Lowy Institute

At the Wednesday Lunch at Lowy on 20 June, Rory Medcalf, Program Director International Security, assessed the likely impacts of a powerful India on Australia's future strategic environment. He drew upon his experience as a diplomat in New Delhi to consider the sources of India's new confidence as a geopolitical player, the drivers of Indian strategic behaviour, and the prospects for security part...

On 21 February at the Wednesday Lunch at Lowy, Anthony Bubalo launched the Lowy Institute's fifth and newest program, the West Asia Program, incorporating the Middle East and South Asia. In his presentation Anthony explored the reasons why, today, it makes less sense to view these two regions separately, at least from a strategic perspective. He argued that the issues that increasingly gave 'West...

On Tuesday 30 June the Lowy Institute was pleased to host a lecture in its Distinguished Speaker Series by the author and political adviser Graham Freudenberg AM. The title of the lecture was: 'Australasian Anxieties: How Winston Churchill shaped Australia's relations with Britain, Japan and the United States for six decades'. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For the past few weeks our TV news and newspaper front pages have shown us chaotic images from downtown Bangkok. These pictures and the violent political tensions they portray run counter to the touristic stereotype of Thailand as a relaxed country of smiles. On 9 June, Dr Milton Osborne, recently back from a trip to Thailand, discussed the present political situation in Thailand and its struggle...

At the Wednesday Lunch at Lowy on 24 June, Rory Medcalf, Program Director International Security, drew upon recent consultations in the region to warn that efforts to reduce global nuclear dangers will founder if they do not account for the rising strategic concerns of North Asian powers, especially China and Japan. Mr Medcalf’s research for this presentation was supported by the Lowy Institute’s...

On 1 October 2008, Dr Marcus Noland, Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, spoke about North Korea and how its nuclear ambitions and geographic position draw the attention of the other powers in Northeast Asia. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On 26 July at the Wednesday Lunch at Lowy, Professor Hugh White addressed the challenges of modern armies and humanitarian missions. His presentation was entitled 'A force for good? Modern armies and humanitarian missions'. Professor White contended that armed forces are not very good at many humanitarian roles, and indeed they might be better off sticking to the job for which they are designed. S...

At the Wednesday Lunch at Lowy on 27 August 2008, rising terrorism specialist Dr Adam Dolnik looked at the successes and failures of the field of terrorism studies, and offered some explanations about why people become terrorists. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As part of the Lowy Institute's Distinguished Speaker Series, Dr Dilip Ratha, Senior Economist and Manager, Migration and Remittances in the World Bank's Development Prospects Group based in Washington, discussed policy options in the global agenda on migration and development. The title of his lecture was 'Migration, remittances and development'. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy informatio...

At the Wednesday Lowy Lunch on 20 August 2008, Don Watson, one of Australia's most distinguished writers and public speakers, explored themes in his latest book, 'American Journeys', a narrative of the modern USA. He talked about the genius, optimism and freedom of the United States – and its pervasive fears and failings. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

At the Wednesday Lowy Lunch on 16 June, Malcolm Cook and Andrew Shearer discussed how the Australia-Japan relationship can help both countries respond to the emerging new order in international relations. This order is characterised by changing global power balances, the move towards a more multi-polar world, and traditional multilateral organisations increasingly unsuited to resolving complex glo...

At the Wednesday Lowy Lunch Club on 16 June, distinguished international speaker Minar Pimple addressed the Club on the important question of how well the Asia-Pacific region is doing in achieving the Millennium Development Goals and what role we and broader civil society can play in helping to achieve this ambitious agenda to tackle extreme poverty, adopted by world leaders at the United Nations...

In federal systems like Australia, international policy and broader international engagement are usually, and incorrectly, seen as solely matters for the national government. However, state governments can and do play an important role in Australia's global engagement, both economically and socially. New South Wales, as the largest and most cosmopolitan state in the country, is well placed to sign...

Twelve months after the election of the Rudd Government, in the final Wednesday Lunch at Lowy for 2008, Lowy Institute Executive Director Allan Gyngell reflected on what we have learned about the Rudd Government's emerging foreign policy, about the Prime Minister's own contributions to it and what questions it raises for the future. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The political and economic unification of Europe through the European Union is one of the modern world's greatest political projects. Indeed, it questions many of the conventional wisdoms of political science. The evolution of the European Union is also perplexing, particularly for countries such as Australia, who are geographically distant but maintain very close ties to many European countries....

In the Lowy Lecture series on 13 July 2011, International Organisation for Migration Director General Ambassador William Lacy Swing addressed factors driving contemporary international migration – demographic change, labour market demand and widening disparities between developed and developing countries. He focused on the contribution migration can make to social and economic development at globa...

On 2 March 2009, as part of its Distinguished Speaker Series, the Lowy Institute hosted a speech by Mr Pascal Lamy, the Director-General of the World Trade Organization, on the values of the multilateral trading system. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

At the Wednesday Lunch at Lowy on 8 April 2009, Professor Warwick McKibbin explored how well the global financial crisis can be understood as a series of unexpected shocks, what these shocks were and how conventional economic models explain the global adjustment and the implications of alternative policy responses. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Disarming Doubt, a new book-length report produced by the Lowy Institute in partnership with the Center for the Promotion of Disarmament and Non-Proliferation, Japan Institute of International Affairs, provides a window into the debates about security, disarmament and extended deterrence in Japan, South Korea and Australia. The book was launched in Canberra on 19th April 2012. The panel discussion...

Is China ready for global economic leadership? The East Asia Program at the Lowy Institute for International Policy was pleased to host the third China Changing Lecture, presented by Professor David Daokui Li on 19 April 2012. In this year's China Changing Lecture, Professor Li discussed China’s role in the changing world economy. Dr Li's presentation was entitled: 'Is China ready for global econo...

Mr Max Boot, Senior Fellow for National Security Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, spoke at the Lowy Institute on 17 May on the situation in Iraq, including the prospects for the current US strategy and the consequences if it fails. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week’s Wednesday Lowy Lunch focused on the foreign policy dimensions of Paul Kelly’s new book, 'The March of Patriots: The struggle for modern Australia'. Divided by temperament, politics and values, Paul Keating and John Howard had passionate views about Australia’s role in the world and the national interest strategy best calculated to realise their objectives. In his lecture Paul Kelly rev...

At the Wednesday Lunch at Lowy on 12 March 2008, International Security Program Director Rory Medcalf proposed a new type of arms control initiative for the Rudd Government, one focused primarily on Asia and its rising nuclear-armed powers China and India. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For much of the twentieth century the West's conception of Asia largely focused on Northeast and Southeast Asia. For decades, this largely maritime and 'vertical' view of Asia accurately reflected the distribution of the region's economic and strategic power. But as the world enters the second decade of the twenty-first century this vertical view of Asia has outlived its usefulness, obscuring rath...

On 9 April at the Wednesday Lunch at Lowy, Singapore-based analyst and journalist Andrew Symon spoke about the increasing interest in nuclear energy in Southeast Asia, to coincide with the launch of a Lowy Institute Analysis written by him on the same topic, 'Nuclear power in Southeast Asia: implications for Australia and non-proliferation'. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.