Australia's cultural and strategic ties lie in the Western world and its economic links are overwhelmingly in North Asia. So what is Southeast Asia to Australia? Why does the region matter, and what should Australia do to overcome its long-sightedness?

Michael Wesley is one of Australia's most incisive observers of world affairs. On Wednesday 18 March 2026, he joined the Lowy Institute's Sam Roggeveen to discuss why Australia perennially overlooks Southeast Asia in its strategic and economic considerations.

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Lowy Institute Lead Economist Roland Rajah and Nonresident Fellow Jenny Gordon discuss the economic implications of the expanding conflict in Iran. They put recent events in context, unpacking how we should understand and address the ongoing geoeconomic shocks. 

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To mark International Women’s Day, Lowy Institute fellows Susannah Patton and Serena Sasingian speak with Lydia Khalil in a wide-ranging discussion on women in international relations. They explore how gender equality strategies fit into realist power politics, how the global rise of “strongman” politics is threatening hard-won gains for women worldwide, and the relationship between gender equality and national power. They also reflect on their own careers and offer ideas for what meaningful progress could look like.

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Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney visited the Lowy Institute in Sydney for a special event on Wednesday 4 March 2026.

Speaking at a moment of acute global uncertainty, Prime Minister Carney reiterated his argument that the rules-based international order is not in transition but in rupture, and that middle powers like Canada and Australia cannot afford to wait for it to be restored. He outlined why sovereignty in the 21st century extends far beyond borders and defence, how middle powers can build collective strength through issue-based coalitions, and why legitimacy and trust are advantages the great powers cannot buy.

Prime Minister Carney also addressed the escalating conflict in the Middle East, Canada's recalibrated relationships with China, India, the United States, and United Nations, and his approach to dealing with President Trump.

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What went wrong with America's China strategy — and can it be fixed? 

In this Lowy Institute event, former US Assistant Secretary of Defense Ely Ratner traces America's long evolution from engagement to strategic competition. He delivers a pointed assessment of where the Trump administration has departed from that trajectory, and he sets out the implications for US allies, including Australia.

In conversation with the Lowy Institute's Sam Roggeveen, Dr Ratner also looks ahead to what a more serious US approach towards China would require.

This event was recorded at the State Library Victoria in Melbourne on Monday 16 February 2026.

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After barely a month, the year 2026 is already setting a bewildering geo-political pace. A presidential snatch-and-grab raid in Venezuela, anti-government riots in Iran, a fight over Greenland and a military upheaval in China have all buttressed Canadian Prime Minister, Mark Carney’s claim that the emerging new global order is a rupture, not a transition.

Hear from a panel of Lowy Institute experts as they examine what these diverse, dispersed events mean, both in and of themselves and for middle powers like Australia.

The panel was chaired by Richard McGregor, Senior Fellow for East Asia; and feature Susannah Patton, Director of the Southeast Asia Program and Project Lead for the Asia Power Index; James M. Zimmerman, a Beijing-based lawyer, author, and former Chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in China; and Andreas Radtke, a former German diplomat, and head of the Friedrich-Ebert Foundation in Australia.

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It has been just over a year since the Trump administration's dramatic cuts to America's foreign aid budget and the shuttering of USAID. With other major donors also slashing their aid programs — potentially causing 22 million additional avoidable deaths by 2030 — what does this mean for Australia's development efforts? A new OECD review of Australia's aid program provides a timely opportunity to assess the health and future direction of Australian development assistance.

The Lowy Institute’s Roland Rajah and Grace Stanhope are joined by Cameron Hill from the Development Policy Centre at the Australian National University and Bridi Rice, CEO of Development Intelligence Lab, to discuss the global aid landscape, Australia's comparative advantage in the region, and the tensions between short-term transactional wins and long-term transformational development.

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On 3 December, the Institute welcomed Senator Tim Ayres, Minister for Industry and Innovation and Minister for Science, to Bligh Street to launch the Australian Government’s National AI Plan. His speech outlined how we can harness the opportunities of AI, spread the benefits across society, and keep Australians safe.

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Watch this event on Youtube.

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Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney delivered a frank and impassioned speech at this year's World Economic Forum at Davos. He argued that in an era of great power competition, middle powers can no longer afford to maintain the fiction of a rules-based order. While never calling out President Trump by name, Carney highlighted the broader “rupture" in the global order.

Speaking with the Lowy Institute's Sam Roggeveen, Lydia Khalil discusses the value of rhetoric and dissects how Carney's remarks are being viewed in Canberra and other world capitals. While it has been much talked about, will Carney's speech shift how middle powers coordinate globally?

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More on this topic

• “Principled and pragmatic: Canada’s path”, Prime Minister Carney addresses the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting
• “A rupture, not a transition”:Carney’s new order, Sam Roggeveen, The Interpreter
  
• Nato without America: Europe ‘thinks the unthinkable’, Ben Hall and Henry Foy, Financial Times

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Troy Bramston is a senior writer at The Australian and author of the new biography Gough Whitlam: The Vista of the New — the first comprehensive biography of Australia's 21st prime minister since his death in 2014. Drawing on newly opened archives and more than 100 interviews, Bramston offers fresh insights into one of the most consequential periods in Australian history.

Speaking with the Lowy Institute's Director of Research David Dutton in Sydney, Bramston examines Whitlam's opening to China, the end of White Australia, independence for Papua New Guinea, and the complexities of East Timor and the alliance with the United States. He explores how Whitlam's realpolitik approach transformed Australian diplomacy and why his legacy continues to shape our approach to the region today.

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