Articles | Lowy Institute

5 Mar 2020
Australia in the World
Towards equal peace: Australian regional investment in gender equality

Nicole George , Katrina Lee-Koo , Jacqui True , Sara E Davies

Women’s participation in peace processes and inclusion of gender-equality provisions is key to their long-term success.
2 Mar 2020
Australia in the World

Diplomacy
Youth-led diplomacy: Big opportunity for big impact

Elise Stephenson

Tapping into the energy and insights of young people can help ensure the future success of Australia’s foreign policy.
21 Feb 2020
Australia in the World
Australia, in search of great and powerful friends

John West

For a people who like to think of themselves as a hardy lot, Australians’ perseverance in diplomacy will be tested yet.
13 Dec 2019
Australia in the World
Our Very Own Brexit: Response to reviewers

Sam Roggeveen

It is the decline of the traditional parties that destabilises our politics, not burgeoning right-wing populism.
21 Aug 2019
Australia in the World

United States

China

European Union

United Kingdom
Houses divided

Allan Behm

In Australia – and in a world in thrall to populists – political and business elites need to talk to each other.
30 Jul 2019
Australia in the World

Rules Based Audio
Australia’s great and powerful friends: Podcast out now

Kelsey Munro

Michael Fullilove discusses Boris Johnson, Donald Trump and Scott Morrison.
24 May 2019
Asia

Australia in the World
Bob Hawke’s Asia legacy

David Epstein

He believed strongly Australia could pursue closer engagement with near neighbours yet remain a close partner of the US.
16 May 2019
Australia in the World
Bob Hawke and Australian foreign policy

Allan Gyngell

Remaking the Australia-US alliance, tears over Tiananmen Square, challenging apartheid all marked a legacy of substance.
26 Apr 2019
Australia in the World

Australia’s election 2019
An Australian accent abroad? Foreign policy under a Shorten government

Susan Harris Rimmer

Labor’s Shorten has a domestic focus, but he has left space for independence in navigating major-power relationships.
17 Apr 2019
Australia in the World

China-Australia Relations

Australia and Asia

Australia-United States Relations

Australia’s election 2019
A question of faith: future Coalition foreign policy under Morrison

Geoff Kitney

If he wins the Australian election, Scott Morrison's evangelical Christian faith may influence foreign policy.
10 Apr 2019
Australia in the World
As Julie Bishop exits, how far have women come in world affairs?

Elise Stephenson

The number of women in senior international roles is unmatched for Australia and the challenge is to drive to parity.
4 Mar 2019
Australia in the World

Diplomacy
Australia, it’s time to put our political diplomats to the test

Daniel Flitton

There’s a better way to deal with politicians-turned-ambassadors and it comes from (whisper it) the United States.
4 Feb 2019
Australia in the World

Diplomacy
Giving Australia a sporting chance

Jonathan Prosser

Diplomacy in the Pacific should exploit one of Australia’s special attributes – the love of competition.
25 Jan 2019
Australia in the World
Do away with Australia Day, celebrate Republic Day instead

Daniel Flitton

There is no need to reach back to history to find an excuse to celebrate. Australia should make history.
30 Nov 2018
Australia in the World
Marise Payne: charting the battle lines for Australian security

Alex Oliver

The Foreign Minister’s speech follows a run of major foreign and defence policy speeches ahead of the poll that matters.
8 Nov 2018
Australia in the World
Kevin Rudd’s script in defence of multilateralism

Geoff Kitney

Rudd’s time as PM covered great global upheaval, and his entreaty for the world to stop and think is worth noting.
1 Nov 2018
Australia in the World
Scott Morrison gets ready for Asia’s summit season

Sam Roggeveen

Yes, familiar themes abound, but there was plenty of interest in the PM’s first big foreign policy speech.
24 Aug 2018
Australia in the World
Soft power and reviewing Australia’s global appeal

Geoffrey Wiseman

A challenge for a new review is to agree what we mean by soft power, how to measure it, and to put it into practice.
29 Jun 2018
Australia in the World
Thinking about Australia’s power and influence

Darren Lim , Victor Ferguson

To maximise its international influence, Canberra must concentrate on pathways where it has a comparative advantage.
21 May 2018
Australia in the World
A lesser Australia

Nick Bisley

If left unchecked, a decline in Australia’s influence will continue quite rapidly over the coming decade.
18 May 2018
Australia in the World
BREAKING: foreign influence campaign exposed!

