Articles | Lowy Institute

12 Apr 2018
Global Issues
“Presumably, we shall have to call her a Stateswoman”

Erin Watson-Lynn

More positive profiling of women in office will result in more positive perceptions of women in political leadership.
12 Apr 2018
Global Economy
Global monetary policy returning to “normality”

Stephen Grenville

Fears about the effects of quantitative easing are refuted by experience.
12 Apr 2018
Migration and border policy links: US border troops, American journeys, and more

Erin Harris

Links and updates from across the migration and border policy field.
12 Apr 2018
Vietnam
Vietnam’s crackdown on dissent could undermine its stability and growth

Hunter Marston

Detaining enemies of the state could erode international support for Vietnam.
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.
11 Apr 2018
Indonesia
Entrepreneurial traffic in the Jakarta jam

Erin Cook

Ride-hailing apps are all the rage in Indonesia’s capital, but an old favourite is chugging on.
11 Apr 2018
Pacific Islands
Pacific Islands links: Vanuatu base talk, PNG unplugged, medals, and more

Jonathan Pryke

Links and stories from around the Pacific by The Interpreter team.
11 Apr 2018
Syria

Iran

Russia
Rouhani, Erdogan, and Putin’s bizarre love triangle

Wayne McLean

Jostling over Syria offers a glimpse of emerging alliances and compromises as the US-led security order winds down.
11 Apr 2018
China
The Boao confidence

Richard McGregor

Xi Jinping didn’t mention Beijing’s current stand-off with Washington, but the contrast he was drawing was clear.
11 Apr 2018
Europe

Australia

China

Russia
Australia vs China, Europe vs Russia

Daniel Woker

Surprising parallels in international relations appear to lead to similar replies.
10 Apr 2018
Asylum seekers and refugees

Australia

Nauru
The lack of appeal in Nauru

Erin Harris

Australia should question why final court appeals have been scrapped in the tiny Pacific nation before an alternative was set up.
10 Apr 2018
Defence & Security

Australia
Getting our maritime security effort right

James Goldrick

The time has clearly come for a careful examination of what Australia needs in a civil maritime security organisation.
10 Apr 2018
Defence & Security

Australia

China

Vanuatu
The many questions about China’s Vanuatu ambition

Rory Medcalf

Talk of a Chinese military base in Vanuatu should provoke tough questions in Australia, but not undue alarm.
10 Apr 2018
China
Xi’s big bureaucratic shake-up

Camille Boullenois

Sweeping reforms may be difficult to swallow for central and local agencies, but the reorganisation of the Chinese bureaucracy has a good chance of success.
9 Apr 2018
Indonesia
Borneo oil spill costs Indonesia’s poor

Kate Walton

Marine pollution and its impact on ocean life represents a major threat to coastal communities.
9 Apr 2018
Aid and development links: superheroes and the resource curse, poverty in Nigeria, and more

Alexandre Dayant

Links and stories from the aid and development sector.
9 Apr 2018
United States

North Korea

South Korea
The peril of North Korea’s charm offensive

Khang Vu

The US and South Korea must be wary about Pyongyang dangling the strings.
9 Apr 2018
United States

Trade

China
American trade policy returns to “aggressive unilateralism”

Roland Rajah

The US deployed similar trade tactics in the 1980s to pursue its grievances with a rising Japan.
9 Apr 2018
Southeast Asia
Amal Clooney no match for Trump and China in Southeast Asia press clampdown

Alexandra Wake

Authoritarian governments are quick to claim “fake news” in a neighbourhood crackdown on press freedom.
7 Apr 2018
Weekend catch-up: Sergei Skripal, Korean summit, and women’s rugby in Tonga

The week that was on The Interpreter.
6 Apr 2018
Bangladesh
Bangladesh: breaking with dynasty

Joseph Allchin

Forthcoming elections in Bangladesh will expose the semblance of democracy in the country.
6 Apr 2018
Europe

China
Chinese belts and roads stir mixed reactions in Europe

Hans Jørgen Gåsemyr , Bjørnar Sverdrup-Thygeson

Europeans are growing more wary of China, but still welcome many of its contributions.
6 Apr 2018
Asia

Central Asia
Tajikistan and Uzbekistan: a welcome but fragile thaw

Luke Dawes

The signs of warming relations between Uzbekistan and Tajikistan are built on the friendship between two authoritarian rulers.
6 Apr 2018
Australia

North Korea

South Korea
Watching on: Australia and the Korean Peninsula talks

Bec Strating

Australia has put its trust in Donald Trump and his transactional, “deal-making” style of diplomacy.
5 Apr 2018
Asylum seekers and refugees

Migration
Migration and border policy links: Israel’s UNHCR backflip, Pacific seasonal workers, more

Erin Harris

Links and updates from across the migration and border policy field.
5 Apr 2018
Pacific Islands

