Lowy Institute

What is the strategy driving Donald Trump's assertive use of American power? In the 2026 Owen Harries Lecture, former US Deputy Secretary of State Stephen E Biegun offers a frank insider's assessment of President Trump's foreign policy across both his first and second terms. He discusses President Trump's reorientation of US policy toward China, the Abraham Accords, his efforts to maximise pressur...

Australia's cultural and strategic ties lie in the Western world and its economic links are overwhelmingly in North Asia. So what is Southeast Asia to Australia? Why does the region matter, and what should Australia do to overcome its long-sightedness? Michael Wesley is one of Australia's most incisive observers of world affairs. On Wednesday 18 March 2026, he joined the Lowy Institute's Sam Rogge...

Lowy Institute Lead Economist Roland Rajah and Nonresident Fellow Jenny Gordon discuss the economic implications of the expanding conflict in Iran. They put recent events in context, unpacking how we should understand and address the ongoing geoeconomic shocks.  More episodes of the Lowy Institute's podcasts are available on your favourite podcast apps, including  Spotify ,  YouTube...

To mark International Women’s Day, Lowy Institute fellows Susannah Patton and Serena Sasingian speak with Lydia Khalil in a wide-ranging discussion on women in international relations. They explore how gender equality strategies fit into realist power politics, how the global rise of “strongman” politics is threatening hard-won gains for women worldwide, and the relationship betw...

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney visited the Lowy Institute in Sydney for a special event on Wednesday 4 March 2026. Speaking at a moment of acute global uncertainty, Prime Minister Carney reiterated his argument that the rules-based international order is not in transition but in rupture, and that middle powers like Canada and Australia cannot afford to wait for it to be restored. He outlined...

What went wrong with America's China strategy — and can it be fixed?  In this Lowy Institute event, former US Assistant Secretary of Defense Ely Ratner traces America's long evolution from engagement to strategic competition. He delivers a pointed assessment of where the Trump administration has departed from that trajectory, and he sets out the implications for US allies, including Aus...

After barely a month, the year 2026 is already setting a bewildering geo-political pace. A presidential snatch-and-grab raid in Venezuela, anti-government riots in Iran, a fight over Greenland and a military upheaval in China have all buttressed Canadian Prime Minister, Mark Carney’s claim that the emerging new global order is a rupture, not a transition. Hear from a panel of Lowy Institute...

It has been just over a year since the Trump administration's dramatic cuts to America's foreign aid budget and the shuttering of USAID. With other major donors also slashing their aid programs — potentially causing 22 million additional avoidable deaths by 2030 — what does this mean for Australia's development efforts? A new OECD review of Australia's aid program provides a timely opp...

On 3 December, the Institute welcomed Senator Tim Ayres, Minister for Industry and Innovation and Minister for Science, to Bligh Street to launch the Australian Government’s National AI Plan. His speech outlined how we can harness the opportunities of AI, spread the benefits across society, and keep Australians safe. More episodes of the Lowy Institute's podcasts are available on your favour...

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney delivered a frank and impassioned speech at this year's World Economic Forum at Davos. He argued that in an era of great power competition, middle powers can no longer afford to maintain the fiction of a rules-based order. While never calling out President Trump by name, Carney highlighted the broader “rupture" in the global order. Speaking with the Lowy I...

Troy Bramston is a senior writer at The Australian and author of the new biography Gough Whitlam: The Vista of the New — the first comprehensive biography of Australia's 21st prime minister since his death in 2014. Drawing on newly opened archives and more than 100 interviews, Bramston offers fresh insights into one of the most consequential periods in Australian history. Speaking with the L...

Professor Cynthia Miller-Idriss is a globally recognised expert on violent extremism and prevention, based at American University in Washington, DC. She is the author of a new book, Man Up: The New Misogyny and the Rise of Violent Extremism , which explores how misogyny is driving a surge in extremist violence throughout the West. Speaking with the Lowy Institute's Lydia Khalil, Professor Miller-I...

As part of the Lowy Institute Recast series, we are republishing the best podcasts of 2025. In case you missed them the first time around or if you want revisit these engaging conversations, the Recast series has you covered. US Senator Chris Coons joined the Lowy Institute's Executive Director Dr Michael Fullilove at the Institute's Bligh Street headquarters for a special episode of Lowy Institut...

