Publications

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Improving access to climate financing for the Pacific Islands

One of the central pillars of global climate change negotiations is the need to improve access for developing countries to funding and technical resources. But efforts to establish effective mechanisms for climate financing are complex, with governments trying to balance the accountability required

By Nic Maclellan

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The 2011 Lowy Institute Poll

The seventh annual Lowy Poll surveys the Australian public on new questions covering attitudes towards the US alliance and the war in Afghanistan, opinions on basing US forces in Australia, WikiLeaks, foreign aid, and the intervention in Libya. The nationally representative poll also repeated

By Fergus Hanson

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Chinese perspectives on investing in Australia

China is not only Australia's largest trading partner, but is also an increasingly important supplier of capital. In a Lowy Institute Analysis, John Larum draws on a series of interviews with Chinese investors and their advisors to look at their attitude towards investing in Australia and

By John Larum

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Living with the dragon: why Australia needs a China strategy

In this Policy Brief, Lowy Institute Non-resident Senior Fellow, Professor Alan Dupont argues that Australia has failed to grasp the full implications of China’s meteoric rise or the risk of conflict in the Western Pacific. He calls for a coherent, national approach to China, one that is informed

By Alan Dupont

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Dangerous luxuries

The ANZUS alliance is emerging as an important alliance for stability in the Asia-Pacific region but the US must understand the implications Australian defence planning will have on the future alliance. In this Lowy Institute Analysis, US Army Colonel John Angevine writes that Australia’s current

By John Angevine

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Global fiscal consolidation

One important outcome of the Great Recession has been the rapid accumulation of government debt in many of the world’s developed economies. This growing debt burden represents a potential threat to economic stability, and as a result, the focus of fiscal policy is now shifting from stimulus to

By Warwick McKibbin, Andrew B Stoeckel

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India’s new world: civil society in the making of foreign policy

Ashok Malik and Rory Medcalf argue that Indian foreign policy is being shaped increasingly by three dynamic aspects of civil society: business, the Indian diaspora and the aggressive Indian news media. Indian diplomacy needs to adapt to these new realities. And foreign nations need to understand

By Ashok Malik, Rory Medcalf

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Policy overboard: Australia increasingly costly Fiji drift

In this Policy Brief, Jenny Hayward-Jones, Director of The Myer Foundation Melanesia Program at the Lowy Institute, argues that Australia should redefine its relationship with Fiji to focus more sharply on Australia’s long-term interests

By Jenny Hayward-Jones

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China in the Pacific: the new banker in town

This is the fourth Lowy Institute report on China’s aid program in the Pacific. The series, covering the period 2005-2009, offer the most detailed picture available of China’s activities in the region

By Fergus Hanson, Mary Fifita

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Justice or stability? Hizbullah, the Special Tribunal for Lebanon and consequences for the region

In a new Lowy Institute Analysis, Non-resident Fellow Dr Rodger Shanahan explores what the outcomes of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, investigating the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, will mean for both key domestic actors in Lebanese politics, most notably Hizbullah, and

By Rodger Shanahan

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Secrecy and stratagem: understanding Chinese strategic culture

To cope with a rising China, other powers will need a close understanding of Chinese strategic culture. This paper seeks to identify the enduring features of Chinese strategic culture, assess their role in Chinese policy and consider their implications for the future posture and responses of the

By Thomas G. Mahnken

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In remembrance of India’s nuclear and strategic guru

In this obituary essay in Foreign Policy magazine, Lowy Institute International Security Program Director Rory Medcalf pays tribute to K Subrahmanyam, independent India’s leading strategic thinker, who passed away on 2 February 2011. Subrahmanyam strongly influenced India’s decision both to

By Rory Medcalf

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The quiet achiever: Australia-Japan security relations

In the last decade, Australia has quietly and quickly become a close security partner to Japan, second only to the United States. For Australia, no security relationship outside the foundational alliance with the United States has deepened more in this same period. Despite changes of government and

By Malcolm Cook, Thomas Wilkins

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Responding to boat arrivals in Australia: time for a reality check

With boat arrivals featuring prominently on the Australian political agenda, 2010-2011 saw a flurry of policy proposals focused on mitigating this trend. This report situates recent developments in Australian asylum policy within an international context and considers the efficacy of restrictive

By Khalid Koser

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Courting Reform: Indonesia Islamic Courts and Justice for the Poor

Cate Sumner and Tim Lindsey explore how the Islamic courts in Indonesia have embraced reform within a judicial system notorious for corruption and incompetence, taking the lead in efforts to deliver decisions that are more accessible, transparent and fair.

