Lowy Institute

In this episode of The Director’s Chair, Michael Fullilove speaks with the distinguished policymaker and policy entrepreneur Michèle Flournoy. Michèle is a former senior Pentagon official, managing partner of WestExec Advisors, and chair of the Center for a New American Security. Michèle is a leading expert on US defence and strategic policy. She served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy in the Clinton administration. Michèle also served as Under Secretary of Defense for Policy in the Obama administration, which made her, at the time, the highest-ranking woman in the history of the Pentagon. Michael and Michèle discuss the rise of China, the resilience of America and Australia’s and New Zealand’s approach to the world. Michèle also reflects on the Bush administration's decision to invade Iraq, the workplace environment at the Pentagon, and risk of conflict in the Taiwan Strait.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode of Lowy Institute Conversations, Director of the Southeast Asia Program Ben Bland sits down with Nathan Law to discuss exile, China’s repressive policies and the long struggle ahead for democracy in Hong Kong. Nathan Law is a Hong Kong democracy activist who was elected as the city’s youngest-ever legislator in 2016 before being disqualified by the government and then jailed for his role in the 2014 Umbrella Revolution. He fled Hong Kong last year for London after Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law, and he remains on a Chinese “wanted” list for his advocacy of human rights and democracy. In between protests, politics and prison, he found time to take a master’s degree in East Asian Studies at Yale University. Conversations is a new Lowy Institute podcast in which Institute researchers and some of the world's leading experts delve into the big issues in international affairs.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode of Lowy Institute Conversations, Lowy Institute Research Fellow Lydia Khalil sits down with Zoe Daniel to discuss her new book, Greetings from Trumpland. Zoe Daniel is a three-time foreign correspondent and former ABC News United States Bureau Chief. She was based in Washington, DC from 2015 to 2019 and was the ABC’s Southeast Asia correspondent from 2009 to 2013. Conversations is a Lowy Institute podcast in which Institute researchers and some of the world's leading experts delve into the big issues in international affairs.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode of The Director’s Chair, Michael Fullilove speaks with the Australian-American diplomat, Middle East scholar, and author Dr Martin Indyk. Martin worked in both the Clinton and Obama administrations as Assistant Secretary of State, US Ambassador to Israel and Special Envoy for Middle East Peace. He is a Distinguished Fellow at the Council on Foreign Affairs and a long-serving Board member at the Lowy Institute. Michael and Martin discuss his career working on Middle East peace, as well as Israeli politics, recent events in Jordan, and the Biden administration's approach towards Saudi Arabia. Martin reflects on growing up in Sydney, what Bill Clinton was like as a boss, and what we can learn from Henry Kissinger’s shuttle diplomacy.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode of The Director’s Chair, Michael Fullilove speaks with award-winning journalist, author, and editor Anna Fifield. Anna, the editor of the Wellington newspaper The Dominion Post, has previously reported for the Financial Times and The Washington Post from London, Washington, Seoul, Tokyo and Beijing. Anna is the author of a celebrated biography of Kim Jong-un titled The Great Successor. Michael and Anna talk about reporting from Beijing and Tokyo and writing about Xi Jinping and Kim Jong-un. Anna also speaks about human rights abuses against the Uyghurs in China’s Xinjiang province, the recent summit meeting in Anchorage, and the contrasting policies of Australia and New Zealand towards China.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We are one year into a pandemic that has upended life as we once knew it. How has the pandemic affected women across the world – in their employment prospects, their caring and household responsibilities, the rate of domestic violence they suffer, their access to education and the mental health challenges they face?COVID-19 has also provided lessons in leadership. New Zealand and Taiwan appeared first and third on the Lowy Institute’s recently released COVID Performance Index. To what extent can their success be attributed to the approaches and styles of their female leaders? In this special event marking International Women's Day 2021, our panel discusses the effect the pandemic has had on women and examine women’s leadership throughout the past year.