Lowy Institute

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...

With Western countries consumed by domestic problems, will it be China and Russia that now define the rules of global politics? On 11 April the Lowy Institute at the National Gallery of Victoria hosted an in-conversation with International Securirty Program Director Euan Graham and Nonresident Fellow Bobo Lo on the new Lowy Institute Paper published by Penguin Random House Australia, A Wary Embrac...

How can it be that governments are wealthier than ever, yet fewer citizens enjoy the benefits that such wealth can bring? Never before have so many governments owned so much wealth in the form of financial assets amassed in state-controlled investment funds. Despite this, deficits persist, inequality worsens and the effects of the 2008 crash still reverberate. “Citizens’ wealth” – creating an addi...

Climate change accelerates instability in unexpected ways. Growing water scarcity, declining crop yields, and rising prices are catalysts for displacement and conflict, as witnessed in recent years in Syria and in the European migration crisis. The national security dimension of climate change receives little attention in Australia, but is the subject of intense focus overseas - particularly in th...

With Western countries consumed by domestic problems, will it be China and Russia that now define the rules of global politics? On 5 April the Lowy Institute hosted the Sydney launch of A Wary Embrace, a new Lowy Institute Paper published by Penguin Random House Australia with Bobo Lo. In a disorderly world, each has become increasingly assertive, and their partnership has emerged from relative ob...

The Lowy Institute's East Asia Program Director Merriden Varrall speaks to Mark 'Dashan (大山)' Rowswell, an extremely prominent Canadian Chinese-language comedian and performer, about Dashan's perspective on what constitutes 'friendship' in China, how Chinese choose to self-identify and the notion of 'identity bubbles', and the consequences of all this for China's international relationships. Das...

'Grievance against the rest of the world is not just a part of Trump’s ideology, it is at its very core.' That is the judgement of Dr Thomas Wright, a Fellow at the Brookings Institution and a Nonresident Fellow at the Lowy Institute. That sense of grievance is already affecting America’s posture in Asia, with the Trump administration’s decision to walk away from the TPP trade agreement. On 20 Mar...

On 16 March Professor Koh addressed the Lowy Institute on the future of international law under the Trump administration. Professor Koh is an international lawyer and legal scholar. From 2009 to 2012, he served as the Legal Adviser to the State Department in the Obama administration, and was the most senior legal adviser to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. He also served as the Dean of Yale Law...