Australian Diplomacy

view

What can Europe learn from Australia about stopping the boats?

The differences between the recent crises of boat arrivals in Europe and Australia are far greater than their similarities. There is not a civil war brewing 200km from Australian territory, and neither is the worst refugee crisis in the last half century being unleashed within striking distance.

By Khalid Koser

view

Six ideas for rescuing Australian digital diplomacy

Australia's approach to digital diplomacy is second-rate and entirely inadequate for a nation that sees itself as 'a top 20 country'. Despite an expanded social media presence, Australia continues to lag far behind other countries – large and small – that are investing serious resources into

By Danielle Cave

view

Does Australia do digital diplomacy?

After a decade of swimming against the tide, the Australian Government is slowly engaging in the world of digital diplomacy. The term 'DFAT the Dinosaur' no longer applies, a label slapped onto our foreign affairs department in 2010 after a series of public refusals to incorporate the internet

By Danielle Cave

view

Australia and climate change negotiations: at the table, or on the menu?

In this Analysis, Howard Bamsey and Kath Rowley argue that any failure to pay proper, high-level attention to the current international climate change negotiations raises several risks to the national interest. Strong, constructive engagement in those negotiations by Australia would serve climate

By Kath Rowley

view

Australia-Laos rights dialogue: More than just rhetoric needed

For many Australians, Laos is a scenic, off-the-beaten path, holiday destination for adventurous travellers. Relatively few know that it's also a repressive one-party state with a long record of restricting basic rights, and imprisoning or forcibly disappearing critics or citizens who dare to

By Shaivalini Parmar

view

Tough road for Asia's women activists

On 3 March, Australia's Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said, 'We must use the celebration of International Women's Day to highlight the plight of women still fighting for freedom and equality, for when that is achieved it will be for the betterment of us all.' That fight is ongoing in the Asia-

By Elaine Pearson

view

Indonesians against the death penalty

As we learned from a recent Lowy Institute poll, 62% of Australians oppose the use of the death penalty in the case of Bali Nine members Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran in Indonesia. But what do Indonesians think about the case? While I have yet to find a similar survey of Indonesian public

By Catriona Croft-Cusworth

view

Australia needs to start thinking globally about national security

ISIS and submarines are the two big fashionable defence and national security concerns at the moment. When combined, they make it evident that there is need for a considerable rethink about how Australia approaches defence and security. Today we seem stuck around notions of fighting an sea-air

By Peter Layton

view

Will the Trans-Pacific Partnership be a good deal for Australia?

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is close to the make-or-break stage. It will either get US Congressional blessing soon or lose momentum and slip from the agenda. So it is surprising how little public debate there is in Australia about its important ramifications. For an excellent exception, see

By Stephen Grenville

view

Julie Bishop goes to Tehran

To everyone's surprise, it was announced on Monday that Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop intends to travel to Tehran in April 2015. The visit isn't about the nuclear negotiations with Iran. After all, while Australia would rather not see Iran go nuclear, it isn't exactly a foreign policy

By Dina Esfandiary

view

SA's Royal Commission into nuclear energy: Let's talk about waste

South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill has announced the establishment of a Royal Commission to consider Australia's, and specifically South Australia's, possible future role in nuclear energy. He has invited comments on the terms of reference of the Commission, which are to be finalised in March

By John Tilemann

view

Brisbane a 'turning point' in Merkel-Putin relationship

When Chancellor Angela Merkel's gave the annual Lowy Lecture in November the day after the end of the G20 Summit in Brisbane, The Guardian (UK) called it a 'major shift in European geo-politics.' Now we know why. In a recent Financial Times series on the West's relations with Russia, the Times

By Brendan Thomas-Noone

view

India nuclear deal needs serious parliamentary scrutiny

The Australian parliament's Joint Standing Committee on Treaties (JSCOT) will soon review the proposed treaty between Australia and India on Cooperation in the Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy, signed by Prime Ministers Abbott and Modi in New Delhi on 5 September 2014. A 1984 cartoon on Australia's

