Lowy Institute Events (Lowy Institute)

Monday 16 September 2024‍

Indonesia is in the countdown to the October presidential transition from Joko Widodo (Jokowi) to Prabowo Subianto, who won a decisive victory in the April presidential election. Hugely ambitious and popular, Jokowi leaves a complex legacy, including strained democratic institutions, the politicisation of the police and military, and an at times transactional foreign policy that benefited China’s standing.

The panel drew on perspectives presented at the 2024 Australian National University Indonesia Update conference to explore the legacy of Jokowi’s presidency and the direction that Prabowo may now seek to steer Indonesia.

Eve Warburton is a senior lecturer at the Department of Political and Social Change in the Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs, and Director of ANU's Indonesia Institute at the College of Asia and the Pacific. Her research is concerned broadly with problems of representation, governance, and business-state relations, in young and developing democracies, with a regional focus on Southeast Asia and Indonesia in particular. She has published in leading disciplinary and area studies journals on these topics, and her first book manuscript, Resource Nationalism in Indonesia: Booms, Big Business and the State, was published by Cornell University Press in late 2023.

Sidney Jones is Senior Adviser to the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC) in Jakarta, a non-governmental research organization she founded in 2013. She served as director from 2013 to 2021, when she returned to New York. From 2002 to 2013, Jones worked with the International Crisis Group in Jakarta, first as Southeast Asia project director, then from 2007 as senior adviser to the Asia program. Before joining Crisis Group, she worked for the Ford Foundation in Jakarta and New York (1977-84); Amnesty International in London as the Indonesia-Philippines-Pacific researcher (1985-88); and Human Rights Watch in New York as the Asia director (1989-2002). She took a leave from the latter position in 2000 to serve as chief of the human rights office of the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET). Jones holds a B.A. and M.A. from the University of Pennsylvania.

Marcus Mietzner is Associate Professor at the Department of Political and Social Change, Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs at the Australian National University in Canberra. He has published extensively on Indonesian politics, including in peer-reviewed international journals such as Democratization, International Political Science Review, Governance, Journal of Democracy, Contemporary Politics, Australian Journal of International Affairs, Journal of Contemporary Asia and Critical Asian Studies. His latest book is "The Coalitions Presidents Make: Presidential Power and its Limits in Democratic Indonesia" (Cornell University Press, 2023). He is currently writing a book on the Jokowi presidency, based on a series of interviews with the outgoing president and other key actors.

Rizal Sukma is a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Indonesia. Previously, he was Indonesia’s Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Ireland and the International Maritime Organization (IMO), London, from 2016 to 2020. He joined CSIS in 1990 as a researcher and assumed the role of Executive Director in 2009 until 2015. Dr Sukma also served as Chairman of International Relations, Muhammadiyah Central Executive Board (2005-2015). Since receiving a PhD in International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 1997, he has worked extensively on such issues as Southeast Asian security, ASEAN, Indonesia’s defense and foreign policy, military reform, Islam and politics, and domestic political changes in Indonesia.

The panel was moderated by Susannah Patton, Director of the Southeast Asia Program at the Lowy Institute.

All Lowy Institute public events are on the record and open for media attendance.

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Over the past decade, there has been more emphasis on gender in foreign policy and national security. What does this mean? Should foreign policy be a vehicle for the promotion of gender equality and how is that in Australia’s interest? How are women in foreign policy and national security leadership positions making an impact on the world stage? And are we witnessing a global backlash against women’s rights?

To mark International Womens Day the Lowy Institute hosted this event featuring researchers Jennifer Hsu, Jessica Collins and Meg Keen for a conversation chaired by Lydia Khalil to discuss these issues and offer their perspectives as women working in the field.

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An address by Hadja Lahbib, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belgium, on business and human rights. The event was presided over by Her Royal Highness Princess Astrid of Belgium, who led the Belgian Economic Mission to Australia.

Following her address, the Minister joined the Lowy Institute’s Research Director Hervé Lemahieu for a panel conversation alongside Dr James Cockayne, Anti-Slavery Commissioner for New South Wales, and Professor Justine Nolan, Director of the Australian Human Rights Institute at the University of New South Wales. The discussion was centred on Europe’s expansion of corporate due diligence efforts and the implications for Australian businesses.

Tuesday 24 October 2023

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On Friday 14 June 2024 we had our inaugural lecture in honour of Allan Gyngell, the first Executive Director of the Lowy Institute and one of Australia’s most respected foreign policy thinkers. Allan’s friend and contemporary, Ric Smith, delivered the Lecture on the subject of statecraft — a notion dear to Allan, and one that reaches beyond routine foreign policy and diplomacy and implies vision, a sense of history, and a strategic appreciation of a nation’s place in the world.

Ric Smith AO joined the Department of External Affairs in 1969. He served in Australia’s diplomatic missions in India, Israel, the Philippines and Hawaii and then as Ambassador to China and Mongolia (1996–2000) and later Indonesia (2001–2002). He was Secretary of the Department of Defence from 2002 to 2006. From 2009 to 2013, he was Australia’s Special Envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan. He was appointed as an Officer of the Order of Australia in 1998, and awarded a Public Service Medal in 2002 for his service in response to the Bali bombing. The Allan Gyngell Lecture honours Allan Gyngell AO (1947–2023), the first Executive Director of the Lowy Institute (2003–09). Allan was the Director-General of the Office of National Assessments, Australia’s peak intelligence analysis agency, from 2009 to 2013. He was later the National President of the Australian Institute of International Affairs and an honorary professor in the ANU’s College of Asia and the Pacific. Allan joined the Department of External Affairs in 1969, with postings in Rangoon, Singapore and Washington, DC. He headed the international division in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet and served as international adviser to Prime Minister Paul Keating. ‍

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A wide-ranging conversation with The Economist’s defence editor, Shashank Joshi, which will cover the Ukraine war, the Middle East, China’s nuclear ambitions, tensions between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea, the implications of the US presidential election for international security, and much more, including questions from the audience. Shashank Joshi is The Economist’s defence editor. Previously, he served as Senior Research Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute and Research Associate at Oxford University’s Changing Character of War program. He has published books on Iran’s nuclear program and India’s armed forces, written for a wide range of newspapers and journals, and appeared regularly on radio and television. Sam Roggeveen, Director of the Lowy Institute’s International Security Program, hosted the conversation.

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The exceptional success of Western (chiefly American) intelligence in anticipating that Russia would attack Ukraine in February 2022 was only matched by the no less exceptional failure to adequately assess Russian and Ukrainian military capacity. There are lessons not only about what matters in assessing military performance, but also about the ways in which expert communities can, and do, sabotage themselves.

Eliot A. Cohen is Arleigh A. Burke Chair in Strategy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and the Robert E. Osgood Professor at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. His books include, most recently, The Hollow Crown: Shakespeare on How Leaders Rise, Rule, and Fall. From 2007 to 2009, he served as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s senior adviser, focusing chiefly on issues of war and peace, including Iraq and Afghanistan. He is a contributing writer at The Atlantic, and his commentary has appeared in the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and on major television networks.

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On the eve of the US election, Lowy Institute experts review the culmination of a tumultuous 2024 presidential election season.  Michael Fullilove, Ryan Neelam, Richard McGregor and Susannah Patton examine the beliefs and policies that animate both presidential contenders – Kalama Harris and Donald Trump – and their teams of advisors.  They also discuss the consequences of this election for Asia and the world.v

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In 2021, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) said that right-wing extremism makes up 50 per cent of its priority caseload. Since that announcement, intelligence and law enforcement agencies have disrupted a number of plots related to right-wing extremists in Australia. But this is not only an issue in Australia. There has been a 250 per cent increase in right-wing terrorism globally. So, what exactly is right-wing extremism and how is its potential for violence growing? Why is it a global problem? How does it threaten democracy and what should we do about it? Rise of the Extreme Right answers these questions.

