Australians will go to a federal election in a few months’ time. A fraught international environment is challenging the old rule that Australians do not vote on foreign policy questions. How will global issues — Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, China’s icy relations with Australia, climate change, the pandemic, and headwinds in the global economic recovery — influence the course of the election campaign? 

On Monday 21 March 2022, the Lowy Institute hosted this discussion event to examine foreign policy and national security in this election year. The panel was chaired by Director of Research, Hervé Lemahieu and featured Senior Fellow for East Asia Richard McGregor, West Asia Program Research Fellow Lydia Khalil, the Director of the Australia's Security and the Rules-Based Order project Ben Scott, and the Director of La Trobe Asia Bec Strating.

Recorded Monday 21 March 2022 at State Library Victoria.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Event: Foreign policy in an election year - Melbourne

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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. ‍ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EVENT: The inaugural Allan Gyngell Lecture

In this episode of The Director's Chair, the Lowy Institute's Executive Director Michael Fullilove is joined by The New York Times columnist Bret Stephens.
They discuss the forthcoming US election and why he thinks Donald Trump is likely to return to the White House. They also talk about the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, AUKUS, cancel culture, and why he changed his mind about the risks of climate change.
The Director’s Chair is a podcast by the Lowy Institute: https://www.lowyinstitute.org/
X:
@LowyInstitute
@mfullilove
Host: Michael Fullilove 
Producers: Darcy Milne and Andrew Griffits 
Research: David Vallance See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bret Stephens on Trump's election chances, AUKUS, and changing his mind on climate change

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. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EVENT: Coming to terms with Myanmar’s fragmented state

In the new episode of The Director’s Chair, the Lowy Institute’s Executive Director Michael Fullilove is joined by US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell.
They discuss Kurt Campbell’s new role in the State Department, American policy towards China, the relationship between Moscow and Beijing, Xi Jinping’s recent visit to France, Dr Campbell’s aims for the AUKUS pact, and the things that make him optimistic when he looks at the world today.
The Director’s Chair is a podcast by the Lowy Institute: https://www.lowyinstitute.org/
Twitter:
@LowyInstitute
@mfullilove
@DeputySecState 
Host: Michael Fullilove 
Producers: Josh Goding and Andrew Griffits 
Research: David Vallance See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kurt Campbell on China, Russia, AUKUS, and US foreign policy in Asia

China is facing many economic problems, at home and abroad. The two are connected. Weak demand at home has contributed to a sharp rise in Chinese manufacturing exports, especially in green technologies such as electric vehicles. Surging Chinese exports have in turn prompted a backlash from the United States, Europe, and others who accuse China of exporting overcapacity and damaging their own green industrial ambitions.
In this episode, Roland Rajah, Director of the Indo-Pacific Development Centre (IPDC), talks with Dr Bert Hofman, one of the leading international experts on China’s economy and a widely respected development economist and practitioner. They discuss China’s development model, the idea of “Peak China”, whether China is exporting overcapacity, what this all means for developing countries, and Bert’s ideas for what the world should be doing in response.
Dr Hofman is currently an adjunct professor at the East Asian Institute at the National University of Singapore and before that was with the World Bank for almost three decades, most recently as director of the World Bank’s country office in China. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Event: Foreign policy in an election year - Melbourne

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