The Lowy Institute was born of Sir Frank Lowy’s desire to commemorate the 50^th anniversary of his arrival in Australia by giving something back to the country that had embraced him and his family. A keen student of international affairs, he wanted to deepen the Australian debate about the world and give Australia a greater voice in the world.

A feasibility study completed in 2002 by the Institute’s current Executive Director, Dr Michael Fullilove, and the early, formative years of the Institute under its founding Executive Director Allan Gyngell, provided a set of principles that have guided the Institute’s work to this day: to be independent, non-partisan and evidence-driven; to influence policy and to inform the public; and to host the widest range of opinions but be the advocate of none.

Over 20 years, the Institute has published influential research with an eye to the topics that matter. First and foremost, it has examined Australia’s place in the world. It has explored the global role of the United States, highlighted the emergence of India and analysed the rising power of China. It has re-thought Australian policy in the Pacific and mapped global aid flows in the region. It has published cutting-edge research on climate change, global diasporas and Asia’s changing power dynamics.

The Lowy Institute has created a suite of publications that are eagerly anticipated and parsed around the world: the Lowy Institute Poll, the most authoritative survey of Australian attitudes to the world; the Global Diplomacy Index, mapping the world’s most significant diplomatic networks; the Lowy Institute Papers, Australia’s only book-length monographs on international issues; and the Asia Power Index, still the world’s most comprehensive effort to measure power in the world’s most consequential region.

The Lowy Institute’s efforts to deepen the discussion about the world is not limited to its own research. In 2013 the Institute established what has become the most important prize for Australian journalists covering world affairs: the Lowy Institute Media Award.

The Lowy Institute has become known for its convening power. Each year its historic headquarters in Bligh Street hosts dozens of speeches, debates, conferences, and roundtables. Institute audiences have heard from presidents and prime ministers; foreign and defence ministers; spooks and soldiers; international envoys and global experts.

At the heart of the events program is the annual Lowy Lecture, at which a prominent individual reflects on Australia’s role in the world and the world’s influence on Australia. Past Lowy Lecturers include Dr Angela Merkel, Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany; UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson; US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan; and Lowy Institute Chairman Sir Frank Lowy.

The Institute’s roster of speakers has also included then US Vice President Joe Biden and current Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy; the prime ministers of the Netherlands, Finland, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea; the Foreign Ministers of India, the United Kingdom, and the Philippines; global figures such as Microsoft founder Bill Gates and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg; and every Australian prime minister of the last 20 years.

For each of the Institute’s first 20 years, our Chairman has asked: how do we know we are succeeding? We know because others invest in our work: more than half the Institute’s funding now comes from external grants and corporate support. We know because the best think tanks and research institutions want to work with us: from the Brookings Institution and Council on Foreign Relations in the United States to the Foundation for Strategic Research in France and the Australian National University. We know because Lowy Institute staff have gone on to fill prominent roles in government, including heads of intelligence agencies and senior advisors to cabinet ministers.

Perhaps the biggest compliment that can be paid to the Lowy Institute is to repeat what others have told us: that twenty years after its establishment, it would be difficult to imagine Australia’s international policy landscape without it.