Award-winning investigative journalist Nick McKenzie, whose recent work includes a major investigation on Australian neo-Nazi groups, will launch the book. Lydia Khalil will also speak about her book and her experiences as a counter-terrorism specialist in the United States and Australia. Lydia and Nick will then take questions from our audience. 
 
Lydia Khalil is a Research Fellow at the Lowy Institute and an Associate Research Fellow at Deakin University. She began her counter-terrorism and national security career after the September 11 attacks. She is a recognised expert on terrorism and extremism, having worked for the White House Office of Homeland Security, US Department of Defense, the New York Police Department, Boston Police Department and the Council on Foreign Relations. She is a frequent media commentator and has been widely published.
 
Nick McKenzie is an award-winning investigative journalist for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. He has presented major investigations for the ABC's Four Corners and 7:30, 60 Minutes and The Australian Financial Review. With almost 20 years' experience, his investigations span foreign affairs, defence and national security, corporate wrongdoing, politics, organised crime and corruption, the criminal justice system and social affairs. His work has sparked Royal Commissions and parliamentary inquiries, and prompted investigations in Australia, the United States and Britain into corruption and bribery.

Sam Roggeveen, Director of the Lowy Institute's International Security Program, will chair this event.

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Weeks prior to the assassination attempt against Donald Trump, the Lowy Institute hosted global terrorism expert Professor Bruce Hoffman for a podcast with Program Director Lydia Khalil. They spoke about the future prospects of political violence in the United States and discussed Hoffman’s latest book, God, Guns, and Sedition, which traces the trajectory of terrorism, particularly far-right terrorism, in the United States and assesses its present day dangers, its relationship with mainstream politics, and the harm it poses to US and global security.

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The 2022 Lowy Lecture was delivered by World Trade Organization Director-General Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala at Sydney Town Hall on 22 November 2022. Dr Okonjo-Iweala's address was titled The Multilateral Trading System in a Changing World: De-globalization or Re-globalization?

Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is the first woman and first African to hold the office of Director-General of the World Trade Organization. Dr Okonjo-Iweala is an economist and international development professional with more than 40 years of experience. She has twice served as Nigeria's Finance Minister (2003–06 and 2011–15). In 2021, Time magazine recognised her as one of the world's most influential people.

The annual Lowy Lecture is the Lowy Institute’s flagship event, at which a prominent individual reflects on Australia and the world. Past Lecturers include German Chancellor Angela Merkel; UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson; US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan; Lowy Institute Chairman Sir Frank Lowy; and several Australian prime ministers including Prime Minister John Howard, who delivered the inaugural Lowy Lecture in 2005.

The full text of Dr Okonjo-Iweala's address is available at the Lowy Institute website.

The Lowy Institute acknowledges the generous support of the 2022 Lowy Lecture by King & Wood Mallesons.

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At a time of significant geopolitical uncertainty, India is taking an ever more prominent role in world affairs. From its membership of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, to the influential part that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has played in talks with Russia's President at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit, India is asserting its voice on major international issues.

Dr S. Jaishankar is India's leading diplomat. Before entering parliament, he was Foreign Secretary, and previously served as Ambassador in Beijing and Washington, DC. Before that he held posts in Tokyo, Moscow, Singapore, Colombo and Budapest. Dr Jaishankar addressed the Lowy Institute on the growing importance of India's relationship with Australia and the interests that both countries share as members of the security-focused Quad. After his remarks, Dr Jaishankar spoke in conversation with Executive Director Michael Fullilove.

Dr S. Jaishankar was appointed India's Minister for External Affairs in 2019 following his election to the upper house of India's parliament for the state of Gujarat. Dr Jaishankar served as Foreign Secretary (2015–2018) and previously represented India in a number of senior diplomatic roles including Ambassador to the United States (2013–2015) and Ambassador to China (2009–2013). Dr Jaishankar holds a PhD in International Relations from Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi and in 2019 was awarded the Padma Shri civilian honour. His book, The India Way: Strategies for an Uncertain World, was published in 2020.

For more information about this event, visit the Lowy Institute website.

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On Tuesday 10 September we had a conversation with the President of the World Bank Group, Ajay Banga, on key global economic challenges, what this means for Australia and the Asia-Pacific, and how the World Bank, governments, private sector, and civil society can work together to make the investments needed to end poverty and boost shared prosperity on a liveable planet. Dr Michael Fullilove hosted this discussion, which also featured questions from the audience.

Ajay Banga began his five-year term as World Bank President in June 2023.  He most recently served as Vice Chairman at General Atlantic. Previously, he was President and CEO of Mastercard. He was Honorary Chairman of the International Chamber of Commerce, serving as Chairman from 2020-2022. He became an advisor to General Atlantic’s climate-focused fund, BeyondNetZero, at its inception in 2021. Banga served as Co-Chair of the Partnership for Central America, a coalition of private organisations that works to advance economic opportunity across underserved populations in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. 

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With Australia's security focus now firmly on the Pacific, it is easy to dismiss Australia's twenty-year military involvement in the Middle East as an aberration, or simply as a legacy function of our alliance with the United States. Yet Australia's direct connections and interests in the Middle East are much greater now than they were before the country committed military forces to the region. Canberra has a greater diplomatic presence, a military base, deeper economic interests and more significant people-to-people links in the Middle East than ever before. The evacuations by Australian troops from Lebanon in 2006 and Afghanistan in 2021, as well as the direct security threat to Australia posed by the rise of Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, show how we cannot insulate ourselves from the dynamics and instability of the region.

In a new Analysis paper, Lowy Institute Nonresident Fellow Rodger Shanahan argues that Australia's contemporary focus on the Pacific should not blind it to the fact that it has continuing interests in the Middle East. Rather, Canberra should seek to leverage its regional ties and ongoing influence in the Middle East to better effect — to create greater balance in Australian foreign policy. 
 
The event commenced with opening remarks by His Excellency Abdulla al-Sabousi, Ambassador of the United Arab Emirates to Australia. Followed by an overview of the paper by Dr Shanahan and a Q&A with Dr Shanahan and Professor Karima Laachir, Director of the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies at the Australian National University, moderated by Hervé Lemahieu, Director of Research at the Lowy Institute.

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Thursday 15 August 2024

The Lowy Institute was delighted to host the Rt Hon Christopher Luxon, Prime Minister of New Zealand, for a special foreign policy address on Thursday 15 August.

Rt Hon Christopher Luxon is the 42nd Prime Minister of New Zealand. Since coming to power in October 2023, Prime Minister Luxon has focused closely on issues of foreign, defence and trade policy, including re-engaging and reinvigorating New Zealand’s relationships with traditional and like-minded partners. He is also the Minister for National Security and Intelligence and the Minister Responsible for Ministerial Services. He entered Parliament at the 2020 election as the MP for Botany and was elected Leader of the National Party in November 2021.

Prior to entering Parliament, Prime Minister Luxon enjoyed a long career in the private sector: as Chief Executive Officer of Air New Zealand from 2013 to 2019, and at Unilever where he worked in New Zealand, Australia, the UK, the USA and Canada.

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The 2022 Lowy Institute Media Lecture was delivered by the Financial Times chief foreign affairs columnist Gideon Rachman, who reflected on the place of foreign news coverage in a fracturing media environment.

Gideon Rachman became chief foreign affairs columnist for the Financial Times in July 2006. He joined the FT after a 15-year career at The Economist, which included assignments as a foreign correspondent in Brussels, Washington, DC, and Bangkok. He has also edited the business and Asia sections of The Economist. His interests include American foreign policy, the European Union and globalisation. His most recent book is titled The Age of the Strongman: How the cult of leader threatens democracy around the world.

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The 2022 Owen Harries Lecture was delivered by the Lowy Institute's 2022 Distinguished Fellow for International Security Sir Lawrence Freedman, one of the world’s most respected military strategists. Sir Lawrence's Harries Lecture, titled ‘Inhumane War?’, discussed Moscow's assumption that Kyiv can be forced to capitulate by attacks on its citizenry and infrastructure even when Russian forces have been pushed back in the land battle. The Lecture was followed by a Q&A session moderated by Lowy Institute Director of Research Hervé Lemahieu.

