Lowy Institute

The Lowy Institute's East Asia Program Research Fellow Aaron Connelly speaks with Milton Osborne, a former Lowy Institute Nonresident Fellow and one of the world's leading historians of Cambodian politics, about recent political developments in the country and how to put them in the context of Cambodian history. In the middle of the night on Saturday, hundreds of police surrounded Cambodian opposi...

On 28 August in Melbourne, Lowy Institute Research Director Anthony Bubalo chaired the launch of ‘Globally Connected: Victoria’s Trade Statement’, by Victoria’s Trade Minister Philip Dalidakis. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Canberra has a large community of foreign-policy professionals - public servants, political staffers, diplomats, journalists, academics, students. In our new occasional podcast series ‘Canberra Conversations’, Lowy Institute Senior Fellow Sam Roggeveen will interview Canberra's national-security and foreign-policy leaders about their lives, their influences, and how they do their jobs. In the firs...

Donald Trump has now been president of the United States for seven months. He is a very different president from his predecessors. What does this mean for Australia? How should we manage the US alliance in the age of Trump? The Executive Director of the Lowy Institute Michael Fullilove is the author of a new essay on the Trump administration and Australia in Foreign Affairs magazine. On 23 August,...

On 22 August the Lowy Institute hosted a conversation with two of America’s leading analysts, Kori Schake of the Hoover Institution and Thomas Wright, Director at the Brookings Institution and Lowy Institute Nonresident Fellow, who discussed how the Trump administration will deal with a range of foreign and security challenges. From North Korea’s missile program and the fight against Islamic State...

On June 30 2017, the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands came to an end, marking the conclusion of the longest Australian-led intervention mission in our history. RAMSI was a response to a tumultuous period in Solomon Islands history known locally as ‘The Tensions’. Since 2003, thousands of police, military and civilian personnel from 15 member countries of the Pacific Islands Forum hav...

Pascal Lamy, whose distinguished career includes former European Union Commissioner for Trade and former head of the World Trade Organization, is currently in Australia to discuss the future of the European Union’s relationship with the Pacific. The EU’s partnership with African, Caribbean and Pacific countries has been guided by the so-called ‘Cotonou Agreement’, which expires in 2020. Negotiatio...

On 27 July the UK Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, the Rt Hon Boris Johnson MP, delivered the 2017 Lowy Lecture at Sydney Town Hall. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Lowy Institute's East Asia Program Director Merriden Varrall speaks to Alanna Krolikowski, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Alberta's China Institute and participant in the ANU's 17th annual China Update, on developments in China's aerospace sector. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On 18 July the Lowy Institute hosted a conversation with Dr Michael Fullilove and Dennis Richardson AO, who until his recent retirement was one of Australia’s most experienced and respected public servants. On 12 May 2017, Dennis Richardson retired as the Secretary of the Department of Defence, ending a storied public service career that began in 1969. In that time, he served as the Secretary of t...

On 6 July the Lowy Institute hosted an address from Senator the Hon Penny Wong, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate and Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs, who spoke on Australia's national interests in a time of disruption. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 2001, China entered the World Trade Organisation (WTO), a watershed in the history of globalisation. Fully integrating China into the global economy had profound consequences, both positive and disruptive. Domestically, Beijing applied WTO rules to promote far-reaching market-based economic reforms. Internationally, China’s strong export industry has led to the decline of old-line industries in...

China’s continuously growing role in world affairs can’t help but capture our imaginations — but how does the world look from Beijing? Is President Xi navigating global affairs with a skilful coherent strategy, or are the Chinese elite opportunistically grabbing on to whatever they can catch? Join Jane Perlez, Beijing Bureau Chief of The New York Times and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, for a...

Following the passing of King Rama IX, Thailand is going through a period of significant political and social upheaval. On 28 June the Lowy Institute hosted a panel discussion at the National Gallery of Victoria on how Thailand will fare with its ‘triple threat’ of a royal transition, the entrenchment of military rule, and the potential escalation of separatist violence in its southern provinces....

US President Donald Trump dismisses decades-old alliances; the UK turns its back on a European project that brought peace and prosperity to a war-wracked continent; President Duterte overturns Filipino foreign policy to adopt a pro-Beijing line. Populist political forces are on the rise in some of the world’s great democracies, including in the US, India, the UK and other parts of Europe. What doe...

Jake Sullivan, former senior foreign policy adviser to Hillary Clinton, describes the post-World War II order as “like the Parthenon” - with columns that included the United Nations, NATO, and the various Bretton Woods institutions. Now, in the age of Trump, Brexit, and China’s rise, we are entering a phase with fewer clean lines. “It’s surprising, it’s sometimes formal and sometimes informal, som...

As Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton led one of the Obama Administration’s signature foreign policy initiatives, the ‘pivot’ to Asia. On 13 June, the Lowy Institute heard an address from Hillary Clinton’s closest foreign policy confidant, Jake Sullivan, about what motivated the pivot and what US Asia policy will look like under President Trump and beyond. A rising China, a belligerent North Kore...

British Prime Minister Theresa May has called a snap election – the first early election in the UK since 1974. Opinion polls indicate her Conservative government is in for a thumping victory, but in an era of voter volatility, is this an unnecessary gamble? Or will May get the mandate she wants to negotiate the UK’s exit from the European Union on the best terms? On 9 June, the day after UK pollin...

Mr Hyland is the United Kingdom’s first Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner. The Commissioner’s role is to lead the UK’s efforts to tackle modern slavery and human trafficking. Mr Hyland addressed the Lowy Institute on what is one of the most significant global human rights issues of the modern day, and the domestic and international actions countries can take to tackle it. Kevin Hyland was head...

North Korea is moving closer to its cherished strategic goal: the possession of a functioning nuclear missile capable of hitting the United States. The regime’s nuclear and ballistic missile tests have gathered pace, creating a momentum which US and regional policy makers are struggling to control. Sanctions have failed to halt the development of the North’s nuclear program. The recent, brazen ass...

Lowy Institute Nonresident Fellow Stephen Grenville speaks with Sebastian Mallaby, a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, about how US President Donald Trump might interact with the US Federal Reserve, what lessons the Reserve Bank of Australia might draw from the US, and the impact of former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

China is a rapidly ageing country. According to the World Bank, the working age population is predicted to fall by 10% by 2040. While the size of the workforce is falling, the pool of over 65s are rising, predicted to reach 350 million by the same year. What are the economic effects of a shrinking labour pool and rising number of aged dependents, and how will the two-child policy limit these effec...

With the race for Iran’s presidency heating up as hardline candidates join the contest, on 10 May the Lowy Institute hosted a panel moderated by Deputy Director Anthony Bubalo to preview Iran’s crucial presidential elections on 19 May. Joining Anthony were Dr Rodger Shanahan, Research Fellow at the Lowy Institute; Dr Naser Ghobadzadeh, from the Australian Catholic University; and Alice Drury, who...

Allan Gyngell's new book 'Fear of Abandonment: Australia in the World since 1942' is an authoritative account of the way Australians and their governments have helped create the world we now inhabit. On 26 April the Lowy Institute hosted Allan Gyngell, former Executive Director of the Lowy Institute and former Prime Minister Paul Keating for a discussion of the history of Australian foreign affair...

Australia and Papua New Guinea have a strong and unique relationship, with ties spanning historical, economic, political and cultural spheres. The depth of our shared history goes far beyond the Kokoda Track and wartime experiences that most Australians associate with PNG. Many Australians don’t realise that PNG is Australia’s nearest neighbour and former colony, marking 42 years of independence t...