Australia and the Pacific
AUKUS: France’s strategic outcry
Last week Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom announced a new security partnership (AUKUS) and, in the process, put an end to the Attack class submarine program…
Economic diplomacy: After AUKUS in trade, aid and technology
Waiting line
China is now the top export and import partner for 12 of the other 20 members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) group and a top one-way partner for…
Interactives
Beyond Fortress Australia
The reality of living in a pandemic has dawned on Australia. Covid cases at the time of writing are high and still climbing. The virus is here to stay. Equally clear is that ring…
Podcasts
Lowy Institute Conversations: Richard Marles on Australia in the Pacific
In this episode of Conversations, Jonathan Pryke speaks with Richard Marles.
Pacific needs partnership, not just leadership
Book review: Richard Marles, Tides That Bind: Australia In The Pacific (Monash University Publishing, 2021)
There’s much to like in Richard Marles’ new essay on Australia…
Commentary
Australia buying Digicel hits two birds with one stone
On top of staving off a China telco monopoly, underwriting the purchase would show the government is putting big money on the table to get ‘blue chip’ companies to invest in the…
Economic diplomacy: Little Australia spends slowly in the Pacific
Baby BRIs
It is now almost three years since Prime Minister Scott Morrison muscled up to China’s infrastructure building Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) with $3 billion in varied…
Forgiveness not permission: A feminist foreign policy
China’s increasing attention to the Pacific region has created an uncomfortable bind for Australian foreign policy: should Canberra try to compete on economic grounds, knowing…
The risks of escalating strategic competition in the Pacific Islands
When US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned Pacific Island leaders about the dangers of “economic coercion” and “retribution” in an address on 2 June, he echoed a familiar…
Accountability is the path to better governance in PNG
When we look at progress in decentralisation in Papua New Guinea over the last 20 years – the sole continuous and overriding policy priority of successive governments – many…