Sir Lawrence Freedman is Emeritus Professor of War Studies, King's College London. Elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1995 and awarded the CBE in 1996, he was appointed Official Historian of the Falklands Campaign in 1997. In 2003, he was awarded the KCMG. In June 2009, he was appointed to serve as a member of the official inquiry into Britain and the 2003 Iraq War. He has written widely on international history, strategic theory and nuclear weapons issues, as well as commenting on current security issues. Among his books are Strategy: A History (2013) and Command: The Politics of Military Operations from Korea to Ukraine (2022)​​​​.

Since 2013, the annual Owen Harries Lecture has honoured the significant contribution made to the international debate in Australia and the United States by Owen Harries, who was a Nonresident Fellow at the Lowy Institute.

The Distinguished Fellowship for International Security is supported by the Australian Department of Defence’s Strategic Policy Grants Program.

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The FDC Pacific Lecture, was given by the Prime Minister of the Republic of Fiji, the Hon Sitiveni Ligamamada Rabuka.  
  
The Hon Sitiveni Rabuka is Fiji’s seventh elected Prime Minister, having previously served in the role from 1992 to 1999. He is also the current Minister for Foreign Affairs, Climate Change, Environment, Civil Service, Information, Public Enterprises and Veteran Affairs. 
 
Prime Minister Rabuka has a distinguished military career and served as the Chair of Fiji’s Great Council of Chiefs from 1999 to 2001.   

Prime Minister Rabuka spoke on Fiji’s economic recovery, future development ambitions and role in the region given intensifying geopolitical engagement. After his remarks, the Prime Minister spoke in conversation with the Lowy Institute's Executive Director, Dr Michael Fullilove AM. 
  
The Prime Minister was introduced by the Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Senator the Hon Penny Wong.

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What do the maritime security challenges close to Australia mean for the country's future?

We were joined in discussion with Rebecca Strating and Joanne Wallis on their new book Girt by Sea: Reimagining Australia's Security, which looks at six maritime domains central to the country's national interests and offers an alternative vision for how Australia should understand its strategic challenges.

The authors discussed their reasons for reimagining how Australia should understand its strategic challenges, focusing on finding security in the north seas (the Timor, Arafura and Coral Seas and the Torres Strait), the Western Pacific, the South China Sea, the South Pacific, the Indian Ocean, and the Southern Ocean.

Rebecca Strating and Joanne Wallis spoke in conversation with Hervé Lemahieu, Director of Research at the Lowy Institute.

Professor Rebecca Strating is the Director of La Trobe Asia and a Professor of International Relations at La Trobe University, Melbourne. Her research focuses primarily on Asian regional security, maritime disputes, and Australian foreign and defence policy.

Professor Joanne Wallis is Professor of International Security in the Department of Politics and International Relations, and Director of the Security in the Pacific Islands research program, at the University of Adelaide. She is also a Nonresident Senior Fellow of the Brookings Institution.

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On 14 March 2023, Australian foreign policy expert and former Lowy Institute Executive Director Professor Michael Wesley launched his new book Helpem Fren: Australia and the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (MUP 2023). The book is the first comprehensive history of Australia’s RAMSI intervention, which was aimed at preventing the collapse of the Pacific Island state. Helpem Fren draws on still-classified official documents and more than 30 interviews to explore the motivations and dynamics behind the 14-year Pacific-wide mission — a project that cost more than $2 billion and involved thousands of soldiers, police and public servants from Australia and across the Pacific. RAMSI was remarkably successful in an age of disastrous interventions, yet its legacy has largely vanished from Australia’s public consciousness. Professor Wesley joined the Lowy Institute’s Pacific Islands Program Director Meg Keen, to discuss the challenges of interventions and development assistance in a Pacific that is more geopolitically contested than it has been for 70 years. 

Michael Wesley is Deputy Vice-Chancellor International and Professor of Politics at the University of Melbourne. His research and writing focus on Australian foreign policy and the international affairs of Asia and the Pacific. Previously, he was Dean of the College of Asia and the Pacific at the Australian National University. He has also held positions as Executive Director of the Lowy Institute, Director of the Griffith Asia Institute at Griffith University, and Assistant Director-General for Transnational Issues at the Office of National Assessments. He has a PhD in International Relations from the University of St Andrews.

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Sean Turnell's new Lowy Institute Paper, Best Laid Plans, was officially launched by Australia's Foreign Minister Penny Wong at an event at the National Press Club in Canberra, on Monday 14 October 2024.

The new book offers a unique first-hand account of the radical reforms implemented in Myanmar under the ill-fated civilian government of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. These reforms, designed both to turn around Myanmar’s dire economy and lay the economic foundations for democracy, were brought to a dramatic end following the military coup in February 2021. Sean Turnell was one of Suu Kyi’s key economic advisers who was imprisoned alongside her in the wake of the coup.

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On 2 December 2022, the Lowy Institute hosted the Prime Minister of Finland, Sanna Marin, for an address titled “How a strong Europe can contribute to a more secure world”. In May 2022, Ms Marin’s government took the historic decision for Finland to apply for NATO membership. In this address, Marin spoke about Finland’s response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and Europe’s broader security priorities. After her address Ms Marin spoke in conversation with Executive Director Dr Michael Fullilove and take audience questions.

Sanna Marin was appointed Prime Minister of Finland on 10 December 2019. She has been actively engaged in politics since 2006. In 2015, she was elected to Parliament and has been a member of the Grand Committee, Legal Affairs Committee and Environment Committee. Ms Marin is the third female Prime Minister of Finland and the youngest prime minister in Finland’s history.

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Australia’s strategic outlook on the Indo-Pacific is changing rapidly, as reflected by the recent AUKUS announcement, forthcoming Defence Strategic Review and membership of new regional minilateral groupings such as the Quad. These changes will have important implications for Australia’s relations with neighbouring countries in Southeast Asia, and especially Indonesia, highlighted by Jakarta’s mixed response to the AUKUS announcement in 2021. How widespread are concerns about AUKUS and Australian strategic policy more generally within Indonesia? Are the two countries experiencing a divergence in their strategic outlooks? And how should the two sides manage the risk of such a divergence in the years ahead? 

On Wednesday 26 April 2023, the Lowy Institute hosted an event at Old Parliament House, Canberra featuring Dr Evan A. Laksmana, Senior Research Fellow at the National University of Singapore, in conversation with Richard Maude of the Asia Society Policy Institute. The event was moderated by Susannah Patton, Southeast Asia Program Director at the Lowy Institute. 

Dr Evan A. Laksmana is a Senior Research Fellow with the Centre on Asia and Globalisation at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. He is also a Lowy Institute Nonresident Fellow.

Richard Maude is Executive Director, Policy, and Senior Fellow of the Asia Society Policy Institute. He is a former Director-General of the Office of National Assessments and head of the whole-of-government taskforce which prepared the Australian Government’s 2017 Foreign Policy White Paper.

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Democracies around the world are being challenged by socio-economic pressures, rising inequalities, and rapid technological developments, as well as growing polarisation and diminishing trust in institutions. Safeguarding democracy by addressing these challenges has become a national priority, but it also has clear geopolitical implications for Australia and its democratic allies. With non-democratic powers such as China and Russia acting to blunt the influence of the international rules-based order, the health of democracies will play a significant role in the future of this order and its institutions.

An in-person conversation with the head of Australia’s Strengthening Democracy Taskforce, Dr Jeni Whalan, to discuss how Australia fares in terms of the broader global trends impacting democracies and what renewing democracy at home means in an era of geopolitical competition.

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What do Australians see as the key threats to the nation? How do they view China and the United States in the context of rising regional tensions? What do they think of AUKUS and nuclear-powered submarines? And how have attitudes to climate change and democracy evolved over time? 

