Australia in the World

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Anxious about China, unsure about the US: Australians and the 2016 Lowy Institute Poll

It's likely 2016 will be remembered as a year of polls: the Brexit poll this week, the Australian election on 2 July, the US presidential election in November, and even a UN poll to select the next Secretary-General by year end. The 2016 Lowy Institute Poll, released today, may not be quite on the

By Alex Oliver

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The end of the sound of silence on defence and security issues?

It is a universally acknowledged truth that foreign and defence policy are not major political issues in elections. Yet at least for Australia's 2016 federal election campaign, the national security community can say it has tried to change that. Since the start of the election campaign six weeks

By Andrew Carr

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Indonesia neutral on Turnbull vs Shorten but down on Joyce

With the Australian federal election now a fortnight away, a polling station will open on Monday at the new Australian Embassy in Jakarta, which will be hosting overseas voting for the first time. The new complex opened in March as Australia's biggest, most expensive embassy, intended to reflect the

By Catriona Croft-Cusworth

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Plibersek's (and Labor's) journey to the centre

It is not so long ago that the idea of a left-wing Labor woman as the Foreign Minister of Australia would have caused deep consternation, if not panic, in the foreign policy establishment and in the halls of power of key allies. But if, against the odds, the Labor Party wins the 2 July Federal

By Geoff Kitney

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How the world sees Australia's election (part 2)

A couple weeks have passed since my last update on how overseas media is covering the Australian election. No real big surprises so far, but bellow are some excellent reflections on how the election relates to Brexit, the US election, China's economic rise and analysis of some battleground seats.

By Brendan Thomas-Noone

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Testing times ahead for Julie Bishop, the celebrity foreign minister

In an election campaign in which foreign policy barely rates a mention, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop is playing a high profile and politically important role. Regular viewers of morning television programs will have become well accustomed to her appearances. Voters in key marginal seats will

By Geoff Kitney

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Confucius Classrooms: If government won't pay for language teaching, China will

Language policy in Australian schools isn't likely to become an election issue but perhaps it should be. A recent article in the Sydney Morning Herald detailing the expansion of the Confucius Classrooms program at primary schools in Sydney and Melbourne quoted parents who were unhappy with this

By Marie-Alice McLean-Dreyfus

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Globalised homebody: Bill Shorten's view of the world

When thinking about the worldview of the Opposition Leader Bill Shorten, it is tempting to use US analogies, partly because the US electoral race is so much more intriguing than our own. Shorten is far more like Bernie Sanders than Hillary Clinton; embedded in a domestic agenda stressing fairness

By Susan Harris Rimmer

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Scrutiny doesn't extend to foreign policy in election

For someone who follows foreign elections, like that happening now in the US and the one Canada held late last year, I am always amazed at the level of detail at which Australian politics is usually conducted. It may be hard to see from the inside, but Australian political debate is detailed and

By Brendan Thomas-Noone

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Trump, Sanders and even Clinton: The external economic risks we should discuss

In the Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Outlook released on 20 May 2016, the secretaries of the Departments of the Treasury and Finance warned that a significant economic shock would see Australia’s fiscal position rapidly deteriorate. Could that shock come from the election of Donald Trump,

By Mike Callaghan

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Foreign policy fault lines

It’s trite but true to say that all politics is local. Foreign policy rarely gets a look in at election time in Australia. Moreover, the conventional view is that the divisions between the two major parties on foreign policy questions are narrow enough to make little difference at the ballot box

By Georgina Downer

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Leaders' debate: Why the world did not intrude

Admittedly, it is crashingly boring for policy analysts to complain that their pet issue gets too little attention from our political leaders. But last night's leaders' debate was notable for the fact that the outside world barely intruded into the discussion. Apart from a brief segue on border

By Sam Roggeveen

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Greens defence policy would leave us exposed in a perilous world

This article was originally published in The Australian

By Alan Dupont

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Australia and India don't see eye to eye on the Indo-Pacific

The maritime relationship between India and Australia has been on an upward trajectory since the 2014 Australia-India Framework for Security Cooperation. A lack of past interaction meant there was ample room for collaboration. The pace of development in the relationship has been quick, and includes

By Darshana Baruah

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The lion and the kangaroo

This opinion piece was originally published in the Straits Times

By Euan Graham

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Greens foreign policy fails to apply the lessons of climate change

The Australian Greens have long staked their political credibility on being realists when it comes to the hard limits of the natural environment. An uncompromising defence of 'ecological sustainability' is the foundation for the party's broader agenda of establishing social and political justice

By Malcolm Jorgensen

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Is Trump sparking an election debate about the alliance?

