Articles | Lowy Institute

18 Dec 2017
Australia

China
A free press is a magic weapon against China's influence peddling

Kelsey Munro

Australian journalism had a big role to play in dragging the problem of Chinese Communist Party influence into the light.
18 Dec 2017
United States

Australia

North Korea
Clear messages required in Twitter-age of diplomacy

Hugh White

A distinction as a point of law might not work as practical diplomacy.
18 Dec 2017
Asia
Digital Asia Links: Bitcoin bans, online gambling and heavy metal guitars

Sarah Logan

Sarah Logan with links on digital developments across Asia.
18 Dec 2017
Favourites of 2017: Age of Anger

Marcus Colla

Modernisation has always produced angry victims.
18 Dec 2017
Asia
Brexit Britain won’t be able to uphold Asia’s liberal order

Aaron L Connelly

For a relatively small country so far away, British nationals play an outsized role in Southeast Asia – for now.
16 Dec 2017
Weekend catch-up: Sam stands down, Islam in Indonesia, our favourites from 2017 and more

The week that was on The Interpreter.
15 Dec 2017
Australian Foreign Aid
An investment bank for Australia’s aid program

Clay O’Brien

To ensure a diminished foreign aid budget has impact, Australia needs to start investing.
15 Dec 2017
Australia in the World
How the region reported the Foreign Policy White Paper

A round-up of foreign media reactions to the release last month of Australia's Foreign Policy White Paper.
15 Dec 2017
United States

Australia

North Korea
What should Australia rule out on North Korea?

Robert Ayson

Hugh White wants Australia to oppose a 'pre-emptive' attack but Australia's complicity may begin sooner than imagined.
15 Dec 2017
Favourites of 2017: The Handmaid’s Tale

Bec Strating

No other TV show captured the political zeitgeist more accurately than the adaption of Margaret Atwood's book.
15 Dec 2017
Australia in the World

China
Saying the unsayable in Australia’s relations with China

Mark Harrison

The resignation of Sam Dastyari is as significant for Australia its own way as Brexit for the UK or the election of Donald Trump for the US.
15 Dec 2017
South Korea
South Korea’s search for autonomy

Andray Abrahamian , Daekwon Son

'When caught in a fight between whales, a shrimp gets his back broken.'
14 Dec 2017
Migration
Migration and border policy links: Libya slave trade, Facebook people smugglers, and more

Erin Harris

Migration links compiled by The Interpreter team.
14 Dec 2017
Global Economy
Economic diplomacy brief: The business end of the Foreign Policy White Paper

Greg Earl

Three analyses of Asia's business environment have highlighted the economic diplomacy challenges involved in reaping the White Paper's promised opportunity.
14 Dec 2017
Favourites of 2017: American War

Nick Bisley

The author’s imagining of how climate change might transform the US is as unsettling as it is convincingly imagined.
14 Dec 2017
Defence & Security

Pacific Islands
Defence needs to develop international engagement specialists

Greg Colton

Not every soldier has the skills to mentor and advise foreign forces.
14 Dec 2017
Global Issues

Climate change
The Kyoto Protocol 20 years later: Heroes and villains

Daniel Hurst

Negotiators look back at a landmark agreement and the climate of exhaustion that ensued.
13 Dec 2017
Australia in the World

North Korea
How Australia can help avoid a disastrous Korean war

Hugh White

Australia should say publicly that it will take no part in any pre-emptive US strike on North Korea.
13 Dec 2017
Pacific Islands
Pacific island links: deep-sea mines and searching for life on Mars

Links on Pacific island matters from The Interpreter team.
13 Dec 2017
Favourites of 2017: The chocolate factory

Matthew Busch

Meek explores how the commercial and political rituals of globalisation have also forged a peculiar connection between otherwise completely disparate communities.
13 Dec 2017
Global Economy
Why GDP grows and people feel worse off

Richard Yetsenga

Economic growth alone no longer resonates as a policy target.
13 Dec 2017
Syria

Russia
Russia is not really withdrawing from Syria

Rodger Shanahan

Vladimir Putin is burnishing his strong-man image but Russian forces are still in Syria.
13 Dec 2017
Indonesia
Political Islam, intolerance, and the IS threat in Indonesia

Bobby Anderson

Campaigns for piety threaten Indonesia's secular identify, but the future of Islam in Sunni-majority areas is not Islamic State.
12 Dec 2017
Favourites of 2017: The Exile

Lydia Khalil

It is a revealing and compelling read that recounts a hidden history of an organisation that transformed the world.
12 Dec 2017
Asia

Climate change
Searching for sustainable energy in the Mekong

Tom Fawthrop

Southeast Asian governments are starting to wake up to the vast potential of solar energy.
12 Dec 2017
Australian Foreign Aid
Aid and development links: Working women, populism, peacekeeping and more

Alexandre Dayant

Updates from across the aid and development field.
12 Dec 2017
Global Economy
Rethinking macro-economics: Fiscal policy

