Australia
The Quad (finally) delivers: Can it be sustained?
On 19 March, the leaders of four important democracies of the Indo-Pacific region – the United States, Japan, Australia and India – held (virtually) their first-ever “Quad Summit…
Obstacles and opportunities in Vietnam-Australia ties
Australia and Vietnam officially became strategic partners in 2018, promising to expand cooperation across multiple domains. Yet economic ties have grown slowly from a relatively…
The big bark but small bite of China’s trade coercion
Beginning last May, China has hit Australia with a barrage of trade sanctions in a fairly overt attempt at economic coercion. It’s still early days, but it’s worth…
Podcasts
Lowy Institute Conversations: John Edwards and Jennifer Hewett on Australia’s economy after COVID-19
In this episode of Lowy Institute Conversations, Roland Rajah, Lowy Institute lead economist, sits down with Dr John Edwards and Jennifer Hewitt to discuss Australia’s economy…
Australia must walk the talk on women’s rights – globally and at home
Last week, the United Nations held the 65th Commission on the Status of Women in New York, and virtually, with the theme “women’s full and effective participation and decision…
Taking the measure of prejudice in a pandemic
Earlier this month, the Lowy Institute released Being Chinese in Australia, one of the largest surveys of the Chinese Australian community. Around the same time, the Scanlon…
Facebook’s monopoly danger in the Pacific
The recent stoush between the Australian government and social media giant Facebook, with its eight-day-long ban of local news from its platform, had results that were not…
The world sees the climate crisis in Australia’s floods. Do we?
In the late 1980s, while I was a reporter covering one of the mega-cyclones to hit Bangladesh, a government official in Dhaka confided in me that he was fed up with seeing his…
Australian politics should be as diverse as its people
Australia likes to see itself as punching above its weight as a middle power, but this boast does not hold true when it comes to the representation of cultural diversity in…
When a middle power is not caught in the middle
South Korea is set on a policy course that seeks to balance its economic relations with China and its security relations with the United States. Aiming for such a balance is…