Lowy Institute

The 2022 Lowy Lecture was delivered by World Trade Organization Director-General Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala at Sydney Town Hall on 22 November 2022. Dr Okonjo-Iweala's address was titled The Multilateral Trading System in a Changing World: De-globalization or Re-globalization?

Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is the first woman and first African to hold the office of Director-General of the World Trade Organization. Dr Okonjo-Iweala is an economist and international development professional with more than 40 years of experience. She has twice served as Nigeria's Finance Minister (2003–06 and 2011–15). In 2021, Time magazine recognised her as one of the world's most influential people.

The annual Lowy Lecture is the Lowy Institute’s flagship event, at which a prominent individual reflects on Australia and the world. Past Lecturers include German Chancellor Angela Merkel; UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson; US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan; Lowy Institute Chairman Sir Frank Lowy; and several Australian prime ministers including Prime Minister John Howard, who delivered the inaugural Lowy Lecture in 2005.

The full text of Dr Okonjo-Iweala's address is available at the Lowy Institute website.

The Lowy Institute acknowledges the generous support of the 2022 Lowy Lecture by King & Wood Mallesons.

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In this episode of The Director’s Chair, Michael Fullilove speaks with Sir Lawrence Freedman, who is in Australia as the Lowy Institute’s 2022 Distinguished Fellow for International Security. Michael and Sir Lawrence discuss Russia’s war in Ukraine, and the lessons it offers for military strategists around the world. They discuss the implications for China and Taiwan, and how the AUKUS security pact has changed Australia’s strategic outlook. 

Sir Lawrence Freedman is Emeritus Professor of War Studies, King's College London. Elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1995 and awarded the CBE in 1996, he was appointed Official Historian of the Falklands Campaign in 1997. In 2003, he was awarded the KCMG. In June 2009, he was appointed to serve as a member of the official inquiry into Britain and the 2003 Iraq War. He has written widely on international history, strategic theory and nuclear weapons issues, as well as commenting on current security issues. Among his books are Strategy: A History (2013) and Command: The Politics of Military Operations from Korea to Ukraine (2022).

The Distinguished Fellowship for International Security is supported by the Australian Department of Defence through the Strategic Policy Grants program.

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The 2022 Lowy Institute Media Lecture was delivered by the Financial Times chief foreign affairs columnist Gideon Rachman, who reflected on the place of foreign news coverage in a fracturing media environment.

Gideon Rachman became chief foreign affairs columnist for the Financial Times in July 2006. He joined the FT after a 15-year career at The Economist, which included assignments as a foreign correspondent in Brussels, Washington, DC, and Bangkok. He has also edited the business and Asia sections of The Economist. His interests include American foreign policy, the European Union and globalisation. His most recent book is titled The Age of the Strongman: How the cult of leader threatens democracy around the world.

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What does great power competition mean, and where did the concept come from? In this episode of Rules Based Audio, Ben Scott speaks to author and analyst Ali Wyne about great power competition. They discuss whether it is a useful way of thinking about the world, and whether it can help foreign policymakers when they are deciding what to do.

Ali Wyne is a senior analyst with Eurasia Group's Global Macro practice, where he focuses on US-China relations and great-power competition. He is the author, most recently, of America’s Great-Power Opportunity: Revitalising US Foreign Policy to Meet the Challenges of Strategic Competition.

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In this episode of The Director's Chair, Michael Fullilove speaks with author and journalist Susan Glasser about next week's US midterm elections and the likely results. They discuss US political perspectives on the war in Ukraine, the Biden Administration's performance on foreign policy, and the continued influence of former president Donald Trump on US politics.

Susan Glasser is a journalist and author, and currently a staff writer at The New Yorker, where she writes a weekly column on life in Washington. She has been the editor of Politico Magazine and the editor-in-chief of Foreign Policy. With her husband Peter Baker of The New York Times she has written two books: The Man Who Ran Washington, a biography of the statesman and politician James Baker which was published in 2020, and The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021, which was published in September by Doubleday.

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In this episode of Conversations, Hervé Lemahieu talks with Xueyin Zha and Jennifer Hsu about the Chinese messaging app and the role in it plays in the democratic participation of Chinese-Australians. They discuss the inherent risks and drawbacks of WeChat, such as censorship, but also explore how it became a medium of outreach and civic engagement for Chinese-Australians during the 2021 New South Wales local elections.