Join us in Canberra unpack the findings of the 2023 Lowy Institute Poll. 

Now in its nineteenth year, the Lowy Institute’s flagship annual poll is the longest running and broadest survey of Australian public opinion on foreign policy and global events. It is the key resource for anyone seeking to understand how Australians see the world and their place in it.

Stephen Dziedzic, ABC foreign affairs reporter, will chair this discussion with Ryan Neelam, the author of the 2023 Lowy Institute Poll, Karen Middleton of The Saturday Paper, and Jennifer Hsu of the Lowy Institute.  

Ryan Neelam is Director of the Public Opinion and Foreign Policy Program at the Lowy Institute and the author of the 2023 Lowy Institute Poll. Before joining the Institute, Ryan spent 14 years as an Australian diplomat including as Deputy Consul-General in Hong Kong, and at the Australian Mission to the UN. Ryan has contributed to policy development and international agreements on economic, climate change, human rights and security issues.

Karen Middleton is Chief Political Correspondent for The Saturday Paper and has been covering national and international affairs across print and broadcast media for more than 30 years. Karen covered the September 11 attacks from New York City and Washington DC, the ensuing war in Afghanistan, and has authored two books - An Unwinnable War - Australia in Afghanistan (2011), and biography of the now-prime minister, Albanese - Telling it Straight (2016). She is a former president of the Federal Parliamentary Press Gallery and Churchill Fellow and, in 2020, was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Canberra. She is an experienced commentator in Australian and international media. 

Dr Jennifer Hsu is a Research Fellow and the Project Director of the Multiculturalism, Identity and Influence Project at the Lowy Institute. She is the author of the 2023 study Being Chinese in Australia: Public Opinion in Chinese Communities. After completing her PhD in Development Studies at the University of Cambridge, she researched and taught development studies, political science and sociology in universities in North America and the United Kingdom. Jennifer is also a Senior Visiting Fellow at the Social Policy and Research Centre at the University of New South Wales.

Stephen Dziedzic (moderator), is the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s foreign affairs (Asia-Pacific) reporter, based in the Parliament House bureau. He covers foreign policy and Australia's relationship with countries in the Asia-Pacific region. Stephen has worked for the ABC since 2007 and spent five years covering federal politics.

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Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has become an international symbol of resistance as he leads his country’s response to Russia’s brutal invasion. From his defiant leadership on the streets of Kyiv in the early weeks of the attack to his eloquent advocacy on the global stage, President Zelenskyy has become an internationally admired figure at the heart of some of the most remarkable events in world affairs in recent decades.

In this special address, President Zelenskyy spoke from Ukraine via live video link. After his address, he spoke in conversation with Executive Director Michael Fullilove. 

Volodymyr Zelenskyy was elected President of Ukraine in 2019. He graduated from the Kyiv National Economic University in 2000 with a degree in law before co-founding and leading the television production company Kvartal 95, responsible for the comedy series Servant of the People, in which he played a teacher who was unexpectedly elected president. President Zelenskyy's heroic leadership in leading Ukraine’s defence against Russia's invasion has been recognised around the world, including in the form of the Ronald Reagan Freedom Award and the 2022 Profile in Courage Award from the John F. Kennedy Library.

More information about this event can be found at the Lowy Institute website.

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On Tuesday 12 November our Lowy Institute experts and senior investment leaders discussed key geopolitical risks and trends, and the impacts on financial markets and investment portfolios.
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Rising geopolitical tensions are testing the resilience of global businesses and challenging existing growth strategies.  Conflict in Europe and the Middle East and escalating US–China competition have the attention of business leaders. Moreover, 2024 is the year of national elections, with more than 60 countries and nearly 50 percent of the global population heading to the polls. Business leaders increasingly see geopolitics as a major risk to global growth and view political transitions as the leading emergent risk.
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Our panellists considered major paradigm shifts including inflation regimes, climate and decarbonisation, technology disruption, populism, deglobalisation and changing asset class correlations. They also discussed the consequences of these shifts for Australia, Asia and the world.
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Sam Roggeveen will convene this conversation with Lowy Institute Research Director Hervé Lemahieu, Barrenjoey Chief Economist Jo Masters and Future Fund Chief Investment Officer Ben Samild, which will include questions from the audience.

Panellists
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Jo Masters is Chief Economist of Barrenjoey Capital Partners. She focuses on trends across the economy and financial markets and has been a highly regarded part of the economic debate in Australia for 25 years.
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Hervé Lemahieu is Director of Research at the Lowy Institute. His research interests include strategy and geopolitics, global governance, Australian foreign policy, Southeast Asia and data analysis.  He started his career at Oxford Analytica informing government and business policy on geopolitical risk in Asia.
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Ben Samild is Chief Investment Officer at the Future Fund. In his former role as Deputy Chief Investment Officer, Mr Samild led the teams responsible for investing Listed Equites and Alternatives strategies and led the integration of whole-of-portfolio insights as part of the Fund’s joined-up investment approach.
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Sam Roggeveen is Director the International Security Program at the Lowy Institute. He is the author of The Echidna Strategy: Australia’s Search for Power and Peace.  Sam also serves as Lead Editor at the Lowy Institute, and editor of the Lowy Institute Papers.

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James Marape, Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, spoke about strengthening Papua New Guinea's economy, climate change, and PNG’s place in the world.

After his remarks, the Prime Minister spoke in conversation with the Lowy Institute's Executive Director, Dr Michael Fullilove AM.

James Marape has served as Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea since May 2019 and as a Member of Parliament representing the electorate of Tari-Pori Open in Hela Province since 2007.

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China’s remarkable economic rise has long been a key factor in global geopolitical discussions. But how soon and at what height will China’s economy peak? What are the implications for China’s ambitions in the world? 

For years, predictions suggested that China’s economic power would surpass that of the United States by the end of this decade. However, recent developments, backed by Lowy analysis, have challenged this assumption. 

In this event we unpacked the findings of original Lowy Institute research and explored the concept of ‘Peak China’ with the Lowy Institute’s Lead Economist Roland Rajah, Senior Fellow for East Asia Richard McGregor and Nonresident Fellow Dr Jenny Gordon. 

The event was moderated by Director of Research Hervé Lemahieu. Our panellists discussed the implications of this potential turning point and what it means for China's future prospects, as well as the repercussions it may have for the rest of the world. 

Roland Rajah is Lead Economist at the Lowy Institute and the Director of the Indo-Pacific Development Centre. A development economist by background, Roland has extensive experience working across both emerging Asia and the small island developing states of the Pacific. He has previously worked for the Asian Development Bank, Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), and the Reserve Bank of Australia. Roland is the co-author with Alyssa Leng of the influential Lowy Institute Analysis paper Revising down the rise of China. 

Richard McGregor is Senior Fellow for East Asia at the Lowy Institute. He is a former Beijing and Washington bureau chief for the Financial Times and the author of numerous books on East Asia including Xi Jinping: The Backlash (2019) and Asia’s Reckoning: China, Japan and the Fate of U.S. Power in the Pacific Century (2017). His 2010 book, The Party, on the inner workings of the Chinese Communist Party, was translated into seven languages and chosen by the Asia Society and Mainichi Shimbun in Japan as their book of the year.  

Jenny Gordon is a Nonresident Fellow at the Lowy Institute and former Chief Economist at the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Dr Gordon is a member of the Australian International Agricultural Research Centre’s Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Advisory Panel, and the Asian Development Bank Institute’s Advisory Committee. She is also an Honorary Professor at ANU's Centre for Social Research and Methods.

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From deals on policing in Solomon Islands to building parliamentary complexes in Vanuatu, China’s outreach and activities in the Pacific Islands region appear indefatigable.

In the words of Foreign Minister Penny Wong, Canberra and its partners are locked in a "state of permanent contest" with Beijing over influence in the region.

