Lowy Institute

Lowy Institute's Research Fellow Dr Rahman Yaacob, recently traveled to Cambodia to investigate the controversial Ream Naval Base. In this podcast, Rahman shared his insights with Sam Roggeveen, Director of the International Security Program. They discuss how the Ream Naval Base plays into Cambodias strategic positioning and the broader context of US-China geopolitical competition.  

Read and download the Lowy Institute Analysis “Partnership of convenience: Ream Naval Base and the Cambodia–China convergence” by Dr Rahman Yacoub

Link - https://www.lowyinstitute.org/publications/partnership-convenience-ream-naval-base-cambodia-china-convergence

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Trillions of dollars are needed to meet the world’s climate and development goals. Joan Larrea, CEO of Convergence, a global blended finance network, speaks with the Lowy Institute’s Roland Rajah about how blended finance, which uses government and philanthropic money to increase private investment, could be the answer. Joan shares her insights on what blended finance can realistically achieve, what’s needed to increase its impact, and how it can help in low income and small island developing countries.  

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On Monday 18 November 2024, we hosted Australian and American scholars at the Lowy Institute to assess the aftermath of the tense, high-stakes US election. Our panellists discussed the outcome of the poll and the implications for Australia and the region, including trade, national security, and China and Asia policy.

Richard McGregor led the conversation with the Australian Financial Review’s International Editor James Curran, and visiting scholars Charles Edel and Kathryn Paik from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, DC.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The 2024 Lowy Lecture was delivered by the President of the Czech Republic, Petr Pavel.

‍The Lowy Lecture was held on Tuesday 26 November 2024 at the Sydney Town Hall.

President Petr Pavel is one of Europe’s most influential, interesting and articulate leaders. He has been a vocal supporter of Ukraine in its war against Russia, leading calls for a strong and united response by Western nations to Russia’s aggression. He believes that - facing the current challenges - democracies across the world must work closely together.

He was inaugurated as the fourth President of the Czech Republic in March 2023. Prior to entering politics, Mr Pavel spent 35 years in the Czech military, culminating in his service as the Chief of the General Staff of the Czech Armed Forces. Mr Pavel also chaired the Military Committee, NATO’s senior military authority, from 2015 to 2018.

The Lowy Lecture is the Institute’s flagship event and one of the world’s leading lecture series.

Past Lowy Lecturers have included leaders such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel, then UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, as well as four sitting Australian prime ministers, including Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in 2023.
‍
The Lowy Institute is grateful for the support of our event partners Mercer and AWS.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Each year, the Lowy Institute updates is Pacific Aid Map – the most comprehensive database tracking aid and development flows to the Pacific Islands region ever assembled. In this episode of Development Futures, lead authors Alexandre Dayant and Riley Duke join Dr Jessica Collins to unpack the key insights from this year’s report and explore key questions.  How is the international community supporting the Pacific as it recovers from the pandemic? What role is China playing in the region?  And how is geopolitics shaping the allocation of development finance? These questions and more are explored in this episode.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On Tuesday 12 November our Lowy Institute experts and senior investment leaders discussed key geopolitical risks and trends, and the impacts on financial markets and investment portfolios.
‍
Rising geopolitical tensions are testing the resilience of global businesses and challenging existing growth strategies.  Conflict in Europe and the Middle East and escalating US–China competition have the attention of business leaders. Moreover, 2024 is the year of national elections, with more than 60 countries and nearly 50 percent of the global population heading to the polls. Business leaders increasingly see geopolitics as a major risk to global growth and view political transitions as the leading emergent risk.
‍
Our panellists considered major paradigm shifts including inflation regimes, climate and decarbonisation, technology disruption, populism, deglobalisation and changing asset class correlations. They also discussed the consequences of these shifts for Australia, Asia and the world.
‍
Sam Roggeveen will convene this conversation with Lowy Institute Research Director Hervé Lemahieu, Barrenjoey Chief Economist Jo Masters and Future Fund Chief Investment Officer Ben Samild, which will include questions from the audience.

Panellists
‍
Jo Masters is Chief Economist of Barrenjoey Capital Partners. She focuses on trends across the economy and financial markets and has been a highly regarded part of the economic debate in Australia for 25 years.
‍
Hervé Lemahieu is Director of Research at the Lowy Institute. His research interests include strategy and geopolitics, global governance, Australian foreign policy, Southeast Asia and data analysis.  He started his career at Oxford Analytica informing government and business policy on geopolitical risk in Asia.
‍
Ben Samild is Chief Investment Officer at the Future Fund. In his former role as Deputy Chief Investment Officer, Mr Samild led the teams responsible for investing Listed Equites and Alternatives strategies and led the integration of whole-of-portfolio insights as part of the Fund’s joined-up investment approach.
‍
Sam Roggeveen is Director the International Security Program at the Lowy Institute. He is the author of The Echidna Strategy: Australia’s Search for Power and Peace.  Sam also serves as Lead Editor at the Lowy Institute, and editor of the Lowy Institute Papers.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Less than a week after Donald Trump’s historic election victory, world experts gathered in Baku, Azerbaijan, for COP29, the UN’s annual summit on climate change. The Hon Chris Bowen MP, Australia’s Minister for Climate Change and Energy, holds a central role at this year’s summit, as co-chair of negotiations on a new global climate finance goal. He speaks to the Lowy Institute’s Ryan Neelam about global climate action in the age of Trump, Australia’s climate ambitions, and the challenges facing the world in a new, more turbulent era of geopolitics. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A wide-ranging conversation with The Economist’s defence editor, Shashank Joshi, which will cover the Ukraine war, the Middle East, China’s nuclear ambitions, tensions between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea, the implications of the US presidential election for international security, and much more, including questions from the audience. Shashank Joshi is The Economist’s defence editor. Previously, he served as Senior Research Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute and Research Associate at Oxford University’s Changing Character of War program. He has published books on Iran’s nuclear program and India’s armed forces, written for a wide range of newspapers and journals, and appeared regularly on radio and television. Sam Roggeveen, Director of the Lowy Institute’s International Security Program, hosted the conversation.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, we explore what might happen at COP29, the upcoming UN climate summit in Baku, Azerbaijan. With global emissions at record highs and climate impacts intensifying, this year’s conference will focus on setting a new climate finance goal to drive global climate action. The Lowy Institute’s Alexandre Dayant is joined by Indo-Pacific Development Centre climate experts Dr Melanie Pill and Georgia Hammersley, who will be hosting side events at the Pacific and Australian pavilions at COP29, as well as Ryan Neelam, Director of the Public Opinion and Foreign Policy Program at the Institute. Together, they dive into key issues on the agenda, potential sticking points, the global context, and what COP29 might mean for the future of global climate action.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode of Conversations, the Lowy Institute's Dr Michael Fullilove and Hervé Lemahieu discuss Donald Trump's remarkable political comeback. What will a second Trump presidency mean for America's allies, adversaries, and the fence-sitters? And how should Australia deal with Mr Trump in the Oval Office?

You can also read our special feature on Trump 2.0, as well as Dr Fullilove’s essay for The Atlantic.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.