Lowy Institute

For the first time in 20 years, the relationship with China played almost no part in the American Presidential election of 2008. President Obama has forged a low-key, pragmatic relationship with Beijing, but has not seen much success in building a workable "G2" that so many have called for. China kept Obama's visit to Washington in late 2009 deliberately low-key, and has refused to co-operate on the value of its currency, pressuring North Korea and Iran, or acting on global warming. Recently Washington has angered Beijing over Obama's meeting with the Dalai Lama and selling arms to Taiwan. Suisheng Zhao, one of the world pre-eminent watchers of the Sino-American relationship, explored the thinking underpinning the current relationship, and the dynamics driving the evolution of the relationship.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The last twelve months have witnessed a turning point in post-independence Malaysian politics. In elections last March, the Barisan Nasional coalition and its dominant member, the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), suffered serious reversals. The prime ministership of Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi collapsed, initiating a fraught succession process to transfer power to his deputy Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak. The 'Mahathir period' and its 'Badawi twilight' are now passing, but Mahathirism may be experiencing a revival. What will happen? Can the resurrected Anwar Ibrahim provide the answer to this national predicament, or is he merely a symptom of it?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On 24 November a new Australian Government was elected under the leadership of Kevin Rudd, MP, a Chinese-speaking former diplomat with deep expertise in foreign policy. At the Wednesday Lowy Lunch on 5 December a panel of analysts commented on prospective international policy under Mr Rudd's government. The panellists included: Dr Malcolm Cook, Program Director, Asia & the Pacific; Dr Michael Fullilove, Program Director, Global Issues; and Rory Medcalf, Program Director International Security.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Lowy Institute Blue Ribbon Panel Report, 'Australia’s diplomatic deficit: reinvesting in our instruments of international policy', is the first major public review of Australia’s diplomatic network in over 20 years. Here, members of the Panel speak at the launch of the report on Wednesday 18 March 2009. The Panel: Jillian Broadbent AO, Professor William Maley AM, Brad Orgill, Professor Peter Shergold AC, Ric Smith AO PSM and Allan Gyngell (Chairman).See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The global threat from nuclear weapons is growing, yet so too is a new international push for nuclear disarmament. On Wednesday 25 February 2009 at a lecture in the Lowy Institute's Distinguished Speakers Series, Professor Sir Lawrence Freedman examined what realistic assessments of the developing state of the international system might mean for current efforts to reduce nuclear dangers. This event was held under the Lowy Institute's partnership with the Nuclear Security Project of the Nuclear Threat Initiative (www.nuclearsecurityproject.org). This project builds on the 2007 Wall Street Journal article 'A World Free of Nuclear Weapons' by George Shultz, William Perry, Henry Kissinger and Sam Nunn.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The annual Lowy Lecture on Australia in the World is the highlight of our events calendar. The 2008 lecture was delivered by Mr Ian Macfarlane AC in Sydney on Wednesday 3 December 2008. In this lecture Mr Macfarlane seeks to answer the question of what is different about this financial crisis from the seven previous crises of the deregulated era spanning the past thirty years, and the lessons we can draw from it. Ian Macfarlane was Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia from 1996 to 2006. He has been a director of the Lowy Institute since its inception.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On 7 November 2008, as part of our Distinguished Speaker Series, the Lowy Institute hosted The Grand Chief, Rt. Hon Sir Michael Somare GCMG CH, Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea. The title of Sir Michael Somare's lecture was 'Pacific Regional Challenges'. He discussed the urgency with which the Pacific and the world must tackle the challenge of climate change, calling for a global paradigm shift to transform the way the world values a healthy and functioning natural environment.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What lessons does the Iraq conflict hold for Australia's new Defence White Paper? In the Wednesday Lunch at Lowy on 3 September, one of Australia's most experienced and distinguished military men drew upon his experience of running a 21st century urban counter-insurgency to talk about how the nature of the Iraq war should feed into the Defence White Paper process. Major Gen (Retd) Andrew James Molan, AO DSC explored the need for an effective defence force that can offer government as wide a range of security options as resources permit.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The world economy is now characterised by intense international competition for skilled immigrants. At the Wednesday Lunch at Lowy on 21 May, Professor Peter McDonald considered how Australia can recruit the migrants that it needs and what the potential obstacles may be. Peter McDonald is Professor of Demography and Director of the Australian Demographic and Social Research Institute at the Australian National University.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The annual Lowy Lecture on Australia in the World is the highlight on our events calendar. The 2006 lecture was delivered by one of Australia’s most respected international strategic thinkers and international security experts, Professor Robert O’Neill AO. In his lecture entitled Prospects and Perspectives for International Security, Professor O’Neill gave perspectives on key international security problems, based on his personal experience as a soldier, a scholar and an adviser to governments.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.