Previously undervalued by larger powers, Pacific Islanders must now grapple with the realities of a region subjected to intense geopolitical competition.

Our panel analysed the rapidly evolving regional security environment and the implications for Australia and the wider Pacific Islands region.

The panel was moderated by Hervé Lemahieu, Director of Research at the Lowy Institute, with expert speakers including:
•    Richard McGregor, Senior Fellow for East Asia, Lowy Institute 
•    Oliver Nobetau, FDC Pacific Research Fellow, Lowy Institute
•    Dr Anna Powles, Associate Professor at the Centre for Defence and Security Studies, Massey University, New Zealand
•    Mihai Sora, Director of the Pacific Islands Program, Lowy Institute

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As the United States approaches a pivotal presidential election in November, populism is on the rise and key tenets of American democracy are being tested. Meanwhile, the rest of the world is preparing for two very different versions of the superpower.

‍Dr Michael Dimock, the President of Pew Research Center, joins the Lowy Institute's Ryan Neelam and Lydia Khalil to discuss the upcoming presidential election, the state of democracy, and the role of public opinion in US and global politics.  

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On Monday 6 February, the Lowy Institute hosted a panel discussion at the National Gallery of Victoria featuring Institute experts to discuss the key issues likely to dominate the international agenda in 2023. The panel was chaired by Daniel Flitton, Managing Editor of the Lowy Institute’s international magazine The Interpreter, and included Meg Keen, Director, Pacific Islands Program; Richard McGregor, Senior Fellow for East Asia; Sam Roggeveen, Director, International Security Program; and Lydia Khalil, Research Fellow, Transnational Challenges.

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A conversation with Admiral John Aquilino on the increasing dangers in the Indo-Pacific, the bilateral relationship between Australia and the United States, and the importance of the AUKUS security partnership. Lowy Institute Executive Director Dr Michael Fullilove moderated the discussion, which also featured questions from the audience. 

Admiral John Aquilino is the 26th Commander of the United States Indo-Pacific Command, responsible for all US military activities in the Indo-Pacific, covering 36 nations, 14 time zones, and more than 50 per cent of the world's population. Aquilino graduated from the US Naval Academy in 1984 and earned his wings in August 1986. He served in numerous fighter squadrons, graduated from Navy Fighter Weapons School (TOPGUN), and completed Harvard Kennedy School's executive education program in national and international security. Prior to his assignment to US Indo-Pacific Command, Aquilino served as the 36th Commander of US Pacific Fleet. 

RECORDED:
Tuesday 9 April 2024

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An address by foreign relations expert and former diplomat Dr Martin Indyk on US diplomacy in the Middle East and elsewhere, and lessons from history. Dr Indyk discussed his recent biography, Master of the Game: Henry Kissinger and the Art of Middle East Diplomacy, and the relevance of US diplomat Dr Kissinger for modern foreign policy challenges, including in Ukraine. After his remarks, Dr Indyk spoke in conversation with the Lowy Institute’s Executive Director Dr Michael Fullilove.

Dr Martin Indyk is a former diplomat who is currently the Lowy Distinguished Fellow in US–Middle East Diplomacy at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. Prior to this, he was the executive vice president of the Brookings Institution. He served twice as US Ambassador to Israel, from 1995 to 1997, and again from 2000 to 2001. Dr Indyk was special assistant to President Bill Clinton, senior director for Near East and South Asian affairs at the US National Security Council, and assistant secretary for Near Eastern affairs at the US State Department. From 2013 to 2014, he served as President Barack Obama’s special envoy for Middle East peace. Ambassador Indyk is a founding member of the Lowy Institute Board.

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The announcement of Australia’s preferred technology pathway for the acquisition of nuclear-powered submarines has been described as the most significant shift in the country’s strategic outlook since the Second World War. Coupled with the forthcoming publication of the Defence Strategic Review, Australia’s national security environment is set for significant change. What is the future of Australian defence policy, Australia’s place in the region, and its relations with the United States and the United Kingdom? For this panel discussion, Sam Roggeveen, Director of the Lowy Institute’s International Security Program, spoke with Dr Charles Edel, Dr Lavina Lee and Justin Burke about the big decisions shaping Australia’s national security policy.
 
Dr Charles Edel is the inaugural Australia Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, DC. He previously taught at the University of Sydney, where he was also a senior fellow at the United States Studies Centre. Prior to that, he was a professor of strategy and policy at the US Naval War College and served on the US Secretary of State’s Policy Planning Staff from 2015 to 2017.
 
Dr Lavina Lee is a senior lecturer in the Department of Security Studies and Criminology at Macquarie University in Sydney. She is a member of the Council of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute and a nonresident fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney.
 
Justin Burke is the 2022 Thawley Scholar in International Relations at the Lowy Institute and Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). He is a nonresident fellow with the Institute for Security Policy at the University of Kiel in Germany. Justin is a PhD candidate in naval power at Macquarie University and was previously a journalist with The Australian and Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun.

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Myanmar’s civil war has entered a crucial phase. While the junta remains firmly ensconced in the centre, a series of stunning victories by its opponents has severely diminished the reach of the military regime into the borderlands. A constellation of anti-junta forces has started delivering public services in “liberated areas” where they are in effect governing millions of people. 

On Monday 20 May 2024, we launched the Lowy Institute Analysis paper, Outrage is not a policy: Coming to terms with Myanmar’s fragmented state, by Dr Morten Pedersen. The paper calls for international assistance for “parallel state-building”, focused on strengthening the capabilities of a wide range of emerging political authorities and community-based organisations to carry out traditional state functions. 

This launch event was moderated by Hervé Lemahieu, Director of Research at the Lowy Institute.

Dr Morten B. Pedersen is Senior Lecturer in International Politics at the University of New South Wales Canberra (Australian Defence Force Academy) and former senior analyst for the International Crisis Group in Myanmar.

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On Tuesday 25 June 2024 we held an event at the National Press Club for the launch of a new Lowy Institute Analysis paper that makes the strategic case for AUKUS, written by one of the government’s most knowledgeable and experienced defence thinkers. Luke Gosling argued that nuclear-powered submarines will be central to Australia’s ability to defeat threats of attack, counter a naval blockade, and support the regional balance of power. Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles launched the paper, after which Luke Gosling made his case for nuclear-powered submarines, before being joined on stage by Lowy Institute Executive Director Dr Michael Fullilove AM for questions, including from the audience.

‍Luke Gosling OAM MP has served as the Member for Solomon since 2016. He served in the Australian Army for 13 years in the Parachute Infantry, Commandos, and Defence Cooperation Programs. He deployed to Papua New Guinea, Rifle Company Butterworth, Malaysia, and Timor-Leste, as well as working in Afghanistan.

‍Richard Marles MP is the Deputy Prime Minister of Australia, Minister for Defence, and the Federal Member for Corio. Richard was first elected to the House of Representatives in 2007. Refreshments and Hot canapés will be provided.

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The Rothschild & Co Distinguished International Fellowship brings an internationally recognised intellectual and policy leader to Australia to help deepen our debate on global issues.

Shivshankar Menon served as India’s National Security Adviser from 2010 to 2014, and prior to that as foreign secretary and ambassador to Beijing and Islamabad, among other capitals.

India, along with Asian geopolitics, has undergone rapid and accelerating change. Will India assume the role of a traditional power in a rebalanced Asian system? How will this affect the prospects for India’s increasingly close relationship with Australia and other major actors in the region? Shivshankar Menon argued that India’s move towards working ever more closely with the West is inevitable, but the devil is in the detail. 

Since 2013, the annual Owen Harries Lecture has honoured the significant contribution made to the international debate in Australia and the United States by Owen Harries, who was a Nonresident Fellow at the Lowy Institute.

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Australia is home to 1.4 million people with Chinese ancestry. At a time of heightened concern about national security and foreign interference, how do Chinese-Australians see Australia and their place in it? How do Chinese-Australians consume news and information? And how do they view the wider world, including the growing geopolitical tensions in the region?
 
