Lowy Institute

COVIDcast is a Lowy Institute pop-up podcast for anyone interested in understanding the effect of coronavirus on global politics. Each week for the next few weeks, Lowy Institute experts will sit down to discuss the implications of coronavirus for the world. In Episode 1, Lowy Institute’s Executive Director, Michael Fullilove, sits down with Richard McGregor, Senior Fellow and a world expert on the Chinese Communist Party; Natasha Kassam, Research Fellow, expert in China’s domestic politics, and a former Australian diplomat in Beijing; and Ben Bland, director of the Institutes Southeast Asia Program and an expert in China-ASEAN relations. They discuss the effectiveness of China’s response to coronavirus and its implications for the Chinese Communist Party and Xi Jinping, both internally and on the world stage; the limitations of populism and nationalist governments in responding to threats like coronavirus; increasing support for multilateralism and international cooperation; the effect of coronavirus on the 2020 US Presidential election; and Australia’s response to date.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The spread of the novel coronavirus in and beyond China has potentially profound implications, for Xi Jinping's standing and China's global weight and prestige. For countries like Australia, the virus has already inflicted a sharp economic shock.The Lowy Institute hosted a panel discussion on the impact of the virus on Australia and the world. Natasha Kassam, Research Fellow at the Lowy Institute, hosted the discussion with a panel of experts: Richard Yetsenga, ANZ's Chief Economist; Philippa Jones, Managing Director of China Policy; and Richard McGregor, the Institute’s Senior Fellow for East Asia.Richard Yetsenga is the Chief Economist and Head of Research at ANZ. Prior to joining ANZ, he was an economist and strategist at HSBC and Deutsche Bank in Hong Kong.Philippa Jones is a regulatory and trade policy specialist. She founded China Policy, a strategic advisory firm based in Beijing, and formerly held roles at the EU-China Trade Project and the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Richard McGregor is a Senior Fellow at the Lowy Institute. He is the award-winning author of The Party: The Secret World of China’s Communist Rulers and the recent Lowy Institute Paper Xi Jinping: The Backlash.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In his role as United States Indo-Pacific Commander, Admiral Philip S. Davidson is responsible for military operations in an area that stretches from the waters off the west coast of the United States to the west coast of India, and from the Arctic to the Antarctic – over 200 million square kilometres and more than half the world’s surface. Admiral Davidson is a surface warfare officer who has deployed across the globe in frigates, destroyers, cruisers, and aircraft carriers. He has also served as the Director of Maritime Operations at US Fleet Forces Command, the senior military advisor to the Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan at the State Department, and the Navy’s military aide to the vice president of the United States. Admiral Davidson is a distinguished graduate of the US Naval War College. He assumed command of US Indo-Pacific Command in May 2018.Following his address, Admiral Davidson joined Lowy Institute Executive Director Dr Michael Fullilove AM for a conversation and Q&A.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Lowy Institute hosted a panel discussion with Institute experts in Melbourne on the key issues likely to dominate the international agenda in 2020. Managing Editor of The Interpreter Daniel Flitton chaired an expert panel including Dr John Edwards, Senior Fellow in the International Economy Program; Jonathan Pryke, Director of the Pacific Islands Program; Lydia Khalil, Research Fellow in the West Asia Program; and Bonnie Bley, Research Fellow in the Asian Power and Diplomacy Program.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Lowy Institute hosted a panel discussion with Institute experts in Sydney on the key issues likely to dominate the international agenda in 2020. Director of Research Alex Oliver chaired an expert panel including Lowy Institute Senior Fellow Richard McGregor; Hervé Lemahieu, Director of the Asian Power and Diplomacy Program; Rodger Shanahan, Research Fellow, West Asia Program; and Shane McLeod, Research Fellow with the Australia-PNG Network.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The new year has seen tensions between the United States and Iran increase to levels rarely seen before. The assassination of Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, the ballistic missile response from Iran, and then the tragic downing of Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752, have yet again focused the world’s attention on this region. The vision of enormous crowds that turned out for Soleimani’s funeral procession, contrasted with the small but vocal crowds in response to Tehran’s shooting down of Flight 752, show how difficult it can be to understand how Iranian society sees the actions of the Iranian and US governments and Iran’s place in the region and the world. To better understand the situation in Iran and how Iranians view recent events, Lowy Institute Research Fellow Dr Rodger Shanahan hosted a panel discussion with Dr Amir Mogadam from the University of Newcastle, Mahmoud Pargoo from the Australian Catholic University, and Mrs Azadeh Davachi from Deakin University to discuss the current tensions in the Gulf from US and Iranian policy perspectives.