Fairfax's Daniel Flitton today identifies four important areas of foreign policy difference between Labor and the Coalition: the East Timor boundary dispute, nuclear abolition, freedom-of-navigation exercises in the South China Sea, and Israel-Palestine. I wonder if we saw a fifth factor open

By Sam Roggeveen

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How the media reacted to Di Natale's Lowy Institute address

Yesterday Senator Richard Di Natale, the leader of the Australia Greens, addressed the Lowy Institute on foreign policy issues ranging from the impacts of climate change, the US alliance, submarines, the Australia-East Timor maritime border dispute, and Australia's asylum seeker policy. Di

By John Gooding

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Greens call for foreign policy debate

The leader of the Australian Greens Senator Richard Di Natale argues it's time to review the Australian US alliance and believes climate change is the biggest threat to national security. As the second week of the Federal election campaign rolls on, Di Natale sought to trigger debate on the merits

By Emma Connors

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Why we won't hear much about trade in this campaign

In the United States, international trade is a hot-button political issue. Australia, on the other hand, is likely to get through the long election campaign with hardly a mention of tariffs and industry protection. Why the difference? Donald Trump’s policy positions may be a kaleidoscope of

By Stephen Grenville

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The lion and the kangaroo: Australia’s strategic partnership with Singapore

While Canberra is enhancing its economic access to Southeast Asia in return for granting Singapore greater access to military training areas in Australia, Singapore’s strategic stock is also rising as Australia’s most advanced and reliable security partner in the region

By Euan Graham

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How the world sees Australia's election (part 1)

Well, it seems the initial foreign media coverage of the Australian election has picked up on the country's general feeling: the campaign is going to be long, big on rhetoric and so far has contained nothing really new. First, The Wall Street Journal put the election announcement in the context of

By Brendan Thomas-Noone

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Loyalty through links and control: The long history of Chinese diaspora diplomacy

Early in 2014, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) abolished its Chinese language news and current affairs programs in anticipation of landing a deal with a government media organisation in China. The ABC's agreement with the Shanghai Media Group was signed on 4 June, 2014, the 25th

By John Fitzgerald

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Let's hope the next PM stays the distance

In the midst of this crowded political season, dominated naturally by the US presidential election and Brexit referendum in Britain, the international bandwidth left available for the Australian election will surely be taken up with one simple question: will this vote end the 'Here Today, Gone

By Nick Bryant

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In 100 words: The most important issue of this campaign

We kick off our election coverage with short contributions from Lowy Institute experts on what they regard as the most important international policy issue of this campaign. Lowy Institute Deputy Director Anthony Bubalo: Let me indulge a conceit and say that Australia’s policy in the Middle

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Aid & development links: Happiness Report, Australian aid budget, Venezuela's two-day work week and more

By Chloe Hickey-Jones, an intern in the Institute's Melanesia Program. The World Happiness Report for 2016 has been released. Australia is ranked in the top 10. Check it out here.The fourth annual Aid Budget Breakfast will take place this Wednesday 4 May, following the release of the latest

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Australian aid tumbled in 2015

With the first Turnbull Government budget this week, it is important to take stock of the impact the Coalition government has had to date on Australia's aid program. Perhaps the largest foreign policy legacy of the Abbott Government has been the impact it had upon Australian aid.

By Jonathan Pryke

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Turnbull visit leaves tensions unresolved

This piece was originally published in The Australian Financial Review

By Rory Medcalf

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A diplomatic necessity: Why embassies persist in the digital age

In conjunction with the launch of the Lowy Institute's Global Diplomacy Index, we present a series of pieces on the role and continued relevance of embassies. Do countries still need to maintain expensive, permanent official establishments in foreign capitals? Or have advances in

By Kishan Rana

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China and Australia: How closely linked are our economies really?

Like my colleague Steve Grenville, I was lucky enough to attend the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) Conference on China last week. The RBA managed to assemble a gold-plated line-up for the conference. It was a truly impressive effort. Several discussions I had focused China’s

By Leon Berkelmans

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Regardless of Defence White Paper, we are being out-spent and out-built by China

This piece was originally published in The Australian Financial Review

By Euan Graham

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Malcolm Turnbull's foreign policy: The first six months

By Melissa Conley Tyler, national executive director at the Australian Institute of International Affairs and Genevieve Lai, an intern at the AIIA's national office. Right now one of the country's favourite parlour games is to bemoan Malcolm Turnbull's freakish similarity to Tony Abbott.

