Asia
Cambodia: Hard choices
Cambodia’s foreign policy has been largely driven by the politics of survival, as the government led by Prime Minister Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) has an…
Chinese dams and the Mekong drought
The latest reports from the Lower Mekong Basin are cause for growing concern that another period of drought will succeed that of 2019, affecting Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and…
Chinese trawlers in the Galapagos: The protection challenge
The Galapagos Marine Reserve (GMR) covers 133,000 square kilometres and was established in 1998 to protect the remarkable biodiversity of the Galapagos Islands off the coast of…
Submissions
Submission to the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Inquiry into the Implications of the COVID-19 Pandemic for Australia's Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade
Joint submission by Lowy Institute researchers to the JSCFADT inquiry into the implications of the pandemic.
Cyber sovereignty cuts both ways
The White House's approach to managing the potential security threats posed by TikTok, WeChat and other Chinese-owned apps is hardly a model of procedural justice. Without a…
A Chinese-built airport next door to a key Australia-US naval base?
Judging by recent satellite imagery, it appears that significant progress is being made on an expansion and upgrade project at Momote Airport, the nearest airfield to Lombrum…
In the Philippines, a political dance around constitutional change
The Philippine House of Representatives opened the second regular session of congress last month, with some legislators looking to kick-start the controversial process of amending…
Analyses
The World Trade Organization: An Optimistic Pre-mortem in Hopes of Resurrection
At a time when stability and predictability are needed most, the body at the heart of the rules-based trading system — the World Trade Organization — is reeling from far more than…
The invisible during the pandemic
Recently in Singapore, several migrant workers attempted suicide at their dormitories, with at least one death. According to the authorities, some of them did so because they…
Reports
Brookings Report: Historical tensions and contemporary governance challenges in Southeast Asia: The case of Indonesia
In this report published by the Brookings Institution, Ben Bland explains why Western nations need to engage with Indonesia in its own right, not as a part of plan to…