USSC Live

Philip Rucker is the White House Bureau Chief at The Washington Post, leading its coverage of President Trump and his administration. He and a team of Post reporters won the Pulitzer Prize and George Polk Award for their reporting on Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election. Rucker is co-author with Carol Leonnig of A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump’s Testing of America, a No. 1...

Ambassador Wendy R. Sherman is a professor of the practice of public leadership and director of the Center for Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School. In addition, she is a senior fellow at the School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. Ambassador Sherman is senior counselor at Albright Stonebridge Group and former US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs. She...

Philippe Le Corre is a Research Associate with the Harvard Kennedy School and a Non-resident Senior Fellow with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He is also a fellow-in-residence at CY Cergy-Paris University. Dr Gorana Grgic is a jointly appointed Lecturer at the Department of Government and International Relations and the United States Studies Centre. Her research interests include...

Scott Deitchman, MD, MPH served for 30 years as a Commissioned Officer in the US Public Health Service, retiring in May 2017 at the rank of Rear Admiral. At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention he led the CDC’s responses to the public health challenges, chemical, radiological, and natural disasters including the 2004 Asian tsunami disaster, the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2...

The pandemic will eventually subside. But ‘normal functioning’ of the economic relationship between the world’s two largest economies will be increasingly different to what it was before, according to a new report from USSC Non-Resident Senior Fellow, Dr John Lee. The three Ds – decoupling, disentangling and diversification – are the likely US playbook to handle the messy economic separation. But...

We are six months out from arguably the most pivotal and fraught US election in living memory. The COVID-19 pandemic is fundamentally altering the terrain on which the 2020 election will be contested. Amid an ongoing health crisis and a potentially catastrophic economic downturn, the Mueller report, the 2018 blue wave, and impeachment seem like ancient history. To help interpret and analyse this u...

The United States and New York City, in particular, has been the global epicentre of the COVID-19 pandemic for the past month. Many Australians live and work in New York, and so much of Australia’s deep commercial and financial ties with the United States run through New York. How are the thousands of businesses that operate between the United States and Australia faring in a period of closed bord...

While the United States and Australia have both increased scrutiny of state-backed disinformation and foreign interference campaigns in recent years, the coronavirus pandemic has seen an increase in disinformation alongside targeted actions by foreign governments designed to leverage this crisis for strategic effect. How serious are these disinformation campaigns? What threat do they pose to democ...

Tragically, the United States has the world’s highest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases and fatalities. Compounding matters is the impending presidential election in November, putting Trump’s leadership of the crisis under intense pressure and scrutiny, set against a background of deep division between Republicans and Democrats. Democrats attack Trump as “weak”, while Trump and his supporters poi...

The aviation industry is facing the most challenging period of its history, with US airline passenger volume down 95 per cent from a year ago and global passenger revenue down 55 per cent in the same period. How does the aviation industry recover? Will proposed bailouts be enough to keep the industry afloat? What does an aviation industry look like after a global pandemic? To discuss these issues,...

A more robust approach to China is one of the few areas of bipartisanship in a highly polarised Washington, DC. But is China likely to remain bipartisan during and after the 2020 election? How is the Trump administration approaching strategic competition with China amidst a global pandemic? Beyond American politicians, what is the “inside the beltway” view of Beijing? To discuss these issues, the...

While the United States is now reporting hundreds of deaths from COVID-19 every day, Australia has so far seen a total of fewer than 100 deaths since the pandemic began. But is Australia on a similar path to the United States? Are parts of the United States already “flattening the curve”? What public health lessons can be learned from the US experience thus far? To discuss these issues, the USSC h...

Global recession is almost surely one of the consequences of COVID-19, as households and businesses and government curtail economic activity, trying to slow the spread of the virus. At the same time, governments and central banks are making unprecedented interventions, attempting to soften the blow. Will they be successful? Are lessons learned in the last economic downturn relevant to today? To di...

As the United States federal government works to mobilise against the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States armed forces are set to assume an increasingly greater role in the response. But with the National Guard already contributing nearly 20,000 troops and likely to contribute thousands more to the COVID-19 response, what will the impact be on the US military’s overseas deployments, training and...

COVID-19 is overwhelming some locations more than others. The United States and Australia are both free and open democratic countries with leading scientists but their experience with COVID-19 has been exceedingly different. Why are there currently so many more cases per capita in the United States than Australia? Is Australia likely to eventually follow the path of the United States? How do the p...

One year from this month, a newly elected president will take office in Washington, DC. The long and intense competition leading to that day begins on 3 February 2020, with the Iowa Caucuses, the first nominating contest in the Democratic Party’s primaries for the 2020 presidential election. The period between those two election calendar events is less than a year but no less momentous, as we are...

Former US Senator Jeff Flake joined United States Studies Centre CEO Professor Simon Jackman for a conversation about his experiences with the president and the US Congress, his views on impeachment and the 2020 US presidential election.

We are on the precipice of the third presidential impeachment in United States history. No US president, however, has ever been removed from office. Will President Trump be the first? What impact will impeachment have on US policymaking? What are the lessons from past impeachments? How will impeachment affect US foreign policy in 2020 and what can US allies expect from the United States heading in...

The United States Studies Centre hosted a speech by Senator the Hon. Marise Payne, Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs. The keynote foreign policy address was on Australia’s active role in its region – and beyond – to help foster an international environment that offers security, stability and prosperity. She was joined by USSC CEO Simon Jackman for Q&A after the speech.

Former US Representative for Utah's 4th district Mia Love was the first black Republican woman to be elected to the US House of Representatives. Shadow Minister for Families and Social Services, and Shadow Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney, MP was the first Aboriginal person to be elected to the NSW Parliament and the first Aboriginal woman to serve in the Australian House of Repres...

For most of America's history, race has powerfully shaped its politics. Today, race is as relevant as it has been since the Civil Rights era, perhaps the single most important political fault line in the US electorate, destined to feature prominently in the 2020 election cycle. Charges of racism have dogged Donald Trump's presidency. Republican members of Congress have also been accused of cowardi...

America’s defence strategy in the Indo-Pacific is in the throes of a serious crisis. Faced with an ever more capable and assertive China, the US military urgently needs to refocus on the requirements of great power competition and rebuild its strength after years of costly conflict in the Middle East. Washington, however, appears unable to sufficiently focus its armed forces on this goal; while bu...

There is a growing consensus among American allies and partners that an open, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific is in the interests of all nations and must be preserved. Beyond this broad vision for regional order, however, are a range of differences in national priorities, security and economic interests, and views about rules, norms and values. As the Indo-Pacific strategic landscape becomes mo...

Cheran Ketheesuran and Jeanne Shu — participants in the United States Studies Centre's Washington DC Placement Program — talk about their experience working in the US capital whilst living and studying at a US college.

The authors of a new report examining the future of the Australia-US alliance amidst increasing tensions with China held a briefing at Parliament House in Canberra. Former advisor to US Secretary of State John Kerry, Dr Charles Edel, and former advisor to Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, Dr John Lee, joined forces for the special USSC report, which details why there are divergences betwee...