and enhance relationships, to bring sectors together in synergistic programs, so one plus one is more than two.

“To do this well you need issue expertise, a wide knowledge of global economies and geopolitics – plus those networking skills. Fundamentally, you’re building and maintaining networks of key players, bringing them together for mutually beneficial projects and programs that move an issue forward.”

While the United States has a plethora of think tanks and study centres, Australia is less versed in the way they operate. However, judging by the response to the US Study Centre at the University of Sydney in 2006 and the 2013 launch of the Perth USAsia Centre, their value is now widely appreciated.

The US Study Centre in Sydney was born out of concern that, while Africa, Asia and China study centres existed in Australia, no such establishment enhanced the close US/Australia relationship. The American Australian Association took the initiative, working with the Howard Government to create a centre with academic rigour.

Following a strategic review in 2011, a second centre was planned based on the same model but focussed on US/Australia/Asia economic and security links. Clearly the out-dated notion of our capital city’s ‘isolation’ didn’t rate a second thought when determining the centre’s location.

“The most obvious location was Perth – Australia’s Indo-Pacific Capital – and when this University took the initiative of hosting the centre, it happened,” says Mr Flake.

With the fanfare and media generated by a visit from then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the concept of the Perth USAsia Centre was launched at UWA in November 2012 and the following year Gordon Flake was appointed after a global search for a CEO.

“One of the core requirements for establishing a global think tank like this is a critical mass of strategic, global thinkers,” explains Mr Flake. “Given WA‘s strong international links, vibrant corporate sector and orientation toward Asia, it quickly became clear to me that this State is blessed with strategic thinkers in spades – in government, academia and leading resource companies – and they’re deeply integrated with Asia and led by professionals who are the best of the best.

“I’m delighted these amazing people are already involved in our programs, taking advantage of what we do. For instance, with the leadership of Foreign Minister Julie Bishop we sought to contribute to understanding the informal grouping of Mexico, Indonesia, South Korea, Turkey and Australia (MIKTA), and the Centre published a second report by Elena Douglas entitled Smart Power – MIKTA narratives, prosperity, persuasion and projection and went on to host MIKTA workshops in Seoul, Washington and Jakarta.”

The centre’s CEO finds it hard to believe that a year ago, with his current office under construction, the Perth USAsia Centre was, in his words, a blank slate (“no mailing list, database, program template and nothing on the calendar”). It says a lot about his can-do attitude and the enthusiasm of his staff that in 2014 the centre held 58 events and published four major publications.

And at the start of 2015 the calendar already has over 60 planned events. A recent highlight was the May In the Zone conference and the announcement that distinguished guest Indonesia’s former President, Doctor Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, has become a Visiting Fellow at the Centre as well as a Visiting Professor at UWA.

The 2015 program brings to UWA ambassadors, politicians and business leaders for events from the popular Big Think Breakfasts and Ambassadors’ Dialogue Series to an Australia-Singapore Leadership Dialogue.

The Perth USAsia Centre is funded by UWA and the State and Federal Governments and key corporate partners such as Rio Tinto. It selects 50 students each year to participate in exchanges with UCLA in California and in internships in Los Angeles and Washington. The centre plans to extend its scholarships to encompass Indonesia and China.

For details of its 2015 program visit: perthusasia.edu.au