In this its seventeenth year, the Lowy Institute Poll continues to chart how Australians feel about the world and its challenges, including COVID, China and climate change
In an opinion piece originally published in The Australian newspaper, Lowy Institute director of public opinion and foreign policy Natasha Kassam and research director Alex Oliver describe how the pandemic, China’s behaviour, and a change in US leadership have catalysed some rapid shifts
Originally published in the Australian Financial Review. Australia has been invited to this gathering of friends, but has no say in any decisions about how to get China to play by the rules. That’s a risk for the years ahead
Originally published in the Australian Financial Review. China’s ruling party and its leader are now masters of everything they survey. But can the economy keep delivering when the private sector is cowed
How Australia has dealt with COVID-19 and the rift with China underscores changes in the national psyche. Originally published in The Australian Financial Review
For a China determined to punish Australia, the windfall gains delivered to Canberra from surging iron ore prices are intolerable. Originally published in the Australian Financial Review. 
It is hard to believe the world will easily forget China’s governing system allowed Covid to get out of hand and spread to the four corners of the Earth.
Originally published in The Australian
A critical assessment of the stand-off offers New Delhi key lessons in managing the strategic competition with China. Originally published by The Hindu
A formal annual threat assessment from the government is better than the shapeless war talk voters are getting at the moment. Originally published in The Australian Financial Review
Tensions in the region are escalating, but trumpeting the coming threat of war plays into Beijing’s goals and risks undermining Taiwan further. Originally published in The Guardian
The US president has challenged the idea that the ‘east is rising, the west declining’. Instead, he insists that America’s day is far from done. Originally published by The Guardian
New terminology introduced by ASIO to describe violent extremist groups carefully avoids ‘right- or left-wing’ descriptors. But in not calling out right-wing extremism, is the national security agency guilty of double standards and bowing to the conservative side of politics?
Originally
On 19 February, Lowy Institute Research Fellow Lydia Khalil made a submission to the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Intelligence and Security inquiry into extremist movements and radicalism in Australia.
 
Australia insists on viewing Beijing in black and white. But that’s ill-matched with China’s expertise in the grey zone. Originally published in The Australian Financial Review
If Xi Jinping had followed the rules, he would be stepping down next year. The longer he stays in office without an anointed successor, the greater the risk of a power struggle. Originally published in the Australian Financial Review
Australia has rightly lost its fear of big deficits. But we must walk back debt in lockstep with private sector expansion. Originally published in The Australian Financial Review
Australian companies are learning the risks of operating in markets where Washington and Beijing are feuding. Originally published in the Australian Financial Review
Beijing’s investment in a greenfield project in Guinea is intended not so much to slash prices for Chinese steelmakers, but to guarantee the supply of a vital resource by diversifying its sources. Originally published in The Australian Financial Review. 
Underutilised in the Australian Public Service, Chinese-Australians are central to our China literacy and future engagement with the rising global superpower
It is five months since the last reported Covid-related death in Australia. But it is how we handle unemployment that will be one of the most critical issues. Originally published in The Australian