Daniel Flitton

An Interpreter exclusive reveals the insidious co-opting of Australian media and politicians.
16 May 2018
Australia in the World
Time to sharpen the edge of Australia’s soft power

Geoff Heriot

Two decades of yo-yoing government policy on international broadcasting has diminished Australia’s once significant presence in the Great Game of the Airwaves.
10 May 2018
Australia in the World
Economic diplomacy brief: the first Indo-Pacific budget is really all about China

Greg Earl

Greg Earl looks at the federal budget and implications for Australia in the region.
18 Apr 2018
Australia in the World
CHOGM: the zombie summit that will not die

Daniel Flitton

Wasting Prime Ministerial time is not good diplomacy.
11 Apr 2018
Australia in the World
Julie Bishop and the liberal ideal

Nick Bisley

The Foreign Minister seemed most animated when discussing ideas that are clearly under threat in the region and indeed globally.
26 Mar 2018
Australia in the World
The cost to Australia’s reputation from cricket’s scandal

Rodger Shanahan

Sneaky and inept is how Australia is presented to the world by the actions of the national team.
28 Feb 2018
Australia in the World
We need to talk about Australia’s international policy

Nick Bisley

The failure to speak to the public at home and with vigour about foreign policy is a mistake.
21 Feb 2018
Australia in the World
Seven quick takeaways from Julie Bishop’s speech at King’s College London

Euan Graham

The most important foreign policy speech in a year hints how Australia's view has evolved in a short time.
7 Feb 2018
Australia in the World
The clash of values and practice in Australian foreign policy

Bec Strating

Nauru is one case where Australia's global interest in promoting democracy is compromised by its specific immigration policy priorities.
6 Feb 2018
Asia

Australia in the World

Asean
ASEAN matters and deserves credit

John Blaxland

For all its inconveniences, Australia is overwhelmingly dependent on ASEAN working and working well.
5 Feb 2018
Asia

Australia in the World

Asean
Is ASEAN still central to Australia?

Euan Graham

Canberra is busy diversifying its diplomatic efforts partly in response to ASEAN's shortcomings.
30 Jan 2018
Australia in the World

Defence & Security
Defence export strategy revives old ethical dilemmas

Sam Roggeveen

Can we raise our defence exports while keeping our hands clean?
17 Jan 2018
Australia in the World

Nuclear Weapons
Why Australia should consider sharing nuclear weapons

Peter Layton

Nuclear sharing is an old idea worth considering as the future becomes less certain and potentially darker.
15 Dec 2017
Australia in the World
How the region reported the Foreign Policy White Paper

A round-up of foreign media reactions to the release last month of Australia's Foreign Policy White Paper.
15 Dec 2017
Australia in the World

China
Saying the unsayable in Australia’s relations with China

Mark Harrison

The resignation of Sam Dastyari is as significant for Australia its own way as Brexit for the UK or the election of Donald Trump for the US.
13 Dec 2017
Australia in the World

North Korea
How Australia can help avoid a disastrous Korean war

Hugh White

Australia should say publicly that it will take no part in any pre-emptive US strike on North Korea.
12 Dec 2017
Australia in the World
Review: Hugh White's 'Without America'

Sam Roggeveen

Just when the foreign-policy orthodoxy seemed to be catching up with him, Hugh White has upended it again.
11 Dec 2017
Australia in the World

Defence & Security

United States

China

Thailand
Learning to trust: Lessons from Thailand, the US and China

Greg Raymond , John Blaxland

Attitudes about friend or foe shift dramatically when countries work together on a serious security problem.
4 Dec 2017
Australia in the World

Pacific Islands
Australia’s coal-fired diplomacy burns Pacific friends

Wesley Morgan

Climate change negotiations might be moving slowly, yet Australia is excluding itself from the conversation.
4 Dec 2017
Australia in the World

China
Mistrust of Australia is growing in China

Nick Bisley

The mood in Canberra has soured toward China. That ill feeling is being reciprocated.
30 Nov 2017
Australia in the World
An opportunity missed for a feminist foreign policy

Sarah Boyd

The White Paper relegated gender equality as a development issue, rather than a strategic priority.
30 Nov 2017
Australia in the World
Understanding a rules-based White Paper

Ric Smith

Why has the ‘rules-based order’ concept become so prominent in Australian policy?
29 Nov 2017
Australia in the World
How social media aids repressive regimes and undermines democracy

Damien Spry

There are few limits on means and plenty of opportunities to manipulate politics via social media.
29 Nov 2017
Australia in the World
What problem, exactly, would a foreign agents law fix?

Bret Walker

Australia already has adequate counter-espionage laws to target the sinister and untoward elements of influence.
29 Nov 2017
Australia in the World
Does the White Paper underestimate the pace of economic change?

Roland Rajah

We may again fail to grasp how quickly changes in relative economic weight translate into changes in the balance of power.
28 Nov 2017
Australia in the World
Foreign Policy White Paper: the UN on the periphery

Sally Weston

Australia seems ambivalent about the UN role in the rules based order.
28 Nov 2017
Global Economy

Australia in the World
Haircuts, taxis and Big Macs: Comparing economies using purchasing power parity

Stephen Grenville

Exploring the pitfalls of measuring China's economy against Americas.
27 Nov 2017
Australia in the World
Foreign Policy White Paper sees a new Asia but pleads for the old

James Curran

This White Paper is, as it ought to be, full of tension between history and geography.
27 Nov 2017
Australia in the World

Pacific Islands
Keep Calm and Step Up: The White Paper's message on the Pacific

James Batley

Coy about China, the government studiously avoids any sense of alarm about the region.
24 Nov 2017
Australia in the World

China
What the White Paper misses on China

Merriden Varrall

The assumption that China can be encouraged into a ‘more responsible role’ is ill-founded.