Lowy Institute Conversations

As advanced militaries converge on similar hardware, the decisive edge in future conflict may come from how quickly commanders can sense, decide and act. Christopher Kirchhoff, who founded the Pentagon’s Silicon Valley office and authored Unit X: How the Pentagon and Silicon Valley are Transforming the Future of War, joins Sam Roggeveen to discuss agentic AI, nuclear stability, lessons from Ukraine and sovereignty for middle powers like Australia.

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Australia’s economic future will be shaped less by domestic policy debates than by forces beyond its borders: the US–China relationship, artificial intelligence, and the health of the global economic order. In this episode of Lowy Institute Conversations, Sam Roggeveen speaks with economist and historian John Edwards, author of the latest Lowy Institute Paper, Overhaul: How Australia Can Adapt to a Changing World Economy, about why he is cautiously optimistic about the next 25 years — and why Canberra should be more sanguine about US–China rivalry.

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The public’s anxiety about artificial intelligence appears to be growing, with high-profile data security breaches and opposition towards data centres attracting negative attention. Yet a more hopeful view is also gaining ground: that the technology could help rebuild struggling democratic institutions. In this episode of Lowy Institute Conversations, Lydia Khalil speaks with Beth Noveck, author of Reboot: AI and the Race to Save Democracy, about public AI, digital sovereignty, diplomacy and the role middle powers such as Australia can play in shaping how it is governed.

More episodes of the Lowy Institute's podcasts are available on your favourite podcast apps, including Spotify, YouTube and Apple.

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Despite being close neighbours, Australia and Papua New Guinea have only recently become formal allies through the Pukpuk Treaty. But what does this new alliance mean beyond government-to-government ties?

In this episode of Lowy Institute Conversations, Dominic De Moura McCarthy, President and Founder of the Pacific-Australia Youth Association, and Sharon Bala Woruba, Environment and Sustainability Manager for PNG at Coca-Cola Europacific Partners, join the Institute's Sarah Thompson to discuss the future of the bilateral relationship.They discuss PNG's forthcoming NRL team, the Chiefs; what real economic opportunity for small businesses and grassroots communities looks like; the underused potential of diaspora communities in places like 

North Queensland; and why formal exchange and education programs matter at every stage of life.
The conversation lands on a bigger question: what would it take for everyday Australians and Papua New Guineans to feel genuine ownership of this relationship, rather than watching it play out at the top?

Dominic De Moura McCarthy and Sharon Bala Woruba were participants in the Australia–PNG Network's 2026 Emerging Leaders Dialogue. You can read the recommendations of the emerging leaders in a joint communiqué published by the Lowy Institute.

More episodes of the Lowy Institute's podcasts are available on your favourite podcast apps, including Spotify, YouTube and Apple.

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As the 55th Pacific Islands Forum Leaders' Meeting opens in Palau, the region faces a series of major challenges. These include a Chinese missile test that the Forum couldn’t agree to condemn, a contested region-wide security treaty, Taiwan's return to the Forum, an El Niño event, and a global fuel crisis.

In this episode of Lowy Institute Conversations, Oliver Nobetau is joined by Dr Connor Graham and Sarah Thompson to examine what these developments mean for Pacific security, regional unity, and economic resilience.

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As great powers race for the critical minerals scattered on the ocean floor, the Pacific is splitting into two camps — those betting on deep-sea mining as an economic lifeline, and those warning the environmental risks are too great. In this episode of Lowy Institute Conversations, Dr Connor Graham speaks with Dr Philippa Louey, Senior Research Associate at the Lancaster Environment Centre, about what's driving the rush, where Australia fits in, and whether the region can find common ground before mining starts.

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China blocked trade, froze out ministers, and left lobsters rotting on the tarmac, and still couldn't force Australia to budge. In this episode of Lowy Institute Conversations, former Australian ambassador to Beijing Graham Fletcher joins Research Director Mihai Sora to discuss what "stabilisation" really means for the Australia–China relationship — from rare earths and the Port of Darwin to Taiwan and the ever-present shadow cast from Washington. Fletcher argues the current "sweet spot" is harder won — and more fragile — than it looks.

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The way authoritarian and illiberal states interact has changed. China, Russia, Iran and North Korea have gone from defending themselves against perceived liberal pressure to actively building the institutions of an alternative order. In this episode of Lowy Institute Conversations, Nick Bisley, the author of a new Lowy Institute paper analysing this cooperation, speaks with the Institute's Sam Roggeveen about the boot camps teaching authoritarian states how to control information, the improbable rise of BRICS, and why this messy, opportunistic coalition might be harder to counter than a formal alliance ever was.

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Australia calls itself the Pacific's partner of choice. But is the relationship built on mutual understanding, or is it driven by Canberra’s anxiety about China? 

Professor Joanne Wallis, the author of a new book with Jack Corbett, Neighbours, joins the Lowy Institute’s Serena Sasingian to discuss Australia's uneasy colonial history in the region, the gap between its "Pacific family" rhetoric and its strategy of denial, and why aid hasn't bought the influence Canberra hoped for. 

Wallis makes the case for a different frame altogether: not family, not chessboard, but neighbours.

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It's been the busiest fortnight in Australia–Pacific diplomacy in recent memory. In the space of ten days, Australia signed the Nakamal Agreement with Vanuatu, the Vuvale Union and a surprise Ocean of Peace Alliance with Fiji, and saw the Pukpuk Treaty with Papua New Guinea come into effect — all while marking Solomon Islands Independence Day and flagging a comprehensive treaty with Honiara by year's end.

On the very same day the Fiji deals were signed, China tested a submarine-launched ballistic missile over the Pacific, sparking claims of a deliberate signal to the region.

Sam Roggeveen is joined by Dr Connor Graham to unpack the missile test, why Pacific nations have responded more cautiously than Australia and New Zealand, and what China really wants from the region.

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