On 2 May the panel unpacked the findings of the 2023 Being Chinese in Australia: Public Opinion in Chinese Communities survey report with author and Lowy Institute Research Fellow Dr Jennifer Hsu, Jieh-Yung Lo and Yun Jiang. The event was chaired by Pablo Viñales.
 
Jennifer Hsu is a Research Fellow and the Project Director of the Multiculturalism, Identity and Influence Project at the Lowy Institute. Jennifer is also a Senior Visiting Fellow at the Social Policy and Research Centre at the University of New South Wales. Her research expertise broadly covers state-society relations, state-NGO relations, the internationalisation of Chinese NGOs, civil society and the Chinese diaspora.
 
Jieh-Yung Lo is Founding Director of the Centre for Asian-Australian Leadership (CAAL) at the Australian National University. Jieh-Yung has worked in various public policy and project management roles and served in leadership positions across not-for-profit, entrepreneurship and government. He served two terms as a Councillor with the City of Monash including two years as Deputy Mayor.
 
Yun Jiang is the Australian Institute of International Affairs China Matters Fellow. She is formerly the co-founder and editor of China Neican, as well as a managing editor of the China Story blog at the Australian National University. She has published widely on China-related topics. She was previously a policy adviser in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Treasury and the Department of Defence. 
 
Pablo Viñales is the Political Correspondent at SBS World News. Aside from federal politics, much of his work focuses on the changing geopolitical landscape in the Indo-Pacific and the China–Australia relationship. 

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The Asia Power Index 2023 is the fifth edition of the digital analytical tool that ranks 26 countries according to the power they wield in the Indo-Pacific Region.
 
In this video event, Project Lead Susannah Patton and Director of Research Hervé Lemahieu discuss the findings from the 2023 Asia Power Index with Lowy Institute Executive Director Michael Fullilove. They discuss the rankings for the 2023 Index, the impact of Covid-19 on the influence of countries such as China, and the reasons why the United States continues to be the top-ranked country for power in Asia.
 
ABOUT THE ASIA POWER INDEX
 
The Asia Power Index was first published in 2018. It evaluates the balance of power in Asia through 133 indicators across eight thematic measures: Military Capability and Defence Networks, Economic Capability and Relationships, Diplomatic and Cultural Influence, as well as Resilience and Future Resources. More than half of our data points involve original Lowy Institute research, while the rest are aggregated from hundreds of publicly available national and international sources. 
 
This year, the Index includes three new indicators based on primary research that track high-level diplomatic engagement between all Index countries, enabling new comparisons of diplomatic and defence influence across Asia. These new indicators quantify the number of bilateral and multilateral diplomatic dialogues at foreign minister level and above held by each Index country, along with their convening power — the number of visits by regional leaders or foreign ministers hosted by each country.
 
In 2023, the top ten countries for overall power are: the United States, China, Japan, India, Russia, Australia, South Korea, Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand. The only country to improve its comprehensive power ranking in 2023 is Cambodia, which has risen two places to become the 20th ranked power in the region.
 
Find out more: https://power.lowyinstitute.org

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A policy address given by the Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Hon Chris Bowen.

Chris Bowen entered Parliament in 2004 and has held a wide range of portfolios including serving as Treasurer, Minister for Human Services, Minister for Immigration and Minister for Financial Services.  He served as Interim Leader of the Labor Party and Acting Leader of the Opposition following the 2013 Federal election and served as Shadow Treasurer.

This November, the world's attention will be on the 28th United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP28) on climate change held in Dubai. As countries convene to agree on efforts to mitigate the consequences of climate change, questions arise: what are the implications for Australia and what role does Australia play?

Minister Bowen will speak on the international dynamics affecting global climate action and how Australia’s ambition to become a Renewable Energy Superpower can help the world in the rapid transformation to reach net zero emissions. After his remarks, the Minister spoke in conversation with the Lowy Institute's Executive Director, Dr Michael Fullilove AM.

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Xi Jinping is one of the world’s most powerful leaders and will remain so for many more years if, as expected, he secures a third term as Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) at the forthcoming 20th National Congress of the CCP. Despite being in power for close to a decade, he is also a man that remains a mystery to much of the world. Dr Joseph Torigian, one of the premier scholars of the Chinese leader and elite politics, discusses Xi’s early years and rise to power and what that reveals about the Chinese leader’s worldview and agenda. The event was moderated by Richard McGregor, the Lowy Institute's Senior Fellow for East Asia.

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Three years of global turmoil have broken many of our underlying assumptions about the world. Australians have emerged from this period with dramatically different views on the threats facing the nation. They express a sober optimism in some areas. And they have cautiously reassessed Australia’s relations with great powers. 

The Lowy Institute held an event at the National Gallery of Victoria to unpack the findings of the 2023 Lowy Institute Poll. 

Now in its nineteenth year, this flagship research product is the longest-running and broadest survey of Australian public opinion on foreign policy and global events. 

From attitudes to China and the United States, to support for Ukraine, belief in democracy, and thoughts on climate change and potential conflict in our region, the Lowy Institute Poll is the indispensable guide to how Australians see the world and their place in it.

Dr Michael Fullilove, Executive Director of the Lowy Institute, chaired this conversation with Ryan Neelam, Director of the Institute’s Public Opinion and Foreign Policy Program and author of the 2023 Lowy Institute Poll, Lydia Khalil, Research Fellow on Transnational Challenges at the Lowy Institute, and Bec Strating, Director of La Trobe Asia and Associate Professor in Politics and International Relations at La Trobe University.

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On 2 September 2022, the Lowy Institute hosted a rare insight into the story of women in the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) from its Director-General, Rachel Noble. ASD is Australia’s foreign signals intelligence, cyber security, and offensive cyber operations agency. At this in-person event, the Director-General shared her experiences as a woman in a male dominated career and her thoughts on what leaders and managers can do to help to continue breaking down barriers for women. Following her speech, the Director-General spoke in conversation with Lowy Institute Executive Director Michael Fullilove and took questions from the audience.

Rachel Noble PSM is the Director-General of the Australian Signals Directorate. Prior to her appointment, she was the Head of the Australian Cyber Security Centre in the Australian Signals Directorate. Rachel has held senior roles in the Department of Home Affairs, Department of Immigration and Border Protection, and Department of Defence. Rachel was formerly National Security Chief Information Officer and Cyber Policy Coordinator in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, a role in which she received a Public Service Medal for her work.

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Eminent military historian and strategist Sir Lawrence Freedman talks with the Lowy Institute’s Sam Roggeveen about whether there is a plausible path towards peace or a ceasefire, the implications of a Trump Administration on support for Ukraine’s war effort, whether Russia’s attacks on Ukrainian civilian targets are working, and innovations on the battlefield. Roggeveen also asks Freedman: what did you get wrong in your early analysis of the war? Recorded on Wednesday 24 July 2024

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The Chinese Communist Party will shortly hold its 20th National Congress during a highly unsettled period in international affairs. In February, after President Putin and President Xi declared a "friendship without limits", Russia launched its brutal invasion of Ukraine. In August, China responded to US Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taipei with major military exercises. Meanwhile, President Biden has become increasingly vocal in his support for Taiwan.

Just days ahead of the CCP Congress, the Lowy Institute hosted the head of one of the most influential think tanks in Washington. Richard Fontaine addressed the Lowy Institute on the present and future of international order. After his remarks, Mr Fontaine spoke with Lowy Institute Executive Director Michael Fullilove about US security policy in Asia, China’s challenge to the United States and the rules-based order, as well as how the Ukraine war is being viewed in Washington.

Richard Fontaine is Chief Executive Officer of the Center for a New American Security. He served as President of CNAS from 2012–19 and before that as Senior Fellow from 2009–12. Prior to his time at CNAS, he was foreign policy adviser to Senator John McCain and worked at the US State Department, the National Security Council, and on the staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

This event was hosted as part of the project Australia's Security and the Rules-Based Order, which receives funding from the Australian Department of Defence Strategic Policy Grants Program.