By John Tilemann

view

Australia must push for regional adoption of Arms Trade Treaty

On 24 December 2014, two decades of campaigning and several years of negotiations culminated in the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) entering into force as an internationally legally binding instrument, having been ratified by 50 countries. The ATT aims to provide a minimum international benchmark for

By John Tilemann

view

Australian recognised by UN's chemical weapons watchdog

A scientist and WMD expert with the Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO), Dr Robert (Bob) Mathews, has been honoured by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) for his contributions to chemical weapons disarmament in a ceremony on 1 December in The Hague. Dr

By John Tilemann

view

Lima climate conference: Slow movement on Planet UNFCCC

As haggard negotiators left the UN climate change conference in Lima in the early hours of Sunday morning, many observers noted the contrast between the political acrimony that characterised the final days of these tortured discussions and the sense of optimism that many felt going into the talks

By Fergus Green

view

Submission to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Consular Strategy 2014-16

In response to the invitation of the Foreign Minister to make a formal submission on the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Consular Strategy 2014-16, Alex Oliver outlined the strains on the Department from the increasing consular workload, and proposed measures to address some of the

By Alex Oliver

view

Peace on the horizon for Bangsamoro?

As part of the 'Sectarianism and Religiously Motivated Violence' Masters course which I run at ANU's National Security College, students were asked to write a post on a contemporary sectarian conflict. This piece by Sophie Wolfer was judged the best of those submitted. The end of a 40-year

By Rodger Shanahan

view

East Timor, Australia and the 'Timor Gap'

Tom Allard recently reported in the Sydney Morning Herald that Australia and East Timor are ready to restart talks on the maritime boundary between the two countries, with all its complications of petroleum revenues and history. The tradition is to keep these talks under wraps, but Allard's article

By Stephen Grenville

view

New Caledonia: Australia must show assertive impartiality

Thirty years ago to the week, New Caledonia was torn apart by violent protests. The pro-independence FLNKS boycotted an election and town halls were burned throughout the country. It provoked a four-year long civil war euphemistically known as 'the events'. At first, Australia supported the Kanak

By Daryl Morini

view

Modi in Australia: An unprecedented level of engagement

Narendra Modi has just concluded his first visit to Australia, the first by any Indian prime minister in 28 years. Combined with Prime Minister Abbott's visit to India in September and multilateral interactions at the East Asia Summit and G20, this marks an unprecedented level of engagement between

By Danielle Rajendram

view

The case for Pacific Island regionalism

A few months ago I stood on a beach in Tarawa, the most populous of islands comprising the Micronesian nation of Kiribati. It's long and thin sliver of land where you can walk from one side of the island to the other in minutes. It has a population density up to twice that of Sydney or New York, but

By Brett Mason

view

'The Embassy' and DFAT's consular role: Helping Australians travel smarter

By Justin Brown, acting Deputy Secretary of DFAT with responsibility for consular, passports, corporate administration and information management. He has been Australia's High Commissioner to Canada, Ambassador for the Environment and Deputy of Australia's Mission to the European Union in Brussels

view

Australia and the AIIB: A lost opportunity

The debate about whether Australia should join the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) has gone beyond the realm of economic development and investment to hit at the core of Australia's apparent security dilemma. The initial concern revolved around the governance arrangements and whether

By Philippa Brant

view

Whitlam's Indonesia leadership was far from 'visionary'

It is certainly fitting to examine Gough Whitlam's foreign policy record and considerable achievements. However, in seeking to whitewash the controversy over Whitlam's role leading up to Indonesia's brutal invasion of East Timor in December 1975, Gary Hogan's piece does us all a great disservice.

By Anthony Burke

view

Whitlam's visionary leadership on Indonesia

As commentators rightly eulogise Gough Whitlam's foreign policy achievements, most of the attention has focused on his grand outreach to communist China and the independence of Papua New Guinea. These two acts were conspicuous hallmarks of Whitlam's game-changing diplomatic moments. A 1979 Peter

By Gary Hogan

view

Can Australia remain a top 20 nation?

