The Lowy Institute is an independent, nonpartisan international policy think tank located in Sydney, Australia. The Institute provides high-quality research and distinctive perspectives on foreign policy trends shaping Australia and the world. On Soundcloud we host podcasts from our events with high-level guest speakers as well as our own experts. Essential listening for anyone seeking to better understand foreign policy challenges!
On 6 July the Lowy Institute hosted an address from Senator the Hon Penny Wong, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate and Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs, who spoke on Australia's national interests in a time of disruption.
In 2001, China entered the World Trade Organisation (WTO), a watershed in the history of globalisation. Fully integrating China into the global economy had profound consequences, both positive and disruptive. Domestically, Beijing applied WTO rules to promote far-reaching market-based economic reforms. Internationally, China’s strong export industry has led to the decline of old-line industries in advanced economies. Recently China has adopted a number of technological and economic policies and practices which will have new implications for international markets. On 5 July the Lowy Institute hosted journalist and author Paul Blustein and East Asia Program Director Dr Merriden Varrall in a discussion China’s changing engagement with the global economy and the dangers facing the trading system. A Senior Fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation, Paul has written widely on economic issues for more than 35 years, including for The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post, and is the author of five books on international economic institutions.
China’s continuously growing role in world affairs can’t help but capture our imaginations — but how does the world look from Beijing? Is President Xi navigating global affairs with a skilful coherent strategy, or are the Chinese elite opportunistically grabbing on to whatever they can catch? Join Jane Perlez, Beijing Bureau Chief of The New York Times and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, for a discussion of politics in the Chinese capital with East Asia Program Director, Dr Merriden Varrall.
Following the passing of King Rama IX, Thailand is going through a period of significant political and social upheaval. On 28 June the Lowy Institute hosted a panel discussion at the National Gallery of Victoria on how Thailand will fare with its ‘triple threat’ of a royal transition, the entrenchment of military rule, and the potential escalation of separatist violence in its southern provinces. The discussion featured Nicholas Farrelly, the author of a forthcoming Lowy Institute Analysis of the situation. He was joined by Professor John Blaxland, Director, ANU Southeast Asia Institute and Head, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre; Dr Tyrell Haberkorn, Fellow at the ANU College of Asia and the Pacific and Mr Sunai Phasuk, Senior Researcher, Human Rights Watch. The discussion will be moderated by Lowy Institute's East Asia Program research fellow, Matthew Busch.
US President Donald Trump dismisses decades-old alliances; the UK turns its back on a European project that brought peace and prosperity to a war-wracked continent; President Duterte overturns Filipino foreign policy to adopt a pro-Beijing line. Populist political forces are on the rise in some of the world’s great democracies, including in the US, India, the UK and other parts of Europe. What does the age of populism mean for American foreign policy and for the global order? On 15 June at the National Gallery of Victoria, the Lowy Institute heard from a campaigner on the front line against the darker impulses of populism - Jake Sullivan, Hillary Clinton’s closest foreign policy confidant.
Jake Sullivan, former senior foreign policy adviser to Hillary Clinton, describes the post-World War II order as “like the Parthenon” - with columns that included the United Nations, NATO, and the various Bretton Woods institutions. Now, in the age of Trump, Brexit, and China’s rise, we are entering a phase with fewer clean lines. “It’s surprising, it’s sometimes formal and sometimes informal, sometimes linear and sometimes ad hoc, sometimes shiny and sometimes not.” On 19 June, Lowy Institute Director of Digital and Senior Fellow Sam Roggeveen hosted a conversation with Hillary Clinton’s closest foreign policy confidant Jake Sullivan.
As Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton led one of the Obama Administration’s signature foreign policy initiatives, the ‘pivot’ to Asia. On 13 June, the Lowy Institute heard an address from Hillary Clinton’s closest foreign policy confidant, Jake Sullivan, about what motivated the pivot and what US Asia policy will look like under President Trump and beyond. A rising China, a belligerent North Korea and an unruly ASEAN are among the many challenges facing the US in the Asia-Pacific. Can this still be ‘America’s Pacific Century’, as Clinton promised when she first described the pivot in 2011? The annual Owen Harries Lecture honours the enormous contribution Mr Harries, a Nonresident Fellow of the Lowy Institute, has made to the international policy debate in Australia. Jake Sullivan was senior foreign policy adviser to Hillary Clinton's 2016 election campaign, having ‘quietly catapulted through the ranks of the Democratic foreign policy establishment’, as Vox magazine put it. Sullivan had earlier served as senior aide to President Obama, national security adviser to Vice President Joe Biden and Director of Policy Planning at the US Department of State, as well as deputy chief of staff to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. In 2013 Sullivan launched and co-led the secret negotiations with Iran about its nuclear program, paving the way for the November 2013 nuclear agreement. Previous Lowy Institute Distinguished International Fellows include Kurt Campbell, Stephen Hadley, Ambassador Shyam Saran and David Ignatius. The Lowy Institute would like to thank Telstra, the sponsor of the Distinguished International Fellowship Program.
British Prime Minister Theresa May has called a snap election – the first early election in the UK since 1974. Opinion polls indicate her Conservative government is in for a thumping victory, but in an era of voter volatility, is this an unnecessary gamble? Or will May get the mandate she wants to negotiate the UK’s exit from the European Union on the best terms? On 9 June, the day after UK polling day, Georgina Downer and Thomas Bentley discussed what the results mean for the UK, EU and the world.
Mr Hyland is the United Kingdom’s first Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner. The Commissioner’s role is to lead the UK’s efforts to tackle modern slavery and human trafficking. Mr Hyland addressed the Lowy Institute on what is one of the most significant global human rights issues of the modern day, and the domestic and international actions countries can take to tackle it. Kevin Hyland was head of the London Metropolitan Police’s Human Trafficking Unit, and has over 30 years’ experience of investigating serious and organised crime. Mr Hyland was appointed as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for "services to Combating Human Trafficking" in the 2015 New Year Honours. While in Australia, Mr Hyland participated in a public hearing at the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade parliamentary inquiry into establishing a Modern Slavery Act in Australia.
North Korea is moving closer to its cherished strategic goal: the possession of a functioning nuclear missile capable of hitting the United States. The regime’s nuclear and ballistic missile tests have gathered pace, creating a momentum which US and regional policy makers are struggling to control. Sanctions have failed to halt the development of the North’s nuclear program. The recent, brazen assassination of Kim Jong Un’s half-brother by an outlawed chemical weapon in Malaysia’s main airport is also widely believed to have been carried out at Pyongyang’s direction, although no North Korean suspects have been brought to justice. While South Korea has lived with North Korea’s provocative behaviour for decades, how will other neighbours and the Trump administration deal with the looming threat? Is there a US-China “grand bargain” on the cards? Will the United States pursue unilateral counter-measures? Or does the solution lie elsewhere – with the possibility that a new South Korean president will pursue a pro-engagement strategy? Dr Euan Graham, Director of the International Security Program at the Lowy Institute and Korean foreign policy expert, Dr Jiyoung Song discussed the future of North Korea and how it will shape regional security.
