Lowy Institute

Following a period spent in Japan developing its national security apparatus and international security cooperation with partners from Europe to the Indo-Pacific, Yukio Okamoto, Adjunct Professor at Ritsumeikan University and former Japanese diplomat, addressed Japan’s evolving security role in the Indo-Pacific, with a focus on Japan–China relations. This was followed by a discussion with the Lowy Institute’s International Security Program Director, Dr Euan Graham, about how Japan will adapt and respond to future regional security concerns. Yukio Okamoto was a career diplomat in Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including postings in Paris at the OECD as well as in Cairo and Washington. Since retiring in 1991, Mr Okamoto has directed a political and economic consultancy, and served in a number of senior advisory positions. He has worked on multiple Japanese Government committees, including as a Special Advisor to Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto (1996–98), Special Advisor to the Cabinet (2001–03) and Special Advisor on Iraq to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi (2003–04). He was Chairman of the Prime Minister’s Task Force on Foreign Relations, and until the end of 2008 was a member of Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda’s Study Group on Diplomacy. He has written and published extensively on Japanese Foreign Policy, diplomacy, and government.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Now that Islamic State has been defeated militarily, what does the future hold for Iraq? Deputy Director of the Lowy Institute Anthony Bubalo discussed this and other issues, including Iraq’s forthcoming elections and evolving relations with its neighbours, in conversation with Hayder al-Khoei. Hayder al-Khoei is Director of the Centre for Shi’a Studies in London and a doctoral researcher at the University of Exeter, focusing on US foreign policy and ethno-sectarian politics in Iraq. Prior to this, he was a visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations and an associate fellow of the Middle East and North Africa Program at the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House).See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Alyssa Ayres, Senior Fellow for India, Pakistan, and South Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), joined Aaron Connelly, Research Fellow for the East Asia Program at the Lowy Institute, to discuss Alyssa’s latest book, 'Our Time Has Come: How India Is Making Its Place in the World'. Dr Ayres discussed how a fiercely independent India pursues its place as a leading power, and how the United States should respond. At CFR, Alyssa Ayres’s work focuses on India’s role in the world and on US relations with South Asia. In 2015 she served as project director for the CFR-sponsored Independent Task Force on US–India Relations, and from 2014 to 2016 as project director for an initiative on the new geopolitics of China, India, and Pakistan. She directs the US Relations with South Asia Roundtable series, blogs regularly for Asia Unbound, and is a contributor to Forbes.com. Her book 'Our Time Has Come: How India is Making Its Place in the World' was published by Oxford University Press in January 2018. Alyssa Ayres served previously as deputy assistant secretary of state for South Asia, from 2010 to 2013, covering all issues across a dynamic region of 1.3 billion people (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka) and providing policy direction for four US embassies and four consulates. Originally trained as a cultural historian, Dr Ayres has experience in the non-profit, government, and private sectors, and she has carried out research on both India and Pakistan.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

New Zealand’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Rt Hon Winston Peters, addressed his government's plans to work with its Pacific partners to meet the many strategic and development challenges facing the region.New Zealand’s place is in the Pacific. Culturally, geographically, and politically, New Zealand is a Pacific Islands country. But the Pacific is an increasingly complex strategic environment, with a broad range of external factors affecting its present and future.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Over the past fifty years, Singapore has become one of the world’s most prosperous countries and a dynamic node in the world economy. A new Lowy Analysis Paper examines not only what has driven Singapore’s success in establishing itself as a competitive base of high-value manufacturing and other value-added services, but also how the country, amid regional and global challenges, must adapt its model so as to retain its position at the centre of flows of trade, investment, and people.Manu Bhaskaran, the paper’s author and CEO of consultancy Centennial Asia, joined Research Fellow Matthew Busch to discuss what Singapore can do to find the policy mix and economic fundamentals to overcome these challenges.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Lowy Institute has conducted robust, independent polling on Australian attitudes to foreign policy issues annually since 2005. While the world has changed dramatically this century, how have Australian attitudes changed, and what has stayed the same?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On 1 February, the Lowy Institute’s Executive Director Dr Michael Fullilove chaired a discussion examining the key issues likely to dominate the international agenda in 2018.Joining Michael was Deputy Director Anthony Bubalo, Deputy Research Director and Director of the Diplomacy and Public Opinion Program Alex Oliver, Director of the International Security Program, Dr Euan Graham and Nonresident Fellow Dr John Edwards.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On 29 January, Lowy Institute Research Fellow Anna Kirk chaired a discussion on women's representation in leadership and politics with one of Australia's leading business executives, Ann Sherry; the highest polling female candidate in the 2017 PNG elections, Rufina Peter; and ANU academic Dr Kerryn Baker. The panelists addressed this critical issue shared between Papua New Guinean and Australian societies and discussed ways to overcome such gender inequality challenges.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

China is a rapidly ageing country. According to the World Bank, the working-age population is predicted to fall by 10% by 2040. While the size of the workforce is falling, the pool of over 65s is rising, and is predicted to reach 350 million by the same year.What are the economic effects of a shrinking labour pool and rising number of aged dependents, and how will the two-child policy limit these effects? The Lowy Institute convened a panel to explore how population dynamics will shape China’s economy and what it means for our economic future at large.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On 14 December Lowy Institute hosted the Hon Joe Hockey, Australia’s Ambassador to the United States, for an address on the first twelve months of President Trump’s administration. The Hon Joe Hockey has been Australia’s Ambassador to the United States since January 2016. Prior to this appointment, he was a member of the House of Representatives for the seat of North Sydney from 1996 until 2015. He served in a broad range of ministerial portfolios including as the Minister for Human Services, Minister for Tourism and the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, before being appointed as Treasurer in the Abbott government from 2013 to 2015 and chairing the G20 as part of this role. Before entering politics, Mr Hockey worked as a solicitor, and subsequently as Director of Policy to the NSW Premier.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.