Arab Spring
Is this the end of aid as we know it?
Across the world, many are experiencing PTSD as we observe the carnage at the US Agency for International Development (USAID) unfold. Elon Musk’s violent “time for it to die” quip…
Economic diplomacy: A fairy tale response to Trump’s tariffs
Taking a sliceJust over a century ago the classic Australian children’s book The Magic Pudding was published reputedly as an antidote to both conventional fairy tales and the…
Lessons for Australia’s policy dilemmas from America’s “post-Neoliberal delusion”
In an article featured in the latest edition of Foreign Affairs, Jason Furman, a former chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers and professor of economic policy at…
The global contest for the Pacific
Over the past decade, the Oceania region has moved from what many thought was a backwater of global politics towards much greater centrality.A significant driver of Oceania’s…
Special Feature
China versus America on global trade
The return of President Donald Trump to the White House means another trade war between the United States and China looks increasingly likely, with the rest of the world caught in…
Is DOGE the answer to improving productivity?
Incoming US President Donald Trump has asked Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswarmy to establish a “Department of Government Efficiency” – to be known by the acronym DOGE – to “dismantle…
The riotous return of the mercantilists
The undercurrent of Donald Trump’s worldview has deep historical roots. It plays like a retro film on a loop.Consider Alexander Hamilton. As America’s first Treasury secretary,…
Reports
Looking through a Pacific Islands lens: Access, accountability, and alignment in global engagements
A report of the Lowy Institute’s Geopolitics in the Pacific project.
Trump’s victory is a triumph for authoritarianism, too
The most powerful country in the world has elected as its leader someone who is not only stupendously ill-qualified for the role by any intellectual or moral measure, but who is…
Economics as history: Assessing the 2024 Nobel Prize
Why are some countries rich and others poor? Finding the answer to this vital question would deserve a Nobel Prize. Indeed, that is the motivation of this year’s economic award,…