Lowy Institute

In recent years China has been increasingly assertive, especially in its own Asia-Pacific neighbourhood. On 2 August RAND Corporation senior political scientist Dr Andrew Scobell explored what is China seeking and where Australia fits in this search.Dr Andrew Scobell is a senior political scientist at the RAND Corporation. Prior to this he was an associate professor of international affairs at the George H. W. Bush School of Government and Public Service and director of the China certificate program at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. From 1999 until 2007, he was associate research professor in the Strategic Studies Institute at the U.S. Army War College and adjunct professor of political science at Dickinson College, both located in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Scobell is author of China's Search for Security (Columbia University Press, 2012) with Andrew J. Nathan, China's Use of Military Force: Beyond the Great Wall and the Long March (Cambridge University Press, 2003).See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Lowy Institute International Security Program Director Euan Graham talks to RAND Corporation's Andrew Scobell on the US-China relationship, and where it leaves Australia.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Emma Connors speaks to Sir Lawrence Freedman the Chinese perspective of the South China Sea, and our particularly tumultuous time in history.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On 27 July, Sir Lawrence Freedman, Vice-Principal and Professor of War Studies at King's College, explored the role of historical analogies in foreign policymaking. He also examined the importance of understanding the origins of contemporary events and the meaning of historical experience warning of the abuse of historical parallels and analogies, and the danger of stripping past events from their context. A member of the official inquiry into the United Kingdom's role in the 2003 Iraq War, Sir Lawrence is a world-renowned strategist. He has also held research appointments at Nuffield College Oxford, the International Institute for Strategic Studies and the Royal Institute of International Affairs. A Fellow of the British Academy, Sir Lawrence is a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) and Knight Commander of St Michael and St George (KCMG).See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On 20 July at Paddington Town Hall, United States Vice President Joe Biden addressed the Lowy Institute and the United States Studies Centre on the Australia-US relationship.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On 19 July 1916, the Australian 5th and British 61st Divisions attacked German positions near Fromelles. In less than 24 hours the 5th had suffered 5533 casualties, making the Battle of Fromelles one of the bloodiest battles in Australia’s military history and a costly introduction to the Western Front.On 18 July 2016, the Lowy Institute convened a panel of Dr Euan Graham, Director of the Lowy Institute’s International Security Program; Professors Hew Strachan from the University of St Andrews; Joan Beaumont from the Australian National University; and Jeffrey Grey from UNSW Canberra to reflect on the significance of Fromelles within the Allies’ strategy on the Western Front in 1916, and its wider social and national impact in Australia.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Lowy Institute Research Fellow Aaron Connelly talks to Cornell University's Thomas Pepinsky on the state of Malaysia's domestic politics, how the world sees Malaysia, and how it will likely position itself in the context of rising US-China tensions.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On 30 June, the Lowy Institute hosted a panel discussion with Polling Program Director Alex Oliver, International Security Program Director Euan Graham, and International Economy Program Director Leon Berkelmans (moderated by Research Director Anthony Bubalo) to explore the repercussions of the 'leave' vote and discuss what Brexit will mean for Australia, our region and our international partners.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Lowy Institute Nonresident Fellow Malcolm Cook speaks to Emma Connors on the inauguration of president-elect Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines and what his leadership will likely mean for Philippine security policy.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The International Organisation for Migration will publish its Global Migrant Smuggling Report in June 2016. On 30 June, Dr Frank Laczko, Director of IOM Global Migration Data Analysis Centre in Berlin, discussed current trends in migrant smuggling in Europe and Asia, its complex reality with human trafficking and asylum seeking. Dr Jiyoung Song, Program Director of Migration and Border Policy at the Lowy Institute, moderated the session.Frank Laczko is the Director of IOM’s recently established Global Migration Data Analysis Centre. He was previously based in Geneva, where he led IOM’s Migration Research Division. He is the co-chair of the Data and Research Group of the Global Migration Group, editor of IOM/Springer Global Migration Issues book series and co-editor of Migration Policy Practice, a journal for migration policymakers and practitioners.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.