Andrew Shearer	Rory Medcalf	Dr Malcolm Cook	Raoul Heinrichs

The Lowy Institute's Macarthur Foundation Asia Security Project aims to explore the limits of security cooperation in Asia and promote measures to prevent the region's growing strategic rivalries from deepening and escalating into war.

Supported by a generous grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Lowy Institute will work alongside 26 other leading regional institutions, helping to shape a practical agenda for security cooperation.

Panel discussion Asia's security environment On 24 September, the Lowy Institute's MacArthur Foundation Asia Security Project hosted a panel discussion on possible Asian security futures. Andrew Shearer, Rory Medcalf and Raoul Heinrichs discussed the long-term implications of the tectonic shifts under way in Asia's power distribution for regional security arrangements. Participants, including Australia's most senior strategic experts, considered questions such as: • How durable are the foundations of US primacy? • Would a new security order necessarily be competitive and dangerous, or could it be peaceful and cooperative? • Might Asia again return to primacy, but with China replacing the US as the dominant regional power? The event took place in the broader context of a meeting of the Australian chapter of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific (CSCAP), the region’s most established 'Track 2' security forum. More

Order, change and discontent in Asia's security Shaping up On Friday 5 February, the Lowy Institute's MacArthur Project team delivered a seminar at the Australian National University entitled 'Shaping Up: Order, Change and Discontent in Asia's Security Future.' The seminar was hosted jointly by the Strategic and... More   The Lowy Institute China Poll 2009 China and the world: public opinion and foreign policy The Lowy Institute has just released its first China Poll, a wide-ranging survey of Chinese public opinion towards a number of important international policy issues. By what do the Chinese people feel threatened? How do they feel about foreign investment from... More

Andrew Shearer opinion piece Will America defend its Asian allies? In an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal, Andrew Shearer, Director of Studies and Senior Research Fellow at the Lowy Institute, analyses the Pentagon's recently-released 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review and comments on some of the implications for America’s allies in Asia. Wall Street Journal, 5 February 2010, p. 9 Download item (67KB)

New Lowy Institute Analysis Wicked weapons: North Asia's nuclear tangle The United States faces major challenges in engaging China, Japan and the Korean Peninsula in its quest for nuclear disarmament. In this new Lowy Institute Analysis, International Security Program Director Rory Medcalf explores the ‘wicked’ nature of the region’s nuclear insecurity: how fixing one part of the problem risks aggravating others. He recommends ways forward, involving mutual and coordinated concessions among the United States, Japan and China, and taking account of the region’s strategic realities. This publication is supported by 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. Download item (536KB)

Media release Lowy Institute launches MacArthur Foundation Asian Security Project The Lowy Institute has launched a major new three-year project to explore the limits of security cooperation in Asia and promote measures to prevent the region's growing strategic rivalries from deepening and escalating into war. The project is supported by a generous grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. For more information please see the following media release. Download item (170KB)

Inaugural Grantees Meeting presentation The Lowy Institute's MacArthur Foundation Asia Security Project On the 28-29 May, a team from the Lowy Institute attended the inaugural grantees meeting of the MacArthur Foundation Asia Security Initiative in Singapore. The team, led by Director of Studies Andrew Shearer, participated in a workshop alongside 26 partner institutions from the Asia-Pacific, which involved this short presentation introducing the Lowy Institute’s MacArthur Foundation Asia Security Project. Download item (622KB)

MacArthur Foundation Asia Security Project team Project brief In a recent project brief for the MacArthur Foundation Asia Security Initiative, the Lowy Institute’s MacArthur Foundation Asia Security Project team outlined their project’s central objectives over the next three years, as well as its research methodology and means of dissemination. Download item (243KB)

Wicked weapons: North Asia's nuclear tangle Wednesday Lunch at Lowy - Rory Medcalf presentation At the Wednesday Lunch at Lowy on 24 June, Rory Medcalf, Program Director International Security, drew upon recent consultations in the region to warn that efforts to reduce global nuclear dangers will founder if they do not account for the rising strategic concerns of North Asian powers, especially China and Japan. Mr Medcalf’s research for this presentation was supported by the Lowy Institute’s partnership with the Nuclear Security Project (www.nuclearsecurityproject.org). His presentation can be heard here: Wicked weapons - MP3 (19MB) Video of this presentation is also available. More

Japanese translation of Lowy Institute Perspective Going global - Japanese version In 'Going global: a new Australia-Japan agenda for multilateral cooperation', a Lowy Institute report released on 30 April 2009, supported by the Australia-Japan Foundation, Andrew Shearer and Malcolm Cook proposed a new agenda for multilateral cooperation between Australia and Japan. That report is now available for download here in Japanese. Download item (548KB)

New Lowy Institute Perspective Australia and Japan: Going global In new Lowy Institute report, supported by the Australia-Japan Foundation, Andrew Shearer and Malcolm Cook propose a new agenda for multilateral cooperation between Australia and Japan. The growing international weight of Asia and the forces of globalisation are expanding the number of issues states must manage and respond to in new ways. Yet, the traditional multilateral organisations are under growing strain and have proven largely ineffective. Japan and Australia, as long-standing supporters of an effective multilateral world and complementary powers in Asia, are well placed to cooperate more intensely on a range of multilateral issues and through new groupings like the G-20 and Asia Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate. Australia-Japan cooperation in Iraq from 2004 to 2006 and the International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmaments are good building blocks. Much more should be done. Download item (613KB)