Publications

Getting the job done: Iraq and the Malayan Emergency

Dr Milton Osborne

Summary

Dealing with the entrenched insurgency in Iraq is the largest task facing the new Iraqi government, Washington and its allies. In a new Lowy Institute Perspectives, Dr. Milton Osborne, one of Australia's leading historians of Southeast Asia, analyses what lessons we can draw for Iraq from colonial Britain's successful counter-insurgency campaign during the Malayan Emergency. Dr. Osborne argues that the communist insurgency in Malaya had much shallower roots than the Sunni-led insurgency in Iraq, while the British colonial authorities were in a much better position to tackle the insurgency aggressively than the new interim government in Iraq or the United States-led multilateral forces. Despite these more favourable conditions, the Malayan Emergency lasted for 12 years and required a very heavy application of military and police force. The roots of success in Malaya suggest that the Iraqi insurgency is a long-term problem with no easy solutions.

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Peace with illusions
It would be dull to join the already large chorus of commentators predicting failure for the latest round of Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking, launched this week in Washington. Assuming that...Read more

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The 2010 Lowy Institute Poll

The sixth annual Lowy Institute Poll surveys Australian public opinion on a range of foreign policy issues. New questions this year cover the Rudd Government’s handling of foreign policy issues during its first term in office, whether Australia should develop nuclear weapons, attitudes towards Indonesia and US power, sanctions against Fiji and the morality of Australia’s foreign policy.

The Poll also repeated questions asked in previous years, revealing trends in public opinion on topics such as climate change, Australia’s military involvement in Afghanistan, and attitudes towards the United States and China.

A panel discussion about the poll can be heard here:
The 2010 Lowy Institute Poll - MP3 (23MB)Download item (1.3MB)

Power and choice: Asian security futures

Recent events in the seas off South Korea and Japan emphasise the fragility of Asia’s security order and the strains the region’s changing power distribution are placing on it. A new major Lowy Institute Asia Security Project report, 'Power and Choice: Asian Security Futures', analyses the likely security futures for Asia and Australia and recommends steps countries should take to ensure growing regional competition does not lead to conflict. This report was made possible by the generous support for the Project by the MacArthur Foundation.

A copy of the report, launched by Dennis Richardson, AO, the Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade on 1 June, can be downloaded here.Download item (6.5MB)