Lowy Institute

The Lowy Institute was pleased to host, as part of its Distinguished Speaker Series, the Commonwealth Attorney-General, Robert McClelland, who in his presentation, 'Human rights: a moral compass', outlined the Government's approach to human rights and upcoming reforms aimed at strengthening Australia's leadership in this area.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

At the Wednesday Lunch at Lowy on 8 August, Jim Ingram, head of the World Food Programme for ten years, argued in a presentation entitled 'Reforming the UN: an iconoclastic view from the inside' that the focus of UN reform should shift to the economic and social activity of the wider UN system where valuable work is done.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Westerners have presumed that China's rise will take a familiar trajectory incorporating first economic, then political and social development in a broadly liberal democratic, market-driven direction. The recent tensions with Australia underline the failure of that perspective to explain modern China and its rise. What is China today and where is it heading? At the Wednesday Lunch at Lowy on 12 August, Asia-Pacific Editor of The Australian newspaper, Rowan Callick, explored the dimensions of the party-state.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On 2 April at the Wednesday Lunch at Lowy, Dr Jeffrey Eisenach, a leading regulatory economist and a global expert on content filtering technology, discussed the prospects for global regulation of the digital economy. Jeffrey A. Eisenach is Chairman of the Criterion Economics consulting firm in Washington DC and an Adjunct Professor at George Mason University Law School.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the wake of the Iraq war, both US Presidential candidates have said they will close Guantanamo Bay and take a different view from the current Administration on water boarding. Under the next US President, can we expect a revival of US and wider interest in international law when it comes to the prohibition on torture, the use of force, non-proliferation and climate change? Professor James Crawford discusses these issues as part of the Lowy Institute Distinguished Speaker Series.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

At this week's Wednesday Lunch, the Lowy Institute for International Policy launched 'Zealous democrats: Islamism and democracy in Egypt, Indonesia and Turkey'. The authors of this new Lowy Institute Paper, Anthony Bubalo, Greg Fealy and Whit Mason, all spoke about their ideas expressed in the Paper.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

China’s rise is transforming the Asia-Pacific strategic landscape, and understanding how 'China' thinks preoccupies governments across the region. At the Wednesday Lunch at Lowy on 18 November, Thomas Mahnken explored features of China’s national strategic culture, including a sense of cultural superiority, a belief that China’s natural position is that of the 'Middle Kingdom' as well as the need for China to be unified internally and free from external meddling.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As part of its Distinguished Speaker Series, the Lowy Institute was pleased to host Dr David Malone, who spoke on India's most important future bilateral relationship, that with China. David M. Malone is a distinguished Canadian diplomat and scholar. He is president of Canada’s International Development Research Centre, one of the world’s leading research institutions on development issues.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On 23 May at the Wednesday Lunch at Lowy, Visiting Fellow Hugh White spoke on the topic 'A nuclear arms race between China and the United States: what Australia can do to stop it'.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As a part of its Lowy Lecture Series on 18 April 2012, the Lowy Institute was pleased to host His Excellency Nasir A. Andisha, Afghanistan's Ambassador to Australia. Ambassador Andisha discussed how a lack of clear communications, inconsistency and the sending of mixed messages are undermining NATO/ISAF'S strategy in Afghanistan.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.