See more about this event at the Lowy Institute website.

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With China’s military capability increasing but US military primacy still holding firm for now, bi-polarity may be the name of the game in the Asia Pacific.  But will this bipolarity hold and how are other regional countries positioned? Richard McGregor hosts Professor Hugh White, Emeritus Professor of Strategic Studies at the Australian National University (ANU) and Lowy Institute experts, Project Lead for the Asia Power Index (API) Susannah Patton and Research Director Herve Lemahieu to examine and debate the results of the 2024 API.

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The soundness of military strategy and the nimbleness with which strategy can adapt to unforeseen circumstances are the two most important factors in deciding victory or defeat. This is the clearest lesson to emerge from the Ukraine war, argues Mick Ryan, one of the most quoted and influential military experts on the conflict.
‍
We heard from Mick about the ongoing war in Ukraine and his new book in a conversation hosted by the Lowy Institute’s Sam Roggeveen, which included questions from the audience.

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As the United States approaches a pivotal presidential election, how do Australians view our security ally? After two years of official re-engagement, have Australians’ perceptions of China changed? What should the government do about climate change, and how do Australians feel about renewable and nuclear energy?    
   
Now in its 20th edition, the Lowy Institute’s flagship annual poll is the longest-running and broadest survey of Australian public opinion on the world. For two decades, it has revealed changing attitudes and played an influential role in the public debate on foreign policy.

The Hon Tim Watts MP opened our event, after which an expert panel unpacked the results of the 2024 Lowy Institute Poll and discussed how Australians see their place in the world.

The Hon Tim Watts MP, Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs, was elected to the House of Representatives as the Federal Member for Gellibrand in 2013 and has served as Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs since 2022.

Ryan Neelam is the Director of the Public Opinion and Foreign Policy Program at the Lowy Institute and the author of the 2024 Lowy Institute Poll. He previously served as an Australian diplomat in Hong Kong and at the United Nations, New York.

Michelle Lyons is a Research Fellow in the Lowy Institute’s Indo-Pacific Development Centre where she works on international climate change policy and climate finance. She has more than a decade of experience in the public service and at ANU working on international and domestic climate change policy and is a recipient of the prestigious Sir Roland Wilson Scholarship.

Sam Roggeveen (moderator) is Director of the Lowy Institute's International Security Program. He was the founding editor of The Interpreter, is editor of the Lowy Institute Papers, and is the author of The Echidna Strategy: Australia’s Search for Power and Peace. Before joining the Lowy Institute, Sam was a senior analyst in Australia's peak intelligence agency, the Office of National Assessments.

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The Hon Anthony Albanese MP is the 31st Prime Minister of Australia. Since the election of his government in May 2022, Prime Minister Albanese has focused closely on issues of foreign policy, including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Australia’s relations with allies and key regional partners.

The Lowy Lecture is the Institute’s flagship event and one of the world’s leading lecture series, at which a prominent individual reflects on Australia and the world. Past Lecturers include German Chancellor Angela Merkel; UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson; US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan; Lowy Institute Chairman Sir Frank Lowy; and several Australian prime ministers including Prime Minister John Howard, who delivered the inaugural Lowy Lecture in 2005.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the Lowy Institute.

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The inaugural FDC Pacific Lecture was given by the Prime Minister of Samoa, Fiamē Naomi Mataʻafa at Old Parliament House, Canberra on Monday 20 March 2023.

The Hon Fiamē Naomi Mataʻafa is Samoa’s seventh prime minister and the first woman to be elected to the role. She was also the country’s first female cabinet minister and deputy prime minister. As the leader of the Faʻatuatua i le Atua Samoa ua Tasi (FAST) party, she became prime minister after elections in 2021. Prime Minister Fiamē was first elected to parliament in 1985 and was appointed to her first cabinet ministry in 1991, going on to serve in a range of portfolios including Education, Justice and Environment. From 2006 to 2012, she was the chair and pro-chancellor of the University of the South Pacific. 

The FDC Pacific Lecture has been established with the support of the Foundation for Development Cooperation, which has also established the FDC Pacific Fellowship in conjunction with the Lowy Institute.

The Prime Minister was introduced by the Australian Minister for International Development and the Pacific, Hon Pat Conroy MP. After her remarks, Prime Minister Fiamē spoke in conversation with the Lowy Institute's Executive Director, Dr Michael Fullilove AM.

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A conversation between chief foreign affairs columnist for the Financial Times Gideon Rachman and the Lowy Institute’s Executive Director Dr Michael Fullilove AM. They discussed the wars, summits and elections that will shape the international agenda in 2024, as well as the decision-makers and presidential aspirants who are influencing world affairs. 

Gideon Rachman is chief foreign affairs columnist for the Financial Times and a Nonresident Fellow at the Lowy Institute. Known for his witty and authoritative analysis of global affairs, he is the author of multiple books including most recently The Age of the Strongman: How the Cult of the Leader Threatens Democracy Around the World. Gideon joined the FT after a 15-year career at The Economist, which included assignments as a foreign correspondent in Brussels, Washington, DC, and Bangkok. He is a former Lowy Institute Rothschild & Co Distinguished International Fellow and delivered the 2022 Lowy Institute Media Lecture.

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Entering the second year of the Russia–Ukraine conflict the Lowy Institute hosted a a conversation with two compelling speakers about what 2023 will bring. Retired Australian Army Major General Mick Ryan has become a globally recognised commentator on the military campaign in Ukraine, while Ukrainian-born journalist Zoya Sheftalovich (POLITICO) has recently returned from Europe, where she covered President Zelenskyy’s visits to London and Brussels. The conversation was chaired by Sam Roggeveen, Director of the International Security Program.

Major General (Ret’d) Mick Ryan is a Nonresident Fellow at the Lowy Institute. He spent 35 years in the Australian Army. His operational service includes deployments to East Timor, Iraq and southern Afghanistan. His book, War Transformed: The Future of Twenty-First-Century Great Power Competition and Conflict, was published in 2022.

Zoya Sheftalovich is a contributing editor for POLITICO, currently based in Sydney. She is also a regular commentator on the Ukraine war for ABC News 24.

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On 19 April, the Lowy Institute hosted the launch of the 2023 Being Chinese in Australia: Public Opinion in Chinese Communities survey report with author and Lowy Institute Research Fellow Dr Jennifer Hsu, along with guests Samuel Yang and Lucy Du. The event was chaired by the Director of the Institute's Public Opinion and Foreign Policy Program, Ryan Neelam.

Dr Jennifer Hsu is a Research Fellow and the Project Director of the Multiculturalism, Identity and Influence Project at the Lowy Institute. After completing her PhD in Development Studies at the University of Cambridge, she researched and taught development studies, political science and sociology in universities in North America and the United Kingdom. Jennifer is also a Senior Visiting Fellow at the Social Policy and Research Centre at the University of New South Wales. Her research expertise covers state-society relations, state-NGO relations, the internationalisation of Chinese NGOs, civil society and the Chinese diaspora and she has published widely in these areas.
 
Samuel Yang is a Chinese-Australian bilingual journalist and presenter. He is currently a co-host of China Tonight on ABC TV. He joined the ABC in 2018 and has previously worked as a business reporter and presenter in Sydney, and a bilingual reporter and producer in Melbourne. He has lived across the Asia-Pacific including in China, Singapore and New Zealand. His work has won the NSW Premier’s Multicultural Communications Public Interest Award and he was nominated for Young Journalist of the Year in 2020.
 
Lucy Du is the CEO of the Australia-China Young Professionals Initiative (ACYPI), the single largest young professionals organisation in the Australia-China space. She began her career in Canberra and then went on to work in China for one of Australia’s big four banks and later for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Shanghai. She is currently Head of Community at Belz Family & Associates, a global private assets investment platform for Asian and Australian investors. Lucy is bilingual in English and Chinese and has completed studies at the University of Melbourne, Australian National University and Tsinghua University.
 