Stephen Grenville

Lessons from the global financial crisis haven't influenced US President Donald Trump's tax changes.
12 Dec 2017
Australia in the World
Review: Hugh White's 'Without America'

Sam Roggeveen

Just when the foreign-policy orthodoxy seemed to be catching up with him, Hugh White has upended it again.
11 Dec 2017
Cambodia
Australia wants to reform Hun Sen – ‘It’s not going to work,’ says opposition leader

Aaron L Connelly

'Australia has been trying to reform those institutions, reform Hun Sen. It’s not going to work.'
11 Dec 2017
China
China: Contradictions in climate leadership

Isabel Hilton

In some sectors, China’s environmental record is impressive - in others, patchy and problematic with the transition to protection slow and erratic.
11 Dec 2017
Pacific Islands

Taiwan
Taiwan and its South Pacific allies

Kwei-Bo Huang

President Tsai Ing-wen’s visit to the Pacific took an intriguing detour, perhaps a signal of trouble to come.
11 Dec 2017
Australia in the World

Defence & Security

United States

China

Thailand
Learning to trust: Lessons from Thailand, the US and China

Greg Raymond , John Blaxland

Attitudes about friend or foe shift dramatically when countries work together on a serious security problem.
11 Dec 2017
United States

Iran's Nuclear Program

The Trump Presidency
Congress considers the Iran nuclear deal

Dougal Robinson

Many Republicans privately resent US President Trump for passing responsibility on the Iran deal to Congress.
9 Dec 2017
Weekend catch-up: Bubbling Bitcoin, Jerusalem, Korea’s 2017 and more

The week that was on The Interpreter.
8 Dec 2017
Conserving the Pacific’s fish stocks

Quentin Hanich

Complicating the threat of overfishing is a contest between developed fishing countries and small island states.
8 Dec 2017
US Supreme court has a duty to stop Trump's travel ban

Regina Jefferies

History is repeating when a neutral cloak of national security is cast over a policy of discrimination.
8 Dec 2017
Australia and the Pacific
No zero-sum game in greater Pacific ties

Greg Colton

Australia can play a major role in setting the agenda to the gain of all Pacific island nations.
8 Dec 2017
Pacific Islands

New Caledonia
New Caledonia: the future takes shape

Denise Fisher

Momentous discussions are underway to determine the future of Australia's closest eastern neighbour.
8 Dec 2017
Nuclear Weapons

Nuclear Non-Proliferation, Arms Control and Disarmament

United Nations
Does the nuclear weapon ban treaty warrant the Nobel Prize?

John Carlson

Australia should not sign the ban treaty. But the need for nuclear disarmament has not diminished.
7 Dec 2017
Middle East
Jerusalem: Trump’s roll of the dice

Anthony Bubalo

Recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital is a risky move at a time of so much volatility in the Middle East.
7 Dec 2017
Asia

Japan
Japan: Shinzo Abe wrestles with constitutional change

Donna Weeks

Winning a two-thirds parliamentary majority is no guarantee of change for Japan's pacifist constitution.
7 Dec 2017
Global Issues
Leading the prevention of global health threats

Alexandra Phelan

Australia can showcase the importance of international cooperation to stop the spread of pathogens.
7 Dec 2017
Global Economy

Indonesia's Economy

Australia's Economy

Indonesia
The ill-advised rush for Australia to strike a trade deal with Indonesia

Matthew Busch

An arbitrary end of year deadline looms, yet comments by Indonesian officials should give Australian negotiators pause.
6 Dec 2017
Australia and the Pacific

Papua New Guinea
What next for Papua New Guinea?

Jonathan Pryke

Experts assess policy options for PNG after a tumultuous year for Australia’s nearest neighbour.
6 Dec 2017
Pacific Islands

New Caledonia

Papua New Guinea

Vanuatu
Pacific island links: PNG snapshots, the French PM in New Caledonia, Mini Games and more

Updates on developments across the Pacific.
6 Dec 2017
Myanmar
What a realistic solution to Myanmar’s Rakhine State crisis might look like

Hunter Marston

The Bangladesh-Myanmar agreement is only the first step on a long road to restoring stability in Rakhine State.
6 Dec 2017
United States

Asia Pacific Security

South China Sea

China

Taiwan
How America can build a durable military balance in Asia

Michael Beckley

China’s neighbours are not passive dominoes or feckless pawns in a US-China power contest.
6 Dec 2017
Japan

South Korea
The symbolic politics of the Dokdo/Takeshima dispute

Bec Strating

Glorified rocks reveal the limits of the contemporary ‘rules-based order’ to settle disputes.
5 Dec 2017
Pacific Islands
Dodging the hard questions in the Pacific

Nic Maclellan

Where Australia leads, Pacific island nations may not want to follow.
5 Dec 2017
North Korea

South Korea
The Korean Peninsula’s year in review

Robert E Kelly

For all the bluster and threats of war in 2017, impeachment of South Korean's president was the most important event.