Lowy Institute

The recent uprisings and revolutions in the Middle East represent one of the most dramatic global political developments since the fall of the Berlin Wall. At the Wednesday Lunch on 11 May, governance specialist David Arnold, whose international career has spanned both the Middle East and South Asia, shared his observations and insights regarding emerging democratic reforms in the Arab region.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As Australia awaits the results of an Independent Review into the Intelligence Community and debate over shared secrets rages after WikiLeaks, Dr Gregory Treverton, director of the RAND Corporation’s Center for Global Risk and Security, analysed how the collection and sharing of intelligence has changed since the end of the Cold War in a public lecture at the Lowy Institute on 3 May.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

At the Wednesday Lunch on 27 April, Dr Alexey Muraviev spoke about Russia's regional strategic policy and national defence priorities in the Far East and the Indo-Pacific. Dr Muraviev is a senior lecturer in International Relations and Strategic Studies and a strategic affairs analyst in the School of Social Sciences and Asian Languages at Curtin University.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today’s global economic growth is decisively Asian. ADB’s Asian Development Outlook 2011 provides a comprehensive analysis of macroeconomic issues in developing Asia. The Asian Development Outlook 2011 includes this year’s special theme chapter on South-South economic linkages. At this Wednesday Lowy Lunch, the ADB's Principal Economist, Dr Donghyun Park and the head of ADB in Australia, Eugenue Zhukov, presented an overview of the report and addressed some specific issues.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Fukushima crisis has provoked a furious debate about the future of nuclear energy. Polling in Australia shows a return to a solid majority opposing nuclear power for Australia as part of our future energy mix. The Australian political leadership has declared the subject out of bounds. At a special Wednesday Lowy Lunch on 20 April, three expert industry panellists discussed the future of nuclear energy.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On 30 March, in the first of the Lowy Institute’s Food for Thought lectures for this year, Cate Sumner and Tim Lindsey discussed how the Indonesian Islamic courts have embraced reform within a judicial system notorious for corruption and incompetence, taking the lead in efforts to deliver decisions that are more accessible, transparent and fair, especially for women and the poor. Indeed the courts have become models of socially oriented judicial reform, for both non-religious courts in Indonesia and also for Islamic courts elsewhere in Southeast Asia.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With the creation of the Northern Command in 2002 and the Africa Command in 2007 the US military became the first truly global military presence in history. US Combatant Commanders are often called ‘proconsuls’ in a worldwide network of US military bases. This situation poses many problems for a republic that is historically suspicious of military power. On 23 March, Professor Douglas Stuart addressed three of these problems.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Technology and the rapid spread of the internet and mobile phones are changing the way diplomacy is being conducted. Leading diplomatic services are adapting, but many are being left behind. New digital tools mean foreign ministries need to change the way they communicate, manage staff, pursue foreign policy goals and solve problems. Australia’s own Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has a lot of catching up to do. It also has a lot to gain from adopting these new platforms. This Wednesday Lowy Lunch was delivered by Fergus Hanson, author of the recent Lowy Institute Policy Brief, A digital DFAT: joining the 21st century.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On 16 March, as part of our Distinguished Speaker Series, Frederic S. Mishkin spoke on the global financial system after the Global Financial Crisis. Professor Mishkin is the Alfred Lerner Professor of Banking and Financial Institutions at the Graduate School of Business, Columbia University.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

At a lecture at the Lowy Institute on 10 March, World Bank Senior Economist Apurva Sanghi discussed a thought-provoking report by the World Bank and the United Nations. 'Natural Hazards, UnNatural Disasters: The Economics of Effective Prevention' will change the way we look at disaster prevention.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.