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With the threat of armed conflict looming more seriously over Asia than it has in decades, Oriana Skylar Mastro discussed Asian approaches to diplomacy during war. Professor Mastro’s new book, 'The Costs of Conversation', covers the diplomatic decisions of China and India in past conflicts in Asia and provides signposts for crisis management and conflicts in the future. After a war breaks out, what factors influence states’ decisions to talk to their opponent, and when might their position on wartime diplomacy change? How do we get from only fighting to also talking? The Lowy Institute hosted a panel discussion moderated by Natasha Kassam, Research Fellow at the Lowy Institute, to discuss the obstacles to peace talks in wartime. Professor Oriana Skylar Mastro is an assistant professor of security studies at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, a Resident Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, and an officer in the United States Air Force Reserve. Professor James Goldrick AO CSC is an Adjunct Professor of the University of New South Wales, Visiting Fellow of the Sea Power Centre – Australia, and a Professorial Fellow of the Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security. He spent 38 years in the Royal Australian Navy, retiring as a two-star Rear Admiral.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Digital authoritarianism is the use of digital technology by authoritarian regimes to monitor, manipulate and control both domestic and foreign populations. China and Russia are at the forefront, representing two distinct but related models. There are many dimensions to it, from the recent revelations China is developing facial recognition technology to sort people by ethnicity, to Russia’s attempts to create a sovereign Russian internet. Digital authoritarianism is reshaping the power balance between democracies and illiberal states. What can democracies do to level the playing field, without sacrificing core democratic values? My guest on this episode of Rules Based Audio, Dr Alina Polyakova, is the founding director of the Project on Global Democracy and Emerging Technology at the Brookings Institution. And she is the co-author of a recent paper, ‘Exporting Digital Authoritarianism’, published by Brookings. She argues that the west must start conceiving of the democratic digital domain as an asset in this contest, one that must be be protected and defended – but also one that’s more resilient than we think. Rules Based Audio is a half-hour, fortnightly podcast covering stories from the cracks and faultlines in the global order, hosted by Kelsey Munro and powered by the Lowy Institute. This is our last episode for 2019 and my last episode as host. Rules Based Audio will be back in 2020. Thanks for listening!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The elections in Taiwan in January promise to be one of the region’s most consequential polls in recent decades. With Beijing increasingly vocal about using force to unify the island with China, voters face a choice between a president determined to resist Beijing and an opponent struggling to articulate an alternative. The polls on the self-governing island, which has a pivotal role in high-tech global value chains, are also taking place in the shadow of protests in Hong Kong and growing US–China tensions. In the lead-up, Beijing has been taking a leaf out of the Russian playbook by overtly and covertly influencing Taiwan’s local media and community groups. The Lowy Institute hosted a panel discussion about Taiwan’s upcoming elections, the implications for cross-straits relations and Taiwan’s future.Thomas J. Christensen is Professor of Public and International Affairs and Director of the China and the World Program at Columbia University and previously handled China and Taiwan in the US State Department.Natasha Kassam is a Research Fellow in the Diplomacy and Public Opinion Program at the Lowy Institute and a former Australian diplomat in Beijing. Dr Roger Lee Huang is a Lecturer at Macquarie University. His research includes the history of Taiwan–China relations and he has worked for Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party.The event was chaired by Richard McGregor, Lowy Institute Senior Fellow and award-winning author of The Party: The Secret World of China’s Communist Rulers and the recent Lowy Institute Paper Xi Jinping: The Backlash.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Rules Based Audio takes a look at China's interests, influence and intentions in the Pacific.Reports of a planned Chinese naval base in Vanuatu in 2018 helped focus policy makers’ attention on China’s strategic intentions and economic influence in the island nations of the south Pacific. But in many ways, the debate in Australia and the US lagged far behind the reality on the ground. These days the Chinese presence – from state owned enterprises, infrastructure projects, commercial ventures and a significant new wave of immigration – is, according to the director of the Lowy Institute’s Pacific Islands program Jonathan Pryke, everywhere in these tiny island nations. Jono talks us through the many dimensions of China in the Pacific. But first, a case study: Vanuatu is reaping over $100 million a year from the sale of passports, mostly to Chinese nationals; while there has been a big step up in Chinese loans and direct investment. But when earlier this year, Vanuatu-based journalist Dan McGarry reported on the secret dawn arrest of six Chinese nationals – by local police in the presence of Chinese security officials – who were then deported without charge to China, he apparently crossed a line for the island nation’s government. Mr McGarry has been refused re-entry to Vanuatu. I spoke to Mr McGarry about the ways the authoritarian giant’s influence is playing out in the tiny democratic nation of 280,000. Jonathan Pryke is the director of the Lowy Institute’s Pacific Islands program and Mr McGarry is the media director of the Vanuatu Daily Post. Rules Based Audio is a half-hour, fortnightly podcast covering stories from the cracks and faultlines in the global order, hosted by Kelsey Munro and powered by the Lowy Institute.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.