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With Pope Benedict announcing his retirement, all eyes turn towards his successor. The position of pope carries with it enormous power, for he is in effect an autocrat ruling over a global spiritual empire that is as heavily bureaucratised as any temporal empire ever was. Some articles talk of

Two remembrances of the Australian journalist Barry Wain, author of an acclaimed biography of Mahathir. We hope to have our own obit in coming days.  The British horse meat scandal has important lessons for the climate change debate. No, really. Tim Geithner kinda sorta admits he was wrong 

Danielle Rajendram is a Research Associate in the Lowy Institute's International Security Program whose work focuses on India and China-India relations. Is freedom of speech under threat in the world's largest democracy? India's Ambassador to the US, Nirupama Rao, delivered a lecture on Indian

Former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser writes: Since the Lowy Institute is apparently giving considerable publicity to Captain Fanell's remarks about China, I thought you might be interested in these two articles of Nicholas Kristof's in the New York Times. They give a different,

Alicia Mollaun, a PhD candidate at the Crawford School at ANU, is based in Islamabad. Her previous post in this series described a visit to Lahore. About a 45-minute drive from Lahore the traffic starts to build. People are streaming in from everywhere, parking cars haphazardly and then

Dr Daniel Woker is the former Swiss Ambassador to Australia and now a Senior Lecturer at the University of St Gallen. In two insightful posts on the G20 and global economic leadership, the Lowy Institute's Mike Callaghan wonders whether the G20 has run out of puff, and asks for a 'circuit

Is Indonesia moving towards abolition of the death penalty? Lowy's Dave McRae in Inside Indonesia. The NY Times has been under cyber attack by Chinese hackers ever since they heard that the Times was set to expose Wen Jiabao's family fortune. Why are spies and diplomats so fascinated by the

Olivia Wilson, a geoscientist and mapping specialist, wrote for The Interpreter in November about the mythical Sandy Island. The Beidou Navigation Satellite System is China's version of GPS. We all know that abbreviation and use it more than we think. GPS is the US Global Positioning System, which

I can understand Hillary Clinton's sentiment, but I gotta quibble with the metaphor: “We need a new architecture for this new world, more Frank Gehry than formal Greek,” Clinton said, after describing the system dominated by the United Nations, NATO and several other large organizations

The economy of greater Shanghai is bigger than that of Switzerland. Cancel all your appointments for today before clicking on this: 102 of the best nonfiction stories from 2012. Open source politics: extracting political lessons from the software and web cultures. Stephen Walt lists five truths

The Pentagon recently released new details about a 1.8 gigapixel surveillance camera it has mounted on a drone. Here's an extract from a PBS documentary that gives you an idea of what that means in practice: On first viewing, there is a certain 'gee whiz' factor to this camera and its

Dr Daniel Woker is the former Swiss Ambassador to Australia and now a Senior Lecturer at the University of St Gallen. Mali might not be Afghanistan, but a country just south of the empty Sahara is geographically much closer to Europe. Refugees and, with a certain delay, economic migrants from

Two decades ago, monetary policy seemed to have reached the 'end of history': it had evolved an optimal format from which no further refinement seemed necessary. The two key elements were a focus on low inflation and central bank independence as the means of separating monetary policy from political

The 2012 Global Think Tank Index is out, with the Lowy Institute ranked 44th out of 1647 think tanks nominated worldwide. Mali is not Afghanistan and an Islamist take-over would have local but not global consequences. US Secretary of State-nominee John Kerry's statement to the Senate Foreign

From British Prime Minister David Cameron's speech announcing his proposal for a referendum on Britain's membership of the EU: What Churchill described as the twin marauders of war and tyranny have been almost entirely banished from our continent. Today, hundreds of millions dwell in freedom

David Cameron's unsentimental EU speech. Does the G20 have too much on its plate? Democracy Arsenal continues the debate, responding to this Interpreter post. Reviewing Kim Jung Un's first year as North Korean leader: 'The Ice Age in North Korea is coming to an end. Although the pace of change is

Concerns over Iran's nuclear program, proven support for Shi'a groups in Lebanon and Iraq, support for the Assad regime in Syria and alleged support for just about every other opposition group in the region will ensure that, just as in 2012, Iran will continue to feature as the main security focus

Google head honcho Eric Schmidt went to Pyongyang recently, taking his daughter. This is her evocative account of the visit. (Thanks James.) Osama bin Laden's last victory over America: Matt Taibbi writes as only he can about Zero Dark Thirty. Anyone seen it and want to offer their views?

This is part 3 of Mark's thirteen suggestions (in no particular order) of things to look out for in the global economy this year. Part 1 is here, part 2 is here.    9. Keep an eye on oil prices Despite some signs that the world is less sensitive to oil price hikes than it used to be, the

This is part 2 of Mark's thirteen suggestions (in no particular order) of things to look out for in the global economy this year. Part 1 is here. 5. China's growth prospects We spent quite a lot of 2012 on The Interpreter debating China's growth outlook, wondering whether last year's

Dr Daniel Woker is the former Swiss Ambassador to Australia and now a Senior Lecturer at the University of St Gallen. Following a path-breaking Australian court judgment against Standard & Poors (S&P), Stephen Grenville, in a blog post on 14 November, notes how credit rating agencies (CRAs), 'by

Thanks to the folk at the Asia New Zealand Foundation for alerting me to this world exclusive from Beer & Brewer Magazine. It's the New Zealand Foreign Ministry's reply to an FOI requests asking for 'a list of every New Zealand beer brand served at each New Zealand Embassy, High Commission or

Mike Callaghan is Director of the Lowy Institute's G20 Studies Centre. Mark Thirlwell is Director of the Lowy Institute's International Economy Program and a G20 Studies Centre Fellow. Is the G20 agenda expanding too widely at a time when its top priority should be on reinvigorating global