When he became Prime Minister in 2018, Scott Morrison was a foreign policy amateur confronted by unprecedented challenges: an assertive Beijing and a looming rivalry between the two biggest economies in world history, the United States and China. Morrison plunged into foreign and security policy by making highly contentious changes that will be felt for decades, not least the historic decision to build nuclear-powered submarines. Now his vision for Australia’s place in the world is about to be j...
Apr 28, 2022•1 hr 1 min
In this special Women in Politics series for the Australia-PNG Network, the Lowy Institute's Jessica Collins sits down with prominent women from Papua New Guinea to discuss the deep-seated challenge of women’s political representation in Papua New Guinea in the lead-up to its national election. In this second episode of the series, Jessica speaks with Vagi Hemetsberger, co-founder of the Seven Sisters Foundation, which aims to provide long-term support to women seeking office in Papua New Guinea...
Apr 21, 2022•24 min
In this episode of Lowy Institute Conversations, journalist and biographer Troy Bramston speaks to Lowy Institute Director of Research Hervé Lemahieu about the foreign policy of Bob Hawke. In 1983, Australia elected a government quite unlike any it had seen before led by the charismatic former union leader Bob Hawke. In office, Hawke formed close personal relationships with some unlikely international partners – the US Republican President Ronald Reagan, the UK Conservative Prime Minister Margar...
Apr 14, 2022•47 min
In April 2022, the Lowy Institute launched a new opinion poll on Indonesian attitudes to the world and foreign policy. The poll offers unique and fascinating insights into how the citizens of one of Asia’s most important rising nations perceive their neighbours, US-China competition, the major threats facing Indonesia, and Indonesia’s position in this increasingly contested world. It has been a decade since the Institute last surveyed Indonesian public opinion. To discuss the poll and its findin...
Apr 08, 2022•1 hr 1 min
In this special Women in Politics series for the Australia-PNG Network, the Lowy Institute's Jessica Collins sits down with prominent women from Papua New Guinea discuss the deep-seated challenge of women’s political representation in Papua New Guinea in the lead-up to its national election. In this first episode, Jessica speaks with Theresa Meki – an expert in Papua New Guinean women’s political representation – about the experience for women trying to enter politics in the country, where no wo...
Apr 08, 2022•26 min
Ben Scott discusses the war in Ukraine and international law with Professor Fleur Johns and Dr Eve Massingham. They talk about the laws of war, economic sanctions, cyber operations, neutrality, international humanitarian law, and war crimes. Professor Fleur Johns is Professor in the Faculty of Law and Justice at the University of New South Wales in Sydney and Visiting Professor at the University of Gothenburg Sweden. She is the author of four books and her fifth, #Help: The Digital Transformatio...
Apr 01, 2022•31 min•Season 2Ep. 5
The United Nations’ declaration of the International Decade of Indigenous Languages (2022-2032) raises a critical issue: Indigenous languages are in an endangered state. The UN’s declaration is hoped to spur preservation and promotion of them and curb the tide of extinction. Papua New Guinea holds more Indigenous languages than anywhere else in the world. Current estimates of its living languages are between 830 to over 850, but that number is in steady decline as Papua New Guinea’s communities ...
Apr 01, 2022•1 hr 3 min
Australians will go to a federal election in a few months’ time. A fraught international environment is challenging the old rule that Australians do not vote on foreign policy questions. How will global issues — Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, China’s icy relations with Australia, climate change, the pandemic, and headwinds in the global economic recovery — influence the course of the election campaign? On Tuesday 22 March 2022, the Lowy Institute hosted a discussion event in Canberra to examine f...
Mar 25, 2022•1 hr 3 min
Australians will go to a federal election in a few months’ time. A fraught international environment is challenging the old rule that Australians do not vote on foreign policy questions. How will global issues — Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, China’s icy relations with Australia, climate change, the pandemic, and headwinds in the global economic recovery — influence the course of the election campaign? On Monday 21 March 2022, the Lowy Institute hosted this discussion event to examine foreign pol...
Mar 25, 2022•1 hr 8 min
In this episode of Lowy Institute Conversations, former Australian Foreign Minister Gareth Evans speaks to Executive Director Michael Fullilove about his new book Good International Citizenship: The case for decency. He argues that being, and being seen to be, a good international citizen is in a country's national interest. He sets out four benchmarks by which a country's performance can be judged: its foreign aid generosity, its response to human rights violations, its reaction to violence and...
