The Lowy Institute

After postings in Washington and South Asia, Nick Bryant came to Australia determined to avoid all the stereotypes and clichés that still tend to inform the world's view of the 'land down under.' He found an increasingly consequential country – diplomatically, commercially, economically and culturally. Politics was heading in the same direction, as well, until the coup that ousted Kevin Rudd. The national conversation again became narrowly parochial, as Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott reinforced their own insularity. In our Food for Thought series in Canberra, Nick Bryant explored these two countervailing themes.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On 14 July, the Lowy Institute hosted a dinner for the globally renowned economist and author Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs. Professor Sachs discussed the current global energy, climate, and food crises and the world's sustainable development challenges as outlined in his new book 'Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet'.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On Friday 1 May 2009, in his first major foreign policy speech as Opposition Leader and first address to the Lowy Institute, Malcolm Turnbull discussed the challenges and priorities in managing sensibly Australia's vital relationships across the region.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

At a breakfast on Tuesday 18 May a panel examined the prospects and trends in the commercial relationship between Australia and the United States in an era of deepening economic integration across the Asia-Pacific. The Honourable Anthony Byrne MP gave the keynote address, which was followed by this panel discussion with leading business and economic commentators.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On Thursday 18 January, Graeme Dobell gave a presentation at the Lowy Institute to launch his Lowy Institute Policy Brief, entitled China and Taiwan in the South Pacific: diplomatic chess versus Pacific political rugby.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On Tuesday, 29 June 2010, the Wednesday Lowy Lunch Club provided an opportunity to hear from one of the world’s leading experts on the international trading system, Professor Simon Evenett. Professor Evenett discussed the commercial policy and trade strategies of the United States, Europe, and the emerging economic powers.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On 30th August at Wednesday Lunch at Lowy, Research Fellow Anthony Bubalo explored the likely trajectory of the international community's on-going dispute with Iran over its nuclear program, following Tehran's refusal to accept calls for a suspension of its uranium enrichment activities.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the Wednesday Lunch at Lowy on 13 May, Michael G. Smith AO, Executive Director of the Asia Pacific Civil-Military Centre of Excellence, joined us to discuss the way ahead for the Centre, which was set up in 2008 by the Rudd Government to develop 'national civil-military capabilities to prevent, prepare for and respond more effectively to conflicts and disasters overseas'. The presentation covered the key people and organisations the Centre deals with and particularly how the Centre will seek to work with international partners and relevant non-government organisations, and some of the challenges faced in these interactions.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On 7 May 2008 at the Wednesday Lunch at Lowy, The Hon. Dame Carol Kidu discussed the policy and capacity challenges Papua New Guinea faces in advancing social development and how partnerships with the private sector can support government efforts.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When we think of foreign policy we tend to envisage diplomats meeting behind closed doors. But public opinion has long played an important part in shaping it. Polls are proliferating in number and increasing in sophistication. How is this affecting the way foreign policy is made?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

At the Wednesday Lunch at Lowy on 4 March 2009, historian Peter Edwards placed the current debate in the context of the long history of debates between those who see global alliances as central to Australia's national security and those who emphasise the importance of self-reliance and regional links. By examining the cyclical pattern of strategic debates over more than a century, he suggested a likely framework for the White Paper and the way it will be assessed.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

At the Wednesday Lunch at Lowy on 6 August, Dr Richard Rigby, the Executive Director of the ANU China Institute, spoke about the rise of China and how the forthcoming Olympics provide some indicators — both positive and negative — of how China is travelling, and how one way or another these will have their own impact on what sort of China it is with which our own future is linked.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

At the Wednesday Lunch at Lowy on 3 March, Dr Malcolm Cook, Program Director East Asia, spoke on how Asia's continental and horizontal dimensions are reasserting themselves - in ways that question Australia's place in Asia.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The recent vandalisation of a string of Christian churches in Malaysia has, again, focussed attention on the challenges of communal politics in modern Malaysia. At the Wednesday Lowy Lunch on 10 February, Barry Wain discussed how these attacks reflect a deep crisis at the heart of Malaysian politics today and how this crisis developed during the 22-year rule of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and since his retirement in 2003. Barry Wain, author of the recently released 'Malaysian Maverick: Mahathir Mohamad in Turbulent Times', is Writer-in-Residence at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This year, China has been on public international display like no other time since the communists took power in 1949. Beijing hosted the Olympic and para-Olympic Games and 2008 is the thirtieth anniversary of China's open door economic policy reforms launched under Deng Xiaoping. The technical and organisational success of the Olympics will come to symbolise the transformational success of these policies. China today is unrecognisable from what it was before 'the door was opened'. At the Wednesday Lunch at Lowy on 8 October, Dr Geoff Raby, the Australian Ambassador to the People's Republic of China, examined the questions: How much has China really changed? Is China a case of the more things change, the more they stay the same?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

At the Wednesday Lunch at Lowy on 9 May, Malcolm Cook, Program Director Asia & the Pacific, and Rory Medcalf, Program Director International Security, explored what the Australia-Japan Joint Declaration on Security Cooperation means for Australia-Japan relations and what it tells us about Japan's new security posture. They also covered implications for the region, including Chinese perceptions.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

At the Wednesday Lunch at Lowy on 7 February, the Lowy Institute's scholars discussed what we should be keeping an eye out for in international policy in 2007. Dr Michael Fullilove, the Program Director for Global Issues, discussed global trends and the United States. Mark Thirlwell, the Program Director for the International Economy, discussed some of the big questions facing the global economy in 2007. Anthony Bubalo, Research Fellow, examined the year ahead in the Middle East. Dr Malcolm Cook, Program Director Asia & the Pacific, predicted what will surprise us in East Asia and the South Pacific.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On 5 October, as part of the Lowy Institute's Distinguished Speaker Series, Professor Lu Tong, Director of the Chinese Center for Corporate Governance of the Institute of World Economics and Politics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and China's leading authority on corporate governance, addressed the Institute on the subject 'How good is corporate governance in China?' Professor Tong was introduced by Laurel Grossman, founder and CEO of RepuTex.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Is the Rudd Government’s new Defence White Paper more of the same or a significant departure from the previous strategic orthodoxy? More importantly, is it affordable, and will future governments commit to the level of spending necessary to ensure that the White Paper’s ambitious goals for the Australian Defence Force are realised? What about the strategic judgements underpinning the decisions on spending and force structure? Is concern about China’s burgeoning military power real, or merely Defence ‘spin’ designed to justify expensive acquisitions? These questions were addressed by Professor Alan Dupont in his analysis of what the Rudd Government claims is the most comprehensive and far-reaching reform of defence planning ever attempted in Australia.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On 5th July at the Wednesday Lunch at Lowy, Richard Martin, of International Market Assessment Asia (IMA), focused on the major restructuring of manufacturing currently under way in China and the rest of Asia.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.