A few times over the past year, Minister for Foreign Affairs Julie Bishop has referred to Australia as a 'top 20 nation' or a 'top 20 country'. She prefers this to the standard description of Australia as a middle power, a term she has mostly avoided. As she responded to the Sydney Morning Herald's

By Melissa Conley Tyler

view

Blinkered views on China and the US feed Malcolm Fraser’s Asia delusion

Blinkered views on China and the US feed Malcolm Fraser’s Asia delusion Rory Medcalf The Australian 20 October 2014 Please click here for the online text

By Rory Medcalf

view

Ambitious foreign policy push yet to coalesce

Ambitous foreign policy push yet to coalesce Dr Michael Fullilove 17 October 2014 Please click here for the online text

By Michael Fullilove

view

Ebola: Lessons from earlier pandemic scares

In July 2014, Australia's Chief Medical Officer, Dr Chris Baggoley, assured us that the risk of the deadly Ebola virus spreading to Australia from West Africa was very low. At that stage, cases of this most recent outbreak of the disease had been confined to West African countries and in particular

By Annmaree O’Keeffe

view

Ebola: It is time for Australia to act

By Catherine King MP, Federal Shadow Minister For Health and the Member for Ballarat. The Ebola crisis is no longer a humanitarian crisis for West Africa; it now poses a direct threat to world economic growth and if not contained, will spread well beyond the borders of Sierra Leone, Liberia and

By Catherine King

view

Australian public diplomacy the real loser in ABC cuts

Journalists are often advised to report the story, not become part of it, but Australia's coverage of and broadcasting to Asia have been making headlines for years. In 2014, the trend has continued with the Federal Government eviscerating its publicly funded overseas television service, Australia

By Christopher Kremmer

view

ABC bureaux closures: Sacrificing the bang for the bucks?

The latest news from the ABC bunker is that while Lateline may survive the latest round of cuts, the bureaux in Tokyo and Delhi may be shut down. The ABC Board met yesterday, reportedly to decide on measures to achieve efficiencies of up to $100m following the Budget and the Lewis Review, and in

By Alex Oliver

view

In Fiji, Bainimarama is back, stronger than ever

The Fiji elections have delivered a crushing victory for Rear Admiral (Retd) Bainimarama, author of the 2006 coup. The victory was crushing not only for FijiFirst, Bainimarama's party, but also for him personally. FijiFirst received 293,714 out of 496,364 votes cast, giving the party 59.20% of the

By Alex Stewart

view

Fiji's elections: Four lessons for Australian diplomacy

Now that Fiji has held its first elections in eight years, it is time to take stock of the lessons for Australian diplomacy. These lessons should inform Australia's approach to the Pacific island region, including in responses to future political upheaval, which is all but certain to take place.

By Jonathan Schultz

view

UN Climate Change Summit: A chance for Australia's environmental diplomacy

The UN Climate Change Summit is taking place in New York tomorrow, with attendance by several world leaders including US President Barack Obama and UK Prime Minister David Cameron. Over the past weekend, nearly 300,000 people marched in the streets of New York to urge a global consensus on

By Saleem Ali

view

Australia's economic diplomacy: Enlightened self-interest?

Almost a year since the Coalition took the reins of government and introduced its policy of 'economic diplomacy', a term which was probably foreign to many Australians at the time, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and Trade and Investment Minister Andrew Robb launched the Government's Economic

By Alex Oliver

view

Ten speeches on Australia's place in the world (part 2)

Part 1 of this series reviewed great speeches on Australia's place in the world, from Federation to Vietnam. In this post, I look at the period from Vietnam to Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17. 1. Robert Hughes, 'The culture of complaint', New York, 14 January 1992 Bob Hughes was one of our great

By Michael Fullilove

view

Inside a consular crisis

There will be many people in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) right now who are not getting enough sleep. The conflict in the Middle East involving Israel and Hamas, the war in Syria with its added dimension of foreign (including Australian) fighters, elections in Indonesia and the

