Lowy Institute

Donald Trump’s first trip to Asia as President, which began on 5 November, will bring his unique approach to diplomacy to our region for the first time. Over ten days, President Trump will visit five countries and attend two summits, and outline his Asia policy for the first time. How he responds to the pressures of these high-stakes meetings will set the tone of America’s relationship with Asia for the remainder of his presidency.On 10 November, the Lowy Institute hosted an expert panel to discuss President Trump’s early forays into Asia policy, featuring Euan Graham, Director of the Lowy Institute's International Security Program; Aaron Connelly, Research Fellow in the Lowy Institute's East Asia Program; and Huong Le Thu, Visiting Fellow at the ANU's Strategic and Defence Studies Centre. The discussion was moderated by Dr Merriden Varrall, Director of the Lowy Institute's East Asia Program.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The relationship between China and the United States is central to security and prosperity in Asia. On 27 October Executive Director Michael Fullilove examined the future of this critical relationship in conversation with Managing Editor of The New York Times and long-time China watcher, Joseph Kahn. Together they explored issues such as the evolution of Asia policy under the Trump administration, the implications for Chinese foreign policy of this year’s 19th Party Congress in Beijing, and future developments on the Korean peninsula. Joseph Kahn has won two Pulitzer Prizes, including one for his coverage of China. He first reported from China in 1989 after the Tiananmen crackdown for The Dallas Morning News. In 1994 he joined The Wall Street Journal as a China correspondent. In 1998 he joined the Times, and was appointed Beijing bureau chief in 2003. He returned to New York in 2008 to become an editor for the Times.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this edition of Canberra Conversations, Lowy Institute Senior Fellow Sam Roggeveen speaks with Gareth Evans, former Australian Foreign Minister.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the early part of the twentieth century, the world turned inwards as fear shut down flows of people and goods across national borders. A century later, can we make a better choice?On 28 September the Lowy Institute launched of Choosing Openness, a new Lowy Institute Paper by the Hon Dr Andrew Leigh MP and published by Penguin Random House Australia, at the National Press Club in Canberra.Across the developed world, global engagement has become a major political fault line. Some say that trade, investment, and immigration are threats rather than opportunities. Global uncertainty, rising inequality, and populism present real challenges to globalists. Choosing Openness argues that Australia’s past prosperity has flowed from engaging with the world. An open Australia requires stronger advocacy and smarter policies.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On 23 September the Lowy Institute hosted the 2017 Lowy Institute Media Award dinner, where the 2017 Award was won by Matt Brown of the ABC. New York Times columnist Bret Stephens delivered the keynote speech, addressing the dying art of disagreement.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this edition of Canberra Conversations, Lowy Institute Senior Fellow Sam Roggeveen speaks with Frances Adamson, Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, about her life and career, the influences that shaped her, the media diet she consumes, as well as the challenges facing her department and the nation.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Lowy Institute's East Asia Program Research Fellow Aaron Connelly speaks with Milton Osborne, a former Lowy Institute Nonresident Fellow and one of the world's leading historians of Cambodian politics, about recent political developments in the country and how to put them in the context of Cambodian history.In the middle of the night on Saturday, hundreds of police surrounded Cambodian opposition leader Kem Sokha’s house. Despite his parliamentary immunity, they arrested him and took him to the notorious Correctional Center 3 on the border with Vietnam.On Monday, prosecutors announced that they had charged Kem Sokha with treason for conspiring with the United States to overthrow the government. As evidence, they produced a video of a talk he had given in Australia four years earlier describing US support for democratisation in Cambodia. Under the Cambodian Constitution, parliamentary immunity is void if a member is caught committing a crime in flagrante delicto, or in the act, and the prosecutors said the video qualified.At the same time, the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen has been cracking down on Cambodia’s English-language press, handing a disputed $6.3 million tax bill to the Cambodia Daily that forced the paper's closure on Monday. The Cambodia Daily’s final headline ('Descent into Outright Dictatorship') summed up the high drama of the weekend’s crackdown.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On 28 August in Melbourne, Lowy Institute Research Director Anthony Bubalo chaired the launch of ‘Globally Connected: Victoria’s Trade Statement’, by Victoria’s Trade Minister Philip Dalidakis.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Canberra has a large community of foreign-policy professionals - public servants, political staffers, diplomats, journalists, academics, students. In our new occasional podcast series ‘Canberra Conversations’, Lowy Institute Senior Fellow Sam Roggeveen will interview Canberra's national-security and foreign-policy leaders about their lives, their influences, and how they do their jobs.In the first episode of Canberra Conversations, Roggeveen speaks with Mike Pezzullo, Secretary of the Department of Immigration and Border Protection and the front-runner to head the powerful new Home Affairs Ministry upon its eventual formation.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Donald Trump has now been president of the United States for seven months. He is a very different president from his predecessors. What does this mean for Australia? How should we manage the US alliance in the age of Trump? The Executive Director of the Lowy Institute Michael Fullilove is the author of a new essay on the Trump administration and Australia in Foreign Affairs magazine. On 23 August, Dr Fullilove and Nonresident Fellow Professor James Curran, author of Fighting with America, discussed the first months of the Trump administration and Australia’s response.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.