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Published daily by the Lowy Institute

  • 4 Mar 2022
    • Global Issues
    • United Nations
    • Russia
    • International law
    • Ukraine

    Ukraine: Don’t write off the international order – read and rewrite it

    Fleur Johns , Anastasiya Kotova
    Resistance to Russia’s aggression is being shaped by how decentralised and data-centric global rules have become.
  • 23 Dec 2021
    • Global Issues
    • Defence & Security

    What’s the worst that could happen? Tackling existential risk

    Andrew Leigh
    A pandemic is bad. But humanity is inviting greater dangers by toying with technologies that could end the species.
  • 3 Nov 2021
    • Global Issues
    • Nuclear Weapons
    • Climate change

    It’s time to talk about existential risk

    Tom Barber
    There will be no chance to review the “lessons learned”.
  • 25 Oct 2021
    • Global Issues
    • Multilateral Institutions

    There is life in the Non-Alignment Movement yet

    Nina Marković Khaze
    This 60-year-old Cold War relic is finding new voice as a venue separated from institutions of the West.
  • 23 Sep 2021
    • Global Issues
    • Africa

    Africa and the Caribbean, together, seek global bargaining power

    Carlisle Richardson
    Countries so often historically at the mercy of strategic interests wants to shape their collective destiny.
  • 14 Sep 2021
    • Global Issues
    • China
    • Canada

    Fears China will play games with the 2022 Winter Olympics

    Colin Peebles Christensen
    Beijing’s practice of arbitrary arrest and “hostage diplomacy” is prompting a backlash that may lead to a boycott.
  • 6 Aug 2021
    • Global Issues
    • Japan

    Life in a host city, at home, live-streaming the Olympics

    Donna Weeks
    Watching on from a tatami floor in Tokyo, the sport is great, the geopolitics just as good.
  • 4 Aug 2021
    • Global Issues
    • Coronavirus

    Cruising into stormy weather

    Nick Savvides
    Covid-19 is not the cruise industry’s only woe. Will America’s love affair with sea voyaging be able to turn the tide?
  • 20 Jul 2021
    • Global Issues
    • Japan

    Postcard from Tokyo 2020+1

    Donna Weeks
    Sport and politics make an unhappy union at one of the most controversial Olympics ever.
  • 20 Jul 2021
    • Global Issues
    • United States
    • China – Belt and Road Initiative

    Can Biden’s Build Back Better World compete with the Belt and Road?

    Henry Storey
    Overhyping China’s BRI can be self-defeating and play into Beijing’s hands.
  • 19 Jul 2021
    • Global Issues
    • Southeast Asia
    • Coronavirus

    Press freedom more important than ever in the Asia–Pacific

    Olivia Pirie-Griffiths
    A new database tracks incursions and crackdowns on journalists’ capacity to report.
  • 30 Jun 2021
    • Global Issues
    • Australia in the World

    Rules-based order: What’s in a name?

    Ben Scott
    The genesis, rise and complex ambitions of one of the most speculated about concepts in global politics right now.
  • 20 May 2021
    • Global Issues
    • Technology

    Violent extremism: The ghost or the machine?

    Lydia Khalil
    A parliamentary inquiry into violent extremism should call on tech companies to reveal their recommendation algorithms.
  • 12 Mar 2021
    • Global Issues
    • United States
    • US Elections
    • Institutions
    • Myanmar

    A smarter use of voting technology to stop election-related violence

    Iona Main
    Maybe in the search for efficiency we sometimes overcomplicate things, and the better solution is to get back to basics.
  • 4 Mar 2021
    • Global Issues

    An endless game of whack-a-mole?

    Jennifer Percival
    The efficacy of proscribing extreme-right groups is debated. How to keep ahead of their evolution is also challenging.
  • 3 Mar 2021
    • Global Issues
    • Iraq

    “Repair and Build”: Pope Francis’ visit to Iraq

    Fabrizio Bozzato
    A papal visit helps focus world attention. It also deals the Vatican in to the crowded “great game” in the Middle East.
  • 5 Feb 2021
    • Global Issues
    • United States
    • China

    What does America think the rules-based order is for?