By Cate Sumner, Tim Lindsey

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The US mid-term elections and the Obama Administration

On Friday 5 November, two leading commentators on US politics and foreign policy, Dr Michael Fullilove and Daniel Flitton, provided some immediate analysis of the mid-term results as part of the Lowy Institute’s ‘Food for Thought’ program in Melbourne

By Michael Fullilove, Daniel Flitton

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The stakeholder spectrum: China and the United Nations

In recent decades China has become a far more active and effective player in, and contributor to, the United Nations. However, according to Dr Michael Fullilove, the limits of this enhanced engagement are becoming clear. Dr Fullilove emphasises that while the West might advocate that China become a

By Michael Fullilove

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Health system strengthening in Papua New Guinea: exploring the role of demand-responsive mechanisms

This Lowy Institute Analysis by Julienne McKay and Dr Katherine Lepani, exploring the role of demand-responsive mechanisms in health services delivery in Papua New Guinea, accompanies the Policy Brief, 'Revitalising Papua New Guinea's health system

By Julienne McKay, Katherine Lepani

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Revitalising Papua New Guinea’s health system: the need for creative approaches

The scale of public health challenges in Papua New Guinea heightens the need to improve management capacity and ensure value for money. Proposed changes to health facility financing and plans to replace drug supply system open up possibilities for wider use of delivery mechanisms previously

By Julienne McKay, Katherine Lepani

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Dropping the autopilot: improving Australia defence diplomacy

Australia’s military forces have often acted as effective agents of international policy. But while defence diplomacy has complemented Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade efforts, this has often been due to ad hoc coordination and personal initiative

By Nicholas Floyd

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A digital DFAT: joining the 21st century

Ediplomacy is no longer a boutique extra. Serious foreign ministries are embracing it to do their jobs more effectively and efficiently. Australia’s own Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has a lot of catching up to do. It also has a lot to gain.

By Fergus Hanson

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What makes a leader? Mapping leadership in our region

Does Australia understand the leaders of our region? Is our $1.4bn in scholarship funding reaching the right people? There is good reason to believe that leaders matter, and that they are particularly important in developing countries. This 2010 Lowy Institute Analysis presents the results of the

By Fergus Hanson, Alex Oliver

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Nuclear weapons and American strategy in the age of Obama

Did the 2010 US Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) get it right? In this Lowy Institute Analysis, Visiting Fellow Hugh White argues that – contrary to what has been widely assumed – the NPR does not significantly reduce the role of nuclear weapons in America’s strategic posture. In particular, it

By Hugh White

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Into the Dragon’s den

While Chinese foreign investment into Australia has been the subject of a great deal of controversy, investment flows moving in the other direction have received much less attention. In a new Lowy Institute Analysis, John Larum reviews Australian foreign direct investment into China and discusses

By John Larum

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Sweet and sour: Australian public attitudes towards China

Foreign policy has hardly featured in the 2010 election campaign. That's a shame. Australia faces an increasingly uncertain international environment. One of the most pressing challenges facing the next government will be putting in place a durable policy framework to guide Australia's increasingly

By Andrew Shearer

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Making international development assistance work

Australia’s aid program has been in the news lately, with calls for a wider public debate on the role of overseas aid. But public debate is being shaped by starkly contradictory arguments

By Joel Negin

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Confronting the Crisis of International Climate Policy

Copenhagen failed to produce an agreement on climate change commensurate with the scale of the problem, highlighting the fundamental weaknesses in the existing UN framework.

By Warwick McKibbin, Fergus Green, Greg Picker

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The 2010 Lowy Institute Poll

New questions in the sixth annual Lowy Poll of Australian public opinion cover the Rudd Government’s handling of foreign policy, whether Australia should develop nuclear weapons, attitudes towards Indonesia and US power, sanctions against Fiji, and the morality of Australia’s foreign policy.

By Fergus Hanson

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The evolving post-crisis world

In a new paper written as background for the current Asian Development Bank Economic Outlook, Dr Stephen Grenville notes that Asia has come through the Global Financial Crisis well, with Chinese and Indian growth hardly slowing, and quick recoveries in those countries which were adversely affected.&

By Stephen Grenville

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Confronting ghosts: Thailand’s shapeless southern insurgency

In this Lowy Institute Paper, Joseph Chinyong Liow and Don Pathan examine the ongoing violence in the majority Muslim Malay provinces of Thailand’s south

By Don Pathan, Joseph Chinyong Liow

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Indonesia and Australia: time for a step change

The relationship with Indonesia is one of Australia’s most important but it is still not on a firm footing. Government-to-government ties have been strengthening but relations are focused around a mostly negative set of security-related issues

By Fergus Hanson

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Capital flows, the carry trade and and in the wheels'

The 'carry trade', in which capital shifts from countries with low interest rates to countries with significantly higher rates, has become an important element of international capital flows over the past decade

By Stephen Grenville

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Toward a nuclear weapons free world: a Chinese perspective

In this publication, leading Chinese security scholar Shen Dingli offers a point of view on Beijing’s constraints and objectives as it decides how to engage with the new global push for nuclear disarmament, including such initiatives as President Obama’s nuclear-weapon-free-world campaign and

