Publications

Looking after Australians overseas

Professor Hugh White

Summary

More Australians are now travelling overseas than ever before, and more and more are finding themselves in trouble abroad as a result. The Federal Government has put a strong emphasis on helping those Australians whose travel plans go wrong for various reasons, but recently there have been signs that this may have gone too far. Today helping Australians in trouble abroad is perhaps the single most demanding and time-consuming responsibility of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Budgets are tight, and resources once devoted to wider national interests are now spent helping individuals who find themselves in trouble. This is starting to have implications for Australia's wider foreign policy.

In a Lowy Institute Policy Brief published in October 2007, Visiting Fellow Hugh White asked if it is time to start drawing some lines.

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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)