Mar 17, 2022•46 min
Whether Australia leases, buys or builds nuclear-fuelled submarines as part of the AUKUS pact with the United Kingdom and the United States, it will be the first non-nuclear state to do so. How nuclear non-proliferation issues are addressed by these three countries is not the sole test of AUKUS, but it will form an important part of managing its future trajectory and global reception. On 14 March 2022, the Lowy Institute hosted Dr Alan J. Kuperman, Associate Professor at the Lyndon B. Johnson Sc...
Mar 14, 2022•1 hr 2 min
On 10 March 2022, Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese addressed the Lowy Institute on how a Labor government would deliver national security in a complex world. Mr Albanese’s speech was followed by a Q&A session chaired by Dr Michael Fullilove AM, Executive Director of the Lowy Institute. The Hon Anthony Albanese MP is the Leader of the Opposition. He previously served as Deputy Prime Minister; Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government; Minister for Bro...
Mar 11, 2022•1 hr 9 min
From the brutal invasion to the imposition of crippling economic sanctions – where are we now? What are Putin’s goals? How is Europe responding? What should we read into China’s reaction, and what are the implications for the Indo-Pacific? Natasha Kassam, Director of the Public Opinion and Foreign Policy Program at the Lowy Institute, hosted this conversation on International Women’s Day with Dr Olga Oleinikova, Zoya Sheftalovich and Dr Maria Repnikova. Dr Olga Oleinikova is a Senior Lecturer in...
Mar 09, 2022•1 hr 6 min
On Monday 7 March 2022, Prime Minister Scott Morrison addressed the Lowy Institute on the situation in Ukraine, the implications for the Indo-Pacific, and Australia's response. After the speech, Mr Morrison spoke in conversation with the Institute’s Executive Director Michael Fullilove. The Hon Scott Morrison MP is the 30th Prime Minister of Australia. He previously served as Treasurer, Minister for Social Services and Minister for Border Protection. He was first elected to Parliament as the Fed...
Mar 09, 2022•1 hr
The Russian invasion of Ukraine continues to surprise Western analysts, many of whom thought President Vladimir Putin’s incendiary rhetoric and troop build-up along Ukraine’s border were a bluff. In recent days the surprises have kept coming – despite Russia’s encirclement of Kyiv, its air and ground forces appear to have been far less successful than expected. Likewise, Russia’s much-feared skills in information operations have been no match for Ukraine’s deft control of the propaganda narrativ...
Feb 28, 2022•27 min•Season 2Ep. 4
There's been a significant escalation in the Ukraine crisis. The diplomatic pathway pursued by France and Germany - and backed up by the United States and Britain - was 'blown up' by a late-night televised address by Russian President Vladimir Putin. In this special edition of Lowy Institute Conversations, Research Director Hervé Lemahieu speaks to Nonresident Fellow Bobo Lo about Russia's tactics and ambitions in Ukraine, and the West's options in response. Recorded: Wednesday 23rd February 202...
Feb 23, 2022•40 min
When he emerged as Australia’s 30th Prime Minister in 2018, Scott Morrison was not known for his diplomatic credentials and had never made foreign policy a big feature of his political career. Yet he has presided over one of the most consequential periods in Australia’s international relations: from a recalibration of ties with China, Australia’s primary trade partner, to the announcement of the AUKUS agreement. In this episode, Director of the Lowy Institute’s International Security Program Sam...
Feb 01, 2022•30 min
On Friday 21 January 2022, the Lowy Institute hosted the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs of the United Kingdom, the Rt Hon Elizabeth Truss MP. She was joined by Australia's Foreign Minister, Senator the Hon Marise Payne and Lowy Institute Executive Director Dr Michael Fullilove AM. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Jan 21, 2022•43 min
Our panel event to mark the release of the 2021 Asia Power Index. Launched by the Lowy Institute in 2018, this annual project measures resources and influence to rank the relative power of states in Asia. The 2021 edition, which covers four years of data, is the most comprehensive assessment so far of the changing distribution of power in the Indo-Pacific region. The principal researchers behind the project, Hervé Lemahieu and Alyssa Leng, was joined by Roland Rajah, the Lowy Institute’s Lead Ec...
Dec 14, 2021•1 hr 1 min
An In conversation with Audrey Tang, who was appointed Taiwan’s first Digital Minister by President Tsai Ing-wen in 2016. Lowy Institute Director of Public Opinion Natasha Kassam spoke to Audrey Tang about their journey from an activist and civic hacker to a senior minister, and how digital democracy and innovation have helped Taiwan to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic, the spread of disinformation and tensions with China. Audrey Tang held positions across a range of technology companies and start...