By Dingli Shen

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Obama surge

In a new Lowy Institute Policy Brief, West Asia Program Director Anthony Bubalo considers the implications of President Obama’s decision to send additional US troops to Afghanistan

By Anthony Bubalo

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The Mekong: Milton Osborne presentation

The Mekong River basins are one of the most important and dynamic areas in the world for the battle between economic development’s demands for energy and environmental and social sustainability. As world attention shifts to the pending global climate change negotiations in far-off Copenhagen, the

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China and the world: public opinion and foreign policy

The Lowy Institute’s first China Poll is a wide-ranging survey of Chinese public opinion towards a number of important international policy issues. By what do the Chinese people feel threatened? How do they feel about foreign investment from Australia, Canada and the United States? Which country

By Fergus Hanson, Andrew Shearer

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Al-Qaeda, tribes and instability in Yemen

In this Lowy Institute Analysis, Sarah Phillips and Rodger Shanahan discuss the re-emergence of a significant al-Qaeda presence in Yemen. The authors focus on al-Qaeda’s efforts to build relations with local Yemeni tribes, something that will be central to the movement’s prospects of cementing a

By Sarah Phillips, Rodger Shanahan

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The Mekong: River under threat

Dr Milton Osborne evaluates the potentially huge social and environmental risks for the Mekong River and the millions who depend on it for their livelihood of planned dam projects in Laos and Cambodia

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China and the global environment: Learning from the past, anticipating the future

Dr Katherine Morton examines the potential for China's system of environmental governance to respond effectively to the crises, both within and beyond territorial boundaries.

By Katherine Morton

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Comprehending Copenhagen: a guide to the international climate change negotiations

Comprehending Copenhagen by Dr Greg Picker and Fergus Green examines the 2009 climate negotiations in Copenhagen and sets out the key issues they believed would define the negotiations. The authors highlight the conflicting positions taken by developing and developed countries and paint a picture of

By Fergus Green, Greg Picker

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Problems to partnership: a plan for Australia-India strategic ties

Australia and India must not squander the chance to build a strategic partnership, argues Rory Medcalf. Bilateral difficulties over student welfare have at least focused high-level attention on the relationship.

By Rory Medcalf

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The global financial crisis: causes and consequences

This Working Paper, by Warwick McKibbin and Andrew Stoeckel, models the global financial crisis as a combination of shocks to global housing markets and sharp increases in risk premia of firms, households and international investors in an intertemporal (or DSGE) global model. The model has six

By Warwick McKibbin, Andrew B Stoeckel

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The Gulf states and Iran: robust competitors or interested bystanders?

In a new Lowy Institute Perspectives, Rodger Shanahan, non-resident fellow in the West Asia Program, examines relations between the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and Iran.

By Rodger Shanahan

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Confronting the hydra: Big problems with small wars

As a democratic middle power that chooses to wage counterinsurgency conflicts, Australia needs improved strategic policy approaches and capabilities to overcome a complex and many-headed threat

By Mark O'Neill

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Caught in the crossfire: the Pashtun tribes of Southeast Afghanistan

In a new Lowy Institute Policy Brief, Tom Gregg argues the importance of a more effective engagement of Afghanistan’s tribes, particularly in the country’s south east

By Tom Gregg

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A G-20 caucus for East Asia

In September 2009, the Pittsburgh Summit designated the G-20 as the world’s premier forum for international cooperation. The G-20 gives East Asia a significant presence at the top table of the world economy: six regional economies, including Australia, are members

By Mark Thirlwell, Stephen Grenville

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The 2009 Lowy Institute Poll

The fifth annual Lowy Institute Poll surveys a nationally representative sample of Australians on a broad range of foreign policy issues. New questions this year cover the priority given to action on climate change, public attitudes towards relations with the US and China, foreign investment, asylum

By Fergus Hanson

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Rebuilding Zimbabwe: Australia role in supporting the transition

Last month marked the first anniversary of the 2008 power-sharing accord that resulted in the creation of a new unity government in Zimbabwe. Joel Negin and Jolyon Ford assess what Australia can do to assist the country’s re-emergence.

By Joel Negin, Jolyon Ford

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Unconventional partners: Australia-India cooperation in reducing nuclear dangers

In this Policy Brief, International Security Program Director Rory Medcalf and his Indian co-author Amandeep Gill argue that an innovative partnership between Australia and India would help erode the entrenched blocs that impede progress on nuclear disarmament

By Amandeep Gill, Rory Medcalf

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Wicked weapons: North Asia nuclear tangle

The United States faces major challenges in engaging China, Japan and the Korean Peninsula in its quest for nuclear disarmament. Rory Medcalf explores the ‘wicked’ nature of the region’s nuclear insecurity: how fixing one part of the problem risks aggravating others. He recommends ways forward

By Rory Medcalf

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