- Event Speakers - Professor Michelle Ryan, inaugural Director of the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership, ANU, and Professor of Social and Organisational Psychology, University of ExeterProfessor Jacqui True, Director of Monash University’s Centre for Gender, Peace and Security and Professor of Politics and International RelationsNatasha Kassam, Director of the Public Opinion and Foreign Policy Program at the Lowy InstituteSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode of Lowy Institute Conversations, Senior Fellow Richard McGregor sits down with Natasha Kassam and Jane Perlez to discuss new Lowy Institute research relating to the bilateral relationship between Australia and China. Natasha Kassam is Director of the Lowy Institute’s Public Opinion and Foreign Policy Program and is working on a series of reports for the Multiculturalism, Identity and Influence project. Jane Perlez is a long-time foreign correspondent for The New York Times and an expert on China's role in the world and US-China competition.Conversations is a new Lowy Institute podcast in which Institute researchers and some of the world's leading experts delve into the big issues in international affairs.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What are the key issues likely to dominate Australia’s international agenda in 2021? China's economic statecraft, regional friction in the Pacific, the climate-change agenda, and how the world recovers economically from the coronavirus pandemic are covered in this wide-ranging panel discussion between Lowy Institute experts. This event was hosted by the Lowy Institute at our headquarters at 31 Bligh St in Sydney on Tuesday 23 February 2021.- Event Speakers -Alex Oliver is the Director of Research at the Lowy Institute, where she is responsible for the Institute's team of experts and directs the research program. Until 2018, she directed the Lowy Institute's program on diplomacy and public opinion, including the annual Lowy Institute Poll.Roland Rajah is the Lead Economist and Director of the International Economics Program at the Lowy Institute. Before joining the Lowy Institute Roland was a Senior Economist and Country Manager at the Asian Development Bank, where he worked on macro-fiscal policy, economic growth, and development issues in the Pacific region.Jonathan Pryke is Director of the Lowy Institute’s Pacific Islands Program. Jonathan joined the Lowy Institute in 2015 from the Development Policy Centre at the Australian National University where he was a researcher, editor of the Development Policy Blog and a co-convener of the Australasian Aid Conference.Peter Cai returns to the Lowy Institute in 2021 as director of a new project on Australia-China relations. Peter led the Institute’s China work in 2016, and is the author of the 2017 Lowy Institute Analysis Understanding China’s Belt And Road Initiative, which has become one of the world’s most consulted and popular pieces of research on the BRI.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What are the key issues likely to dominate Australia’s international agenda in 2021? Australia's relations with China and America, the COVID and climate-change agenda, and how the new US administration will approach the region are covered in this wide-ranging panel discussion between Lowy Institute experts. This event was hosted by the Lowy Institute at the National Press Club of Australia on Monday 15 February 2021. - Event Speakers - Richard McGregor is a Senior Fellow on China at the Lowy Institute. He was the Financial Times bureau chief in Beijing and Shanghai between 2000 and 2009, and headed the Washington office for four years from 2011. Prior to joining the FT, he was the chief political correspondent and China and Japan correspondent for The Australian. Natasha Kassam is a Research Fellow in the Lowy Institute’s Public Opinion and Foreign Policy Program. She is a former Australian diplomat and Fellow of the ANU National Security College’s Futures Council for 2020-21. Ben Scott is the Director of the Lowy Institute’s project on Australia's Security and the Rules-Based Order. He joined the Lowy Institute from the Office of National Intelligence, where he was a Senior Middle East Analyst before representing ONI at the Australian Embassy in Washington DC from 2016-2020.Sam Roggeveen is Director of the Lowy Institute’s International Security Program, and a Visiting Fellow at the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University. Sam was a senior strategic analyst the Office of National Assessments. He also worked on arms control policy in Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs, and as an analyst in the Defence Intelligence Organisation.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode of Lowy Institute Conversations, Ben Bland, Director of the Southeast Asia Program at the Lowy Institute, sits down with Aye Min Thant and Melissa Crouch to discuss the causes and consequences of the coup in Myanmar, and how protesters are using technology and humour to push back against the military. Aye Min Thant is a journalist based in Yangon who was part of a Pulitzer Prize–winning team at Reuters and has worked for an organisation promoting technological innovation in Myanmar. Melissa Crouch is Professor and Associate Dean of Research at the Law School at the University of New South Wales and is a leading expert on the Myanmar constitution. Conversations is a new Lowy Institute podcast in which Institute researchers and some of the world's leading experts delve into the big issues in international affairs.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.