Dec 07, 2021•57 min
The White House Indo-Pacific Coordinator Kurt Campbell spoke to the Lowy Institute's Executive Director Michael Fullilove as part of the digital conference 'The Indo-Pacific Operating System'. Broadcast on 1 December 2021. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Dec 01, 2021•1 hr
In this episode, Mihai Sora is joined by Ruth McDougall and Ruha Fifita to discuss the 10th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT10) showing at the Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane from 4 December. They discuss how Pacific art is a powerful vehicle for building and maintaining connections across communities, the uniquely collaborative nature of Pacific art, and how to reframe art as less of an ‘industry’ and more as a meaning-making cultural activity that de...
Nov 29, 2021•31 min
Since 2013, the annual Owen Harries Lecture has honoured the significant contribution made to the international debate in Australia and the United States by Mr Harries, who was a Nonresident Fellow at the Lowy Institute. The 2021 Owen Harries Lecture was given by former Australian Finance Minister and Secretary-General of the OECD Matthias Cormann. Mr Cormann will speak on “Levelling the playing field – an agenda for growth, climate and a rules-based international order”. His lecture was followe...
Nov 24, 2021•55 min
In this episode, Lowy Institute lead economist Roland Rajah is joined by Dr Vijaya Ramachandran and Dr Sam Geall to discuss the outcomes from the COP26 Glasgow Climate Change Conference and deeper rifts in international climate policy and politics. They discuss whether COP26 succeeded in 'keeping 1.5 alive', and China's role in global climate efforts given geopolitical tensions with the US. They also discuss whether some Western governments are engaged in 'colonialism in green', whether India pl...
Nov 18, 2021•44 min
The 2021 Lowy Lecture was delivered by US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan. Mr Sullivan is one of the sharpest and most influential policymakers in the world and a trusted adviser to Joe Biden, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Mr Sullivan spoke on the Biden administration’s foreign and security policies in an era of pandemics, growing climate risk and competition with China and Russia. His Lowy Lecture was followed by an extended Q&A with Lowy Institute Executive Director Dr Michael ...
Nov 11, 2021•1 hr 1 min
In this episode of Lowy Institute Conversations, former deputy speaker of the Afghan parliament and women’s rights activist Fawzia Koofi joins Lowy Institute Research Fellow Lydia Khalil for a discussion on the heartbreak of leaving Afghanistan, the prospects for the country under Taliban rule, and the future of human rights in the country. Ms Koofi was previously a member of the Afghan delegation negotiating peace with the Taliban in Doha Qatar. This interview was originally scheduled in August...
Nov 04, 2021•34 min
Ben Scott talks to Professor Hilary Charlesworth. Professor Charlesworth is a distinguished international lawyer who has been nominated for election to the International Court of Justice. The election will take place at the United Nations in New York on 5 November. Professor Charlesworth has served as a judge ad hoc on the court twice before. She is a Laureate Professor at the Melbourne University Law School and a Distinguished Professor at the Australian National University. In this conversatio...
Oct 28, 2021•33 min•Season 2Ep. 3
In this episode of The Director’s Chair, Michael Fullilove speaks with Senator Penny Wong, the Shadow Foreign Minister and Leader of the Opposition in the Senate. Penny was elected to the Senate in 2001 and was appointed to Shadow Cabinet in 2005. She served as Climate Change Minister between 2007 and 2010 and as Finance Minister between 2010 and 2013. Michael and Penny discuss the politics of climate change in Australia, the AUKUS pact, and the findings of the Lowy Institute’s Diplomat Database...
Oct 26, 2021•36 min•Season 2Ep. 20
In this episode of Lowy Institute Conversations, Research Fellow Jennifer Hsu talks with Fan Yang and Fergus Ryan about Fan’s recent paper for the Lowy Institute, titled “Translating Tensions: Chinese-Language Media in Australia”. The paper is one of the first to provide insight into the published content of Chinese-language media organisations in Australia as it relates to Australia-China relations. Fan Yang is a PhD candidate at the School of Communication and Creative Arts, Deakin University....
Oct 20, 2021•41 min
The 2021 Lowy Institute Media Lecture was presented by Australian journalist Yalda Hakim. Yalda Hakim is an international correspondent, broadcaster, presenter and documentary maker. She grew up in Australia, where her family had sought refuge after fleeing the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Currently host of BBC World News’ Impact with Yalda Hakim, she started her journalistic career at SBS News in Sydney as a cadet, rising to become a reporter and presenter on its international affairs progr...
Oct 18, 2021•52 min