As part of the Lowy Institute Recast series, we are republishing the best podcasts of 2025. In case you missed them the first time around or if you want revisit these engaging conversations, the Recast series has you covered. Understanding Xi Jinping and what drives him has become a global cottage industry. According to US China scholar Joseph Torigian, one of the keys to understanding Xi Jinping...

As part of the Lowy Institute Recast series, we are republishing the best podcasts of 2025. In case you missed them the first time around or if you want revisit these engaging conversations, the Recast series has you covered. In this episode, Edward Luce,  Financial Times  columnist and author of Zbig , a new biography of US President Jimmy Carter’s national security adviser Zbigni...

As part of the Lowy Institute Recast series, we are republishing the best podcasts of 2025. In case you missed them the first time around or if you want revisit these engaging conversations, the Recast series has you covered. Last year, reports emerged of Russia seeking to base military aircraft at Indonesia’s Manuhua Airforce Base. While the request was rejected by Indonesia, it raises a br...

As part of the Lowy Institute Recast series, we are republishing the best podcasts of 2025. In case you missed them the first time around or if you want revisit these engaging conversations, the Recast series has you covered. Lowy Institute Senior Fellow Richard McGregor talks with American sinologist Professor David Shambaugh about his latest book, Breaking the Engagement, which charts the rise a...

As part of the Lowy Institute Recast series, we are republishing the best podcasts of 2025. In case you missed them the first time around or if you want revisit these engaging conversations, the Recast series has you covered. In this episode, host Lydia Khalil speaks with former US Ambassador and Director-General of ASIO Dennis Richardson and  Interpreter  Managing Editor Daniel Flitton...

As part of the Lowy Institute Recast series, we are republishing the best podcasts of 2025. In case you missed them the first time around or if you want revisit these engaging conversations, the Recast series has you covered. Retired Australian Army General Mick Ryan is one of the most influential and prolific analysts of the Ukraine war. This conversation with Sam Roggeveen, Director of the Inter...

The Lowy Institute launched the 2025 edition of the Asia Power Index on 9 December in Melbourne. Lydia Khalil convened this conversation with Susannah Patton, project lead for the Asia Power Index, Richard McGregor, senior fellow for East Asia at the Lowy Institute, and Professor Bec Strating, director of the La Trobe Centre for Global Security. The panellists discussed the 2025 Asia Power Index f...

Foreign policy is dominated by nation states and international organisations. Yet municipalities are rarely thought of as having a seat at the geopolitical table. Ika Trijsburg, Director of Urban Analytics at the Australian National University, speaks with the Lowy Institute’s Lydia Khalil about how international engagements, conversations, and even negotiations are happening at a city level...

Since Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the world has come to better recognise the geopolitical importance of the Baltic states. In this episode of Conversations, Executive Director Michael Fullilove is joined by Deividas Matulionis, Chief National Security Adviser to the President of Lithuania, Airis Rikveilis, National Security Adviser to the Prime Minister of Latvia, and Liina...

Is there an Australian way of diplomacy? How can Australia navigate an increasingly complicated and dangerous world? The Lowy Institute’s Research Director David Dutton speaks with former senior diplomat Lachlan Strahan about his new memoir The Curious Diplomat , in which he takes readers inside the world of Australian diplomacy. In their conversation, Lachlan shares anecdotes and experience...

This month, the world gathered in the Amazonian city of Belém for COP30, the UN’s annual climate summit. It was the first time in 30 years that the United States was absent from the talks. Todd Stern , former US Special Envoy for Climate Change under President Obama, spoke to the Lowy Institute’s Ryan Neelam on the ground in Belém about the impact of the US withdrawal fro...

Dr Michael Fullilove AM, Executive Director of the Lowy Institute, gave a speech to the Institute titled "Present at the Destruction" on Tuesday 29 November 2025. In these remarks, he reflects on the ABC Boyer Lectures he delivered a decade ago. ​ Dr Fullilove believes we are present at the destruction of an international order that served our interests well. The liberal order has become something...