By Ann Harrap

view

Assessing Australia's UN performance

Prime Minister Tony Abbott visited New York this week and, as leaders have to do when in the Big Apple, got together with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to discuss the state of the world. The meeting may focus some attention on Australia's two-year tenure as a member of the UN Security Council,

By Richard Gowan

view

The monarchy and Australia's image abroad

As you return to work after the Queen's Birthday long weekend, take a moment to reflect on how this holiday looks to the rest of the world. What message does Australia’s continuing attachment to the monarchy send to bemused tourists, international students and overseas business partners?

By Melissa Conley Tyler

view

SBY: Abbott says farewell to a friend of Australia

Tony Abbott has effectively said farewell to Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono as president of Indonesia. Our prime minister was right to praise him. SBY has presided over remarkable change in Indonesia. During his presidency he has consolidated democracy and championed a moderate approach to Islam. He

By Peter Leahy

view

Women in international relations: New Voices breaks new ground

Speaking to other women in international affairs, you realise we've all had those moments: when we were the only woman on a panel or, worse, the only female speaker at an entire conference (Pacific specialist Jenny Hayward-Jones knows it well); or where the number of women at a workshop is so low

By Melissa Conley Tyler

view

The demise of the Australia Network

May should have been a milestone month for Australian international broadcasting, and arguably the most celebratory in the 13-year history of the Australia Network. ABC executives were due to sign a prized deal with the Shanghai Media Group, giving the ABC the most extensive access to Chinese

By Nick Bryant

view

National Commission of Audit: When you've cut DFAT to the boneÂ

Every sector is speculating on how it will be hit by next week's federal Budget following the National Commission of Audit's recommendations on cost cutting. As Alex Oliver outlines, even the cash strapped Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade may not be immune. Given its razor gang mandate, it

By Melissa Conley Tyler

view

DFAT is not ready for a larger Australia

There's a big, a big hard sun Beating on the big people In a big hard world – Eddie Vedder, 'Hard Sun' Lowy Institute Executive Director Michael Fullilove is to be commended for calling for a 'larger Australia'. However, the old adage of 'quality not quantity' also applies. It is not clear

By Paul Bourke

view

Threatening Russia with G20 cold-shoulder won't solve anything, but may hobble G20

Co-authored by Hugh Jorgensen. What are the implications of Russia's action in the Ukraine for the G20? Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop says she is considering refusing to engage with Russia over the agenda for this year’s G20 summit. As the immediate past chair of the G20, Russia is

By Mike Callaghan

view

Joe Hockey to the G20: 'Do less, focus more, get outcomes'

Treasurer Joe Hockey's speech at the Lowy Institute today picked up on, and in some areas expanded upon, many of the issues raised in Prime Minister Abbott's G20 address in Davos. As Mike Callaghan noted of the Prime Minister's comments in Davos, the Treasurer's speech bore the imprint of its

By Hugh Jorgensen

view

Snowden leaks now hurting US exports, so is spying worth it?

Yesterday Peter McCawley noted that revelations of Australian spying on Indonesia are threatening to damage bilateral trade talks. Today, more evidence that the Snowden leaks are having direct economic consequences: Brazil has announced that Swedish firm Saab will fill an order for 36 fighter

By Sam Roggeveen

view

Consular services in death spiral as trivial demands increase

In an opinion piece in The Australian, Research Fellow Alex Oliver writes that a huge increase in overseas travel by Australians is putting unsustainable pressure on Australia’s consular services. This comes at a time with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) is stretched to the

By Alex Oliver

Contact Us

Lowy Institute

PO Box H-159
Australia Square NSW 1215, Australia
+61 2 8238 9000
reception@lowyinstitute.org

Media Enquiries

Erin Bassett
+61 2 8238 9035
+61 (0)409 461 795

Search

Institute - Top Menu

Australian Diplomacy

Pages

Useful Links

Contact Us

Our Location