Xueyin Zha is a doctoral candidate at the Australian National University, researching the global governance of advanced technology. She is also a researcher at ANU's interdisciplinary research project: Humanising Machine Intelligence. Her current research interests span technology regulation, international politics of the digital economy, and technology's role in multiculturalism.  

Jennifer Hsu is a Research Fellow at the Lowy Institute’s Public Opinion and Foreign Policy Program. She works on the Multiculturalism, Identity and Influence Project.

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In this episode of The Director's Chair, Michael Fullilove speaks with His Excellency José Ramos-Horta, the President of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste. José and Michael discuss the fallout from Russia's invasion of Ukraine, relations between Timor-Leste and Australia and the role of China's in the Indo-Pacific region. José reflects on his time in leadership roles, and the need for his generation to effectively hand on political power to younger generations.

José Ramos-Horta was Timor-Leste's first foreign minister when it declared independence from Portugal in 1975. Following Indonesia’s invasion later that year, he became the international voice of the Timorese people. In 1996 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. When Timor-Leste became a new nation following the Popular Consultation of 1999, he returned from exile to serve as the new nation’s first foreign minister. From 2006 to 2007 he served as Prime Minister, and from 2007 to 2012 he served as President. This year he came out of retirement and returned to the presidential palace. He was inaugurated on 20 May, which was 20th anniversary of the restoration of Timor-Leste’s independence.

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In this episode of Lowy Institute Conversations, Research Fellow Jennifer Hsu talks with Nixi Cura to explore and assess some of China’s major soft power initiatives, including its successes and failures over the last five years. They discuss the role of Chinese visual culture, notably contemporary Chinese art as a medium of projecting China’s soft power.

Nixi Cura read East Asian Studies at Yale University then specialised in Chinese painting, Buddhist art and Romanesque architecture at the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University. Nixi was the Director of the Arts of China programs at Christie’s Education in London. She is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Glasgow and has held the role of Senior Fellow in the Cultural Leadership program at the Royal Academy of Arts. At SOAS University of London she served as Senior Teaching Fellow in Art History & Archaeology, and as a Doctoral Researcher embarked on a project focusing on the tomb of the Qianlong emperor. Nixi’s publications and research interests range from Qing painting and material culture to modern and contemporary Chinese visual culture.

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In this episode of Lowy Institute Conversations, Research Fellow Jennifer Hsu talks with Sarah Tong to explore and assess some of the key stressors of the Chinese economy and major economic policies that have emerged in the last five years. They discuss the contradictory forces at play that are impeding economic structural reforms, the prospect of slower growth and how the international environment will shape domestic economic priorities.

Sarah Tong is a Senior Research Fellow of the National University of Singapore’s East Asian Institute and leads its economics cluster. She previously worked at the Development Research Centre of China’s State Council. She obtained her PhD in Economics from the University of California at San Diego. Her research interests concentrate on the development and transformation of the Chinese economy, including trade and foreign investment, development of regions, financial sector reforms, reforms of state-owned enterprises, and China’s evolving industrial and technology policies. Her work has appeared in publications such as the Journal of International Economics and the Review of Development Economics.

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The Chinese Communist Party will shortly hold its 20th National Congress during a highly unsettled period in international affairs. In February, after President Putin and President Xi declared a "friendship without limits", Russia launched its brutal invasion of Ukraine. In August, China responded to US Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taipei with major military exercises. Meanwhile, President Biden has become increasingly vocal in his support for Taiwan.

Just days ahead of the CCP Congress, the Lowy Institute hosted the head of one of the most influential think tanks in Washington. Richard Fontaine addressed the Lowy Institute on the present and future of international order. After his remarks, Mr Fontaine spoke with Lowy Institute Executive Director Michael Fullilove about US security policy in Asia, China’s challenge to the United States and the rules-based order, as well as how the Ukraine war is being viewed in Washington.

Richard Fontaine is Chief Executive Officer of the Center for a New American Security. He served as President of CNAS from 2012–19 and before that as Senior Fellow from 2009–12. Prior to his time at CNAS, he was foreign policy adviser to Senator John McCain and worked at the US State Department, the National Security Council, and on the staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

This event was hosted as part of the project Australia's Security and the Rules-Based Order, which receives funding from the Australian Department of Defence Strategic Policy Grants Program.

See more about this event at the Lowy Institute website.

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