    Sam Roggeveen
    The US is in a defensive crouch rather than in an expansionary mood. But bring on debate.
  • 29 Jan 2021
    • Global Issues
    • China
    • Australia
    • Coronavirus

    China and the Australian far right

    Kaz Ross
    The Covid pandemic and anti-CCP fervour have brought together some unlikely allies.
  • 23 Dec 2020
    • Global Issues

    Your most-read articles on The Interpreter in 2020

    The Interpreter
    It was about March we tried to ban the word “unprecedented” from articles. But a relentless year wasn’t letting go.
  • 15 Dec 2020
    • Global Issues
    • Review

    The wrong side won: Remembering John le Carré

    Milton Cockburn
    The famed author roamed the grey of the international order and captured a world of “half-angels fighting half-devils”.
  • 7 Dec 2020
    • Global Issues
    • Diplomacy
    • United Nations

    Solve generational problems by listening to the youth who’ll live them

    Caitlin Mollica , Helen Berents
    Developing the Youth, Peace and Security agenda in the Asia-Pacific is a chance to ensure lasting change.
  • 24 Nov 2020
    • Global Issues
    • Terrorism
    • Technology

    After Christchurch: Mapping online right-wing extremists

    Brian Ballsun-Stanton , Lise Waldek , Julian Droogan
    For all the hate, sometimes extending to talk of violence, the extremist milieu is also a highly social space.
  • 13 Nov 2020
    • Global Issues
    • Defence & Security

    The evolving threat from chemical weapons

    Miah Hammond-Errey , Paul Mostafa
    Emerging technologies pose new challenges to the already fragile norms of chemical weapons control.
  • 27 Oct 2020
    • Global Issues
    • Emerging Threats

    The hate matrix of online gaming

    Matthew Sharpe
    Chatrooms enable players to discuss games, yet are increasingly a hotbed for glorifying violence and radicalisation.
  • 10 Sep 2020
    • Global Issues
    • Climate change
    • Coronavirus

    Working one for the planet

    Mark Beeson
    After a lifetime employed, what if people spend one last year in the job and donate their salary to charity? I’m game.
  • 4 Sep 2020
    • Global Issues
    • Review

    Book Review: The seeds of authoritarianism

    Warwick McFadyen
    Anne Applebaum’s latest book is a forensic and humane study of a world where methods change, but lust for power doesn’t.
  • 2 Sep 2020
    • Global Issues
    • United Nations

    Indonesia’s UN Security Council drive for inclusive peace and security

    Jacqui True , Irine Hiraswari Gayatri , Nuri Widiastuti Veronika
    Jakarta is seeking to boost its regional leadership taking up the issue of women’s roles in peacebuilding.
  • 28 Aug 2020
    • Global Issues
    • Terrorism
    • Technology
    • Human rights

    Understanding the full spectrum of hate

    Matteo Vergani
    Extreme violence garners most attention, but the problems arise much earlier – both online and in the real world.
  • 18 Jun 2020
    • Global Issues
    • Public Opinion
    • Timor-Leste
    • Southeast Asia

    Will Timor-Leste be the region’s latest press freedom casualty?

    Jim Nolan
    An new law under the guise of “dignity” would only diminish democracy and transparency in the country.
  • 16 Jun 2020
    • Defence & Security
    • Global Issues
    • Australia

    It’s not OK: White supremacy and Australia’s security services

    Jennifer Percival
    A small gesture raises big questions about white supremacist ideology in Australian police and security forces.
  • 20 May 2020
    • Global Issues
    • Defence & Security
    • Technology

    We’re all losers in the space arms race

    Sarah O’Connor
    Nations have battled one another for strategic advantage in space for decades. Actual fighting would be a step beyond.
  • 18 May 2020
    • Global Issues
    • Multilateral Institutions
    • Vietnam

    Why Vietnam embraces multilateralism at this uncertain time

    Le Dinh Tinh
    Communities might be locked in isolation for Covid-19, but Hanoi has faith in the way the world can work together.
  • 4 May 2020
    • Global Issues
    • Climate change

    Bob May – Professor of Everything

    Robyn Williams
    A scientist with a flexible mind and at times bluntly persuasive style guided PMs and the public alike.
  • 1 May 2020
    • Global Issues
    • Europe
    • Coronavirus