Tonga
Girls shouldn’t play rugby because of “some female body parts”

‘Ofa-ki-Levuka (‘Ofa) Guttenbeil-Likiliki

What the?
5 Apr 2018
Russia
Skripal: the weight of evidence

Shashank Joshi

The alternatives to Russian culpability in the nerve agent attack strain credulity.
5 Apr 2018
Technology
Facebook’s May day

John Gooding

Upcoming EU regulations will have a huge effect on how data-fuelled tech giants do business.
4 Apr 2018
North Korea

South Korea
An agenda for the Moon–Kim summit

Robert E Kelly

Moon Jae-in surely sees himself as Nixon going to China, rather than Chamberlain going to Munich.
4 Apr 2018
Saudi Arabia
The world according to Mohammed bin Salman

Rodger Shanahan

The Saudi Crown Prince is on a PR drive yet still displays all the kingdom’s weakness.
4 Apr 2018
Egypt
The rationale for Egypt’s military spending spree

Casper Wuite

Abdel Fattah el-Sisi looks to balance Cario’s economic weakness with military prowess.
4 Apr 2018
Indonesia
Indonesia’s fishy furore

Aisyah Llewellyn

A policy of catching and destroying poachers’ boats has made a celebrity of the Fisheries Minister.
3 Apr 2018
Aid and development links: cut or not, gender and water, trade in Central America, and more

Alexandre Dayant

Links and stories from the aid and development sector.
3 Apr 2018
Pacific Islands

United States
Small dots, large strategic areas: US interests in the South Pacific

Charles Edel

The US would be wise to further invest in ensuring that the Pacific nations retain their independence, freedom, and sovereignty.
3 Apr 2018
New Caledonia
Words that count: New Caledonia’s referendum question

Alexandre Dayant

The continued divide in Caledonian society is shown by the very formulation of the question that will help decide the territory’s future.
2 Apr 2018
China
China: the party, the state, and the new anti-graft body

Merriden Varrall , Charlie Lyons Jones

Xi Jinping has taken a significant risk with reforms of the anti-corruption system.
1 Apr 2018
China
Leslie – 15 years on

Ting Huang

Leslie Cheung was known as the “Elvis of Hong Kong” and his legacy shows LGBT+ issues remain very much taboo in Chinese culture.
31 Mar 2018
Weekend catch-up: Xi meets Kim, taxing the tech giants, and Australia’s cricketing shame

The week that was on The Interpreter.
30 Mar 2018
Asia

Defence & Security

China's Military

Asia Pacific Security

South China Sea

Asean

China

Vietnam
Deterrence under the dragon’s shadow: Vietnam’s military modernisation

Wu Shang-Su

Vietnam has long sought to calibrate its defence posture in the shadows of great power competition.
29 Mar 2018
Administration
Public holiday: Easter long weekend

The Interpreter

Publishing will be light on Friday and Monday.
29 Mar 2018
Asia

Australia
Economic diplomacy brief: TPP trade reform, remaking aid, and Indonesian relations

Greg Earl

Talk of new aid cuts raise new questions about what sort of serious alternative can be fashioned to China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
29 Mar 2018
Indonesia
Indonesia: millennials’ party

Febriana Firdaus

A party for the youth of Indonesia has won over social media, but still faces plenty of obstacles to success.
29 Mar 2018
Australia

Timor-Leste

Indonesia
Timor Trough: the rumpled carpet on the sea floor

Brendan Duffy

A Timor Sea maritime boundary beyond the median line was never reasonable.
29 Mar 2018
United States

North Korea
Trump, Kim, and the deal of the century

Sam Roggeveen

Trump ought to offer Kim a grand bargain: give up your ICBM program, and we will withdraw our troops from South Korea.
29 Mar 2018
Defence & Security

Australia
The exciting prospects of a strong defence industry

Christopher Pyne

Australia will never be able to compete globally making T-shirts. But we can compete with high-end, world-beating defence equipment.
28 Mar 2018
United States

China

North Korea
Hot take: what does Kim Jong-un’s trip to China mean?

Robert E Kelly

Events are moving fast now and the Beijing trip means a Trump–Kim summit is increasingly likely.
28 Mar 2018
Pacific Islands
Pacific Islands links: PNG earthquake recovery, rubbish and recycling, and more

Links and stories from around the Pacific by The Interpreter team.
28 Mar 2018
United States

North Korea
US–North Korea summit: can Trump deliver?

Andray Abrahamian

Trump’s propensity to walk away from promises will hang over the talks with Kim Jong-un.
28 Mar 2018
Asia
Mekong: more dams, more damage

Tom Fawthrop

Asia’s great river is under growing threat from hydropower.
28 Mar 2018
Terrorism

Indonesia
Indonesia: countering a message of hate

Kate Grealy

Efforts to tackle radicalisation are being held back by a lack of knowledge and problems of official coordination.