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Embassies can shape policy

In conjunction with this week's launch of the Lowy Institute's Global Diplomacy Index, we present a series of pieces on the role and continued relevance of embassies. Embassies — and their derivatives, high commissions and consulates — are significant instruments of government, and as for

By Ric Smith

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The Lowy Institute Global Diplomacy Index

The Global Diplomacy Index is an interactive web tool which maps and ranks the diplomatic networks of all G20 and OECD nations: 42 countries in total

By Alex Oliver

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It's time we talked about war with China

Whether Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull intended it or not, his new Defence White Paper has been widely interpreted as sending a clear message that Australia is willing to join our allies in using armed force if necessary to defend the 'rules based global order' from China's

By Hugh White

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Digital diplomacy links (defence special): White Paper, Army blogging, honeytraps and more

The launch of the Defence White Paper was a hot mess of hashtags: Prime Minister Turnbull (#DWP2016), Defence Minister Payne (#2016DWP), the Department of Defence (#defencewhitepaper) and Chief of Defence Force (#WhitePaper) all used different ones. As a result, defence commentators also fractured

By Danielle Cave

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Australia’s 2016 Defence White Paper – Forward funded defence

In a commentary for PacNet, Euan Graham discusses Australia's latest Defence White Paper. For more from PacNet, click here

By Euan Graham

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Anti-submarine warfare biggest winner in Defence White Paper

Hugh White's piece in The Age today makes many good points about the limitations of the latest Defence White Paper on strategic outlook and policy. As White says: The more likely outcomes are escalating US-China strategic confrontation and growing risk of war between them, or gradual US withdrawal

By Brendan Thomas-Noone

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Turnbull Government adrift on ambiguous South China Sea rhetoric

With the revelation last week that China had reportedly deployed surface to air missiles on Woody Island, rising tensions in the South China Sea have once again been thrust into the global spotlight. As readers of The Interpreter are likely aware, Labor has been forthright about our position on

By Stephen Conroy

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We should think carefully about an Australian FONOP in the South China Sea

On 30 January, 95 days after its previous effort, the US Navy conducted another 'freedom of navigation operation' in the South China Sea (an operation known by the unlovely FONOP acronym). This time around, the US improved the public diplomacy of the exercise with clear and reasonably

By Nick Bisley

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Five ways Australian politicians could do some good on the South China Sea

Shadow Defence Minister Senator Conroy should be applauded for entering the debate on Australia's South China Sea policy. His instincts that Australia should do more to support a rules-based global order that is coming under stress are correct. In a more multipolar and contested strategic

By Greg Raymond

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Syria: The gift that keeps on giving

The official announcement today that the government would refuse a US request for additional assets to be deployed in the Middle East against Islamic State came as little surprise. These types of requests rarely come out of the blue, and it is likely that Washington was aware of what Canberra’s

By Rodger Shanahan

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Pacific links: Fiji's budget, Ok Tedi restructure, renewables, holiday reading and more

Matthew Dornan takes a look at Fiji’s 2016 budget. He notes that while the overall economic situation in Fiji is sound, the major policy reversals and long list of ad hoc revenue decisions in the budget 'undermine the government’s economic management credibility'. Remittances costs from

By Jonathan Pryke

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Aid & development links: Migrants Day, UK's new aid strategy, good news in 2015 and more

To mark International Migrants’ Day on December 18 the World Bank released its Migration and Remittances Factbook for 2016 (summary available here). It’s packed full of statistics, and includes one of my favourite graphs exhibiting the importance of remittances as a source of development

By Jonathan Pryke

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Pacific Island links: COP21, New Caledonian nickel, PNG education system and more

The outcomes of the Paris climate change talks have been praised by Pacific Island leaders. PNG’s Minister for National Planning, Charles Abel, spoke to Pacific Beat about the results and his goals for the sustainable development of PNG’s economy. On The Strategist, Tevita Motulalo analyses

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The Korea FTA, one year on: Those touting the benefits are cherrypicking results

Happy first birthday to the Korean Free Trade Agreement (KAFTA), which came into effect on 12 December last year. At the time, Trade Minister Andrew Robb said: KAFTA will increase export opportunities across a wide range of industries: from beef, wheat, sugar, dairy, wine, horticulture and seafood

By Leon Berkelmans

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Australia needs calibrated deterrence against cyber attacks

Another day sees yet another announcement of a major cyber breach at a government agency, this time unfortunately on Australian soil at the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM). While specific information about the attack has not been revealed, it bears all the hallmarks of Chinese cyber methods and harks

By Ben FitzGerald

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Australia and the US: good friends can sometimes differ in global economic diplomacy

It's not often that Canberra's senior bureaucrats provide a sustained critique of the functioning of global economic diplomacy. But Martin Parkinson did just that a week ago in the 5th Warren Hogan Memorial Lecture, using the extra freedom he had while 'between jobs', after he was dismissed in

By Stephen Grenville

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Plenty of challenges await Joe Hockey as Australia's new ambassador to the US

So Mr Hockey goes to Washington. The former treasurer will take up his post at the Australian chancery on Massachusetts Avenue early in the new year. Hockey's appointment, percolating through Canberra circles for months now, has drawn fire from several quarters. Conservative columnist Janet

By James Curran

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Aid & development links: 'lazy' aid recipients, Australian charity, malaria fund and more

MIT and Harvard economists have debunked the claim that aid funded welfare programs in developing countries make people lazy. Vox has a good summary. Devpolicy has posted the second in a two part series looking at Australian development NGO expenditure, which I have co-authored. In this post we

By Jonathan Pryke

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