Lowy Institute

In this episode of The Director’s Chair, Michael Fullilove speaks to the leading Indian scholar and diplomat, Shivshankar Menon. They discuss Hamas’s attack on Israel, how India manages its relationship with China, and why he is an optimist about the relationship between India and Australia.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Group of 20 Common Framework was established in October 2020 as stress in sovereign debt levels of low-income countries began to emerge. However, the Framework is yet to substantially deliver on its objective of providing relief to those countries.

Mariza Cooray, Senior Economist at the Lowy Institute’s Indo-Pacific Development Centre, discusses the Common Framework and the broader debates on issues in sovereign debt reform with experts Ugo Panizza and Mitu Gulati.

Together, they explore why the Framework has failed, given the modern creditor landscape, whether the ongoing emerging market debt crises are as serious as those in the 1990s, the appetite for a global bankruptcy court, odious debt, and other policy issues that prevent the progress of a more inclusive sovereign debt architecture.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Green Climate Fund – the largest climate fund in the world – is seeking a new cash injection by donors in October 2023. But it's not all smooth sailing. Alexandre Dayant, the Deputy Director of the Indo-Pacific Development Centre, discusses a recent Lowy Institute policy brief with two of the authors, Georgia Hammersley and Roland Rajah. Together, they explore the key challenges hampering the Fund's efficiency, propose several reforms, and spotlight Australia's potential role in helping realise them.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

An address by foreign relations expert and former diplomat Dr Martin Indyk on US diplomacy in the Middle East and elsewhere, and lessons from history. Dr Indyk discussed his recent biography, Master of the Game: Henry Kissinger and the Art of Middle East Diplomacy, and the relevance of US diplomat Dr Kissinger for modern foreign policy challenges, including in Ukraine. After his remarks, Dr Indyk spoke in conversation with the Lowy Institute’s Executive Director Dr Michael Fullilove.

Dr Martin Indyk is a former diplomat who is currently the Lowy Distinguished Fellow in US–Middle East Diplomacy at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. Prior to this, he was the executive vice president of the Brookings Institution. He served twice as US Ambassador to Israel, from 1995 to 1997, and again from 2000 to 2001. Dr Indyk was special assistant to President Bill Clinton, senior director for Near East and South Asian affairs at the US National Security Council, and assistant secretary for Near Eastern affairs at the US State Department. From 2013 to 2014, he served as President Barack Obama’s special envoy for Middle East peace. Ambassador Indyk is a founding member of the Lowy Institute Board.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

During a brief visit to Sydney, Major General (Ret'd) Tamir Hayman, Managing Director of the Institute for National Security Studies in Israel, offered the Lowy Institute’s Sam Roggeveen his unique insights on where momentum now lies in the Ukraine war, whether Iran will pursue a nuclear weapon or stop just short of building one, and the role of secret intelligence in an age of ‘information super-abundance’.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode of Pacific Change Makers, Dr Jessica Collins speaks with Vanuatu MPGloria Julia King – a mother of four, and a former national football player who is the first woman to be elected to Vanuatu’s parliament in 14 years. 

Ms King pays respect to women who trailblazed before her but says, more than four decades on from independence, little has changed for women trying to make a career in national politics.

At a recent FIFA World Cup Gender Symposium hosted by Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong, Ms King said that “in the community, in education, in health, in sports, in football…whatever the association or institution you’re serving in, it is important that women have a place on the table where decisions have been made.”

She also says that while barriers persist for women in politics, sport is a great equalizer, irregardless of gender or ethnicity: “When it comes to football, when it comes to sports, all these barriers dissolve.”

Speakers

Gloria Julia King was elected to Vanuatu’s parliament in 2022 as representative for the Efate constituency, becoming the first woman elected to the chamber in 14 years. A former national football player and businesswoman, she was chef de mission of the Vanuatu team at the  Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in 2022.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode of The Director’s Chair, Michael Fullilove speaks with Kaja Kallas, the Prime Minister of Estonia. They discuss Estonia’s strong support for Ukraine in the face of Russia’s invasion, the future of Russia in world affairs, and why democracies must work together to counter aggression and reinforce support for the international rules-based order.

Kaja Kallas has been the Prime Minister of the Republic of Estonia since 2021. She first became a member of Estonia’s parliament, the Riigikogu, in 2011, and served as a member of the European Parliament from 2014, before returning to politics in Estonia as leader of the Reform Party. She was returned as Prime Minister in March this year after general elections.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In May 2023, Thailand held a general election. Now nearly three months after the vote, there's no new prime minister, no new government and the largest party in parliament, Move Forward, won't lead the country. Dr Gregory Raymond at the Australian National University sits down with Lowy Institute Research Director Herve Lemahieu to discuss the murky state of affairs in Thai politics and what could happen next. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Three years of global turmoil have broken many of our underlying assumptions about the world. Australians have emerged from this period with dramatically different views on the threats facing the nation. They express a sober optimism in some areas. And they have cautiously reassessed Australia’s relations with great powers. 

The Lowy Institute held an event at the National Gallery of Victoria to unpack the findings of the 2023 Lowy Institute Poll. 

Now in its nineteenth year, this flagship research product is the longest-running and broadest survey of Australian public opinion on foreign policy and global events. 

From attitudes to China and the United States, to support for Ukraine, belief in democracy, and thoughts on climate change and potential conflict in our region, the Lowy Institute Poll is the indispensable guide to how Australians see the world and their place in it.

Dr Michael Fullilove, Executive Director of the Lowy Institute, chaired this conversation with Ryan Neelam, Director of the Institute’s Public Opinion and Foreign Policy Program and author of the 2023 Lowy Institute Poll, Lydia Khalil, Research Fellow on Transnational Challenges at the Lowy Institute, and Bec Strating, Director of La Trobe Asia and Associate Professor in Politics and International Relations at La Trobe University.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Russia’s war in Ukraine is now well into its second year. Ukraine’s much-foreshadowed counter-offensive is developing more slowly than expected. Meanwhile, Russia’s leadership was rocked by the recent failed mutiny by the private Wagner paramilitary group.

The Lowy Institute hosted Mick Ryan and Zoya Sheftalovich earlier in 2023 for an update on the Ukraine war. In July 2023, with Ukraine on the offensive and Russia’s internal political instability, we again hosted these two compelling experts to discuss how the war in Europe is evolving. The conversation was hosted by Executive Director Dr Michael Fullilove and included questions from the audience. 

Major General (Ret’d) Mick Ryan is a Nonresident Fellow at the Lowy Institute. His book, War Transformed: The Future of Twenty-First-Century Great Power Competition and Conflict, was published in 2022. 

Zoya Sheftalovich is a contributing editor for POLITICO, based in Sydney. She is a regular commentator on the Ukraine war for ABC News 24.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.