Ryan Neelam is Director of the Public Opinion and Foreign Policy Program and is Project Lead on the annual flagship publication, the Lowy Institute Poll. Before joining the Institute, Ryan spent 14 years as an Australian diplomat including as Deputy Consul-General in Hong Kong, and at the Australian Mission to the UN. Ryan has contributed to policy development and international agreements on economic, climate change, human rights and security issues.

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For 650 days, Sean Turnell was a prisoner of the military junta that has ruled Myanmar since 2021. Incarcerated in some of Myanmar’s most notorious prisons, isolated, ill-treated, and ultimately convicted in a sham trial of effectively being a spy, the descent from his role as chief economic adviser to Myanmar’s civilian government was a steep one. From helping to design policies to entrench democracy and help make Myanmar the last and best of the Asian ‘tigers’, his task became one of simple and desperate survival. In An Unlikely Prisoner, Sean recounts how he not only survived his lengthy incarceration but left with his sense of humour intact and his spirit unbroken.

We were joined in conversation with the author, Dr Sean Turnell, moderated by Lowy Institute Research Director Hervé Lemahieu, with questions from the audience. 
 
Dr Sean Turnell is a Senior Fellow in the Southeast Asia Program at the Lowy Institute, covering developments in Myanmar, the wider region, and international economic issues. Prior to his appointment as chief economic adviser to Myanmar’s civilian government, he was a Professor of Economics at Macquarie University, and a senior analyst at the Reserve Bank of Australia.

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In this event, 2022 Rothschild & Co Distinguished International Fellow Gideon Rachman reflected on 'The Age of the Strongman' - our new era of authoritarian leaders who have become a central feature of global politics in capitals as diverse as Moscow, Beijing, Delhi, Brasilia, Budapest, Ankara, Riyadh and Washington. The speech was followed by a Q&A session moderated by Lowy Institute Research Fellow Lydia Khalil, author of Rise of the Extreme Right: The New Global Extremism and the Threat to Democracy.

Gideon Rachman became chief foreign affairs columnist for the Financial Times in July 2006. He joined the FT after a 15-year career at The Economist, which included spells as a foreign correspondent in Brussels, Washington, DC and Bangkok. He also edited the business and Asia sections of The Economist. His interests include US foreign policy, the European Union and globalisation. His most recent book is The Age of the Strongman: How the cult of leader threatens democracy around the world was published in 2022. 

This event was recorded at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne on 24 November 2022.

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The Treasurer spoke on the domestic and international economy, and the government’s agenda to position Australia as an indispensable part of the global economy. After his remarks, the Lowy Institute's Executive Director Dr Michael Fullilove AM chaired a Q&A session with the Treasurer.

The Hon Dr Jim Chalmers MP is the Treasurer of Australia. He has been the Member for Rankin in the House of Representatives since 2013. He served as Shadow Treasurer from 2019 to 2022, and Shadow Minister for Finance from 2016 to 2019. Prior to Dr Chalmers’ election to parliament, he was the Executive Director of the Chifley Research Centre and Chief of Staff to the Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer. He has a PhD in political science and international relations from the Australian National University and a first-class honours degree in public policy from Griffith University and is a qualified company director.

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To mark the launch of the latest Lowy Institute Paper, Modern Warfare: Lessons from Ukraine, we talk with the author, Sir Lawrence Freedman, about the Ukraine War. Join Lowy Institute analyst Sam Roggeveen for an in-depth discussion in which Sir Lawrence examines questions such as ‘Who is winning?’, ‘Will the West remain unified behind Ukraine?’, and ‘How does this war end?’. To buy Modern Warfare, visit the Penguin Books Australia website.

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In a special in-person conversation with Lowy Institute Executive Director Dr Michael Fullilove, Bill Gates spoke about global health, pandemic preparedness, food security and climate change.

Bill Gates is co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and founder of Breakthrough Energy. He co-founded Microsoft in 1975, growing the company into a global leader in business and personal software. In 2008, Gates shifted focus to the Gates Foundation’s work on increasing opportunities for the world’s most disadvantaged people. Through the Foundation, he has spent more than 20 years working on global health and development issues including pandemic prevention; disease eradication; maternal, newborn and child health; agricultural development; and water, sanitation and hygiene. In 2010, he co-founded the Giving Pledge to encourage the wealthiest families and individuals to publicly commit more than half their wealth to philanthropic causes and charitable organisations during their lifetime or in their will. Monday 23 January 2023

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On Tuesday 3 September 2024 we had a conversation with Sean Turnell about his latest book, Best Laid Plans, a unique first-hand account of the radical reforms implemented in Myanmar under the ill-fated civilian government of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. These reforms, designed both to turn around Myanmar’s dire economy and lay the economic foundations for democracy, were brought to a dramatic end following the military coup in Myanmar in February 2021. Sean Turnell was one of Suu Kyi’s key economic advisers who was imprisoned alongside her in the wake of the coup.

The event was moderated by the Lowy Institute’s Hervé Lemahieu and will include questions from the audience.
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Dr Sean Turnell is a Senior Fellow in the Southeast Asia Program at the Lowy Institute. He has been a Senior Economic Analyst at the Reserve Bank of Australia, a policy adviser to the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, and is a Professor of Economics at Macquarie University. From 2016 to 2021, he served as the senior economic adviser to Myanmar’s democratic government, led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.
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Hervé Lemahieu is the Director of Research at the Lowy Institute.A copy of the book is included in the ticket price.

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Russia’s war in Ukraine is now well into its second year. Ukraine’s much-foreshadowed counter-offensive is developing more slowly than expected. Meanwhile, Russia’s leadership was rocked by the recent failed mutiny by the private Wagner paramilitary group.

The Lowy Institute hosted Mick Ryan and Zoya Sheftalovich earlier in 2023 for an update on the Ukraine war. In July 2023, with Ukraine on the offensive and Russia’s internal political instability, we again hosted these two compelling experts to discuss how the war in Europe is evolving. The conversation was hosted by Executive Director Dr Michael Fullilove and included questions from the audience. 

Major General (Ret’d) Mick Ryan is a Nonresident Fellow at the Lowy Institute. His book, War Transformed: The Future of Twenty-First-Century Great Power Competition and Conflict, was published in 2022. 

Zoya Sheftalovich is a contributing editor for POLITICO, based in Sydney. She is a regular commentator on the Ukraine war for ABC News 24.

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In Asia, a battle of narratives rages. Many believe China is already an unassailably dominant force, while US primacists see it as ultimately containable. In either case, bipolarity is the order of the day. However, countries such as Australia and Japan tout the emergence of a multipolar Indo-Pacific. What do the findings of the Lowy Institute’s Asia Power Index say about these prevailing narratives? And what role can third countries play in Asia’s power politics and in its regional order? Dr Michael Green joined the Lowy Institute’s Susannah Patton and Hervé Lemahieu to debate the findings of the 2024 Asia Power Index. 

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With the announcement of Australia’s pathway towards nuclear-powered submarines, and the forthcoming release of the Government’s response to the Defence Strategic Review, this event offered the rare opportunity to hear from Australia’s most senior military officer about the international security environment and how Australia is responding to it. After his remarks, General Angus Campbell AO DSC spoke in conversation with the Lowy Institute's Executive Director Dr Michael Fullilove AM.

General Campbell joined the Australian Army in 1981, graduating from the Royal Military College, Duntroon in 1984. In 2005, he joined the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet as a First Assistant Secretary to head the Office of National Security and was subsequently promoted to Deputy Secretary and appointed to the position of Deputy National Security Adviser. Upon his return to the Australian Defence Force in early 2010, he was appointed to the rank of Major General. In 2015, he was appointed Chief of the Australian Army, and in 2018 appointed to command of the Australian Defence Force.

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