    Governments, not pandemics, stop access to reproductive health

    Sara E Davies , Sophie Harman
    A winding back of hard-won women’s rights in Europe has implications for us all.
  • 19 Mar 2020
    • Global Issues
    • United Nations
    • Australia
    • Timor-Leste
    • Coronavirus

    The future ain’t what it used to be

    Gordon Peake , Christian Downie
    If Covid-19 teaches us anything, obviously we need to plan, but let’s not pretend the future is actually predictable.
  • 2 Jan 2020
    • Global Issues

    Best of The Interpreter 2019: A festival of democracy

    The Interpreter
    Elections, elections, everywhere! A surprise in Australia, massive polls in Indonesia and India, plus a late UK party.
  • 31 Dec 2019
    • Global Issues
    • Diplomacy

    Best of The Interpreter 2019: The world of sports

    The Interpreter
    You win some, you lose some – in politics as in sport.
  • 23 Dec 2019
    • Global Issues

    Best of The Interpreter 2019: Your most read

    Daniel Flitton
    From a big year in politics and diplomacy, revealing the 10 most popular Interpreter articles of 2019.
  • 19 Dec 2019
    • Global Issues

    Arbitrating business and human rights: What’s in it for women?

    Anaïs Tobalagba , Justin Jos
    Newly released rules can help close a gender gap in international tribunals – both on the bench and in processes.
  • 11 Dec 2019
    • Global Issues
    • Sustainability
    • Climate change

    Should you lie to your children about reality?

    Mark Beeson
    Protecting young people from terrible truths may just be good for them – until it isn’t anymore.
  • 6 Dec 2019
    • Global Issues
    • Review

    How many Cold Wars does it take to make a “new” one?

    Ian Li
    In the divide between capitalist West and communist East, it was often regional politics that mattered more.
  • 13 Nov 2019
    • Global Issues
    • Australia
    • Migration
    • United Kingdom

    In conversation: Weak parties, hollow politics, and democratic danger

    Sam Roggeveen , George Megalogenis
    Could a radical break with Asia be the cost of a growing dislocation of the political parties and the Australian public?
  • 6 Nov 2019
    • Global Issues
    • Migration

    The Rohingya Football Club

    JJ Rose
    Observations from the field after a sobering experience attempting to use sport as a form of aid.
  • 28 Oct 2019
    • Global Issues
    • Syria
    • Kurdistan
    • Türkiye

    The worrying precedent of Turkey’s “safe zone”

    Rebecca Barber
    Under international law, one country cannot invade another to seize territory – yet that appears to have been endorsed.
  • 16 Sep 2019
    • Global Issues
    • Myanmar
    • China
    • India
    • Indonesia
    • Pakistan

    So-called media abundance still leaves blind spots with our neighbours

    Alexandra Wake
    Even in the age of 24/7 news, governments are good at keeping the cameras away from persecuted communities.
  • 10 Sep 2019
    • Global Issues
    • Regional relationships

    At sea, safety is just as important as security

    Sam Bateman
    The Indian Ocean region needs stronger measures for maritime safety.
  • 20 Aug 2019
    • Global Issues

    Is the notion of the United States acquiring Greenland that absurd?

    Donald R Rothwell
    The trade in territory is not without precedent and the growing power contest over the Arctic is little appreciated.
  • 12 Aug 2019
    • Global Issues

    70 years of the Geneva Conventions and why we need them more than ever

    Rebecca Barber
    As tensions rise, this highpoint of multilateralism in the past offers comfort to the present in knowing rules apply.
  • 25 Jul 2019
    • Global Issues
    • Africa

    Congo’s Ebola outbreak: sounding a global alarm

    Jesse Schnall
    The world was too slow responding to the 2014–2016 West Africa outbreak and cannot afford to make the same mistake.
  • 25 Jul 2019
    • Global Issues

    Does a US flag on the Moon amount to a claim of sovereignty under law?

    Donald R Rothwell , Imogen Saunders
    No, but international treaties that govern outer space loom as a potential flashpoint for growing US-China competition.
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