Book review: The Ministry for the Future
Putting the fate of the world in the hands of boring bureaucrats might not seem compelling – might just also be right.
Thursday 28 Jan 2021 | 03:21 | SYDNEY
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Sam Roggeveen
Director, International Security Program
Lowy Institute
Areas of ExpertiseChina’s military forces, US defence and foreign policy, Australian foreign and defence policy, drones and other military technology, blogs and online media.
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There are reasons to feel OK about 2020, but a long-forgotten worry got worse
Originally published in The Sydney Morning Herald
COVIDcast: 2020 Asia Power Index
In this episode of COVIDcast, Sam Roggeveen, Director of the Lowy Institute’s International Security Program, sits down with the two leading researchers behind the Lowy Institute’s 2020 Asia Power Index
Why Australia Should Respond to China’s Provocations With Self-Reliance
Originally published in World Politics Review
China: Explaining that tweet
Four possible reasons behind a Chinese official’s social media missive.
Trump or Biden, Australia is alone
America protected Europe through the Cold War with a credible nuclear deterrent. Indo-Pacific nations can expect no such pledge. Originally published in the Australian Financial Review
Australia's Security and the Rules-Based Order: Tracking a Decade of Policy Evolution
In this feature, we identify ten recurring propositions about the rules-based order and show it's evolution through national debate and government policy. Explore how the rules-based order has developed over time and in meaning with experts offering inside commentary along the way
North Korea’s new missile
If – big if – this missile is real, America cannot guarantee its homeland security in a war with North Korea.
Why the American public has tuned out of politics
The American political class are fighting their private culture wars that have sidelined the concerns that ordinary citizens have. Originally published in the Australian Financial Review
Submission to the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Inquiry into the Implications of the COVID-19 Pandemic for Australia's Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade
Joint submission by Lowy Institute researchers to the JSCFADT inquiry into the implications of the pandemic.
Regional security depends on making order from chaos
Originally published in The Australian
Canberra vs Beijing: Getting serious about costs
It is impossible to have a useful public debate about the value of sovereignty if we refuse to put a price on it.
Unspoken danger in buying more missiles to defend Australia
Originally published in the Sydney Morning Herald
Morrison’s defence reset
The Prime Minister wants a defence force for a region which is “poorer, more dangerous and more disorderly”.
Emerging From COVID: Policy Responses To The Pandemic
In this new feature, Lowy Institute experts provide policy recommendations for Australia to address issues that are critical to our nation’s — and the world’s — successful emergence from the pandemic
Emerging from COVID: Policy Responses to the Pandemic
Lowy Institute experts provide policy recommendations for Australia to address issues that are critical to our nation's — and the world's — successful emergence from the pandemic
Global megatrends are coming for the ANZUS alliance
Originally published in the Canberra Times
COVIDcast: Hugh White on Coronavirus and Asia’s power balance
The latest episode in a podcast to discuss the implications of coronavirus for Australia, the region and the world.
COVIDcast: Hugh White on Coronavirus and Asia’s power balance
In this episode of COVIDcast, Sam Roggeveen, Lowy Institute’s Director of the International Security Program, sat down with Professor Hugh White to discuss the connection between the pandemic and the changing balance of power in Asia.
Canberra vs Beijing: A reply to Alan Dupont
We can’t base plans for the future on a chance China may fail. We are yet to internalise how successful it may be.
What’s missing from the Strategic Update
Cute but not cuddly – the goal for defence should be to impose unacceptable costs on a predator that tries to attack.
Wuhan lab claims: Is Australia questioning China? Or the US? Both?
Leaked claims, supposed intelligence dossiers, angry outbursts. Lowy experts look to make sense of a Covid controversy.
Helping Indonesia to help ourselves
Originally published in the Australian Financial Review
Who will be the 21st century’s rule maker?
Asia needs a new order for the post-American era, and it cannot be a liberal one.
China, Australia, and the gulf between leaders and led
The biggest shift in Australia’s strategic circumstances in a century will test our politics as much as our US alliance.
US-China competition in Asia: Who risks wins
Victory in great power games have rested on military might far more than the attractiveness of a leadership model.
Why the day of the party is done
Originally published in the Australian Financial Review
Our Very Own Brexit: Response to reviewers
It is the decline of the traditional parties that destabilises our politics, not burgeoning right-wing populism.
Favourites of 2019: The Twitterverse
Occasionally inspiring and frequently very funny, Twitter is the great modern meeting point – mostly.
Australia’s Brexit?
Loss of confidence in political parties could translate into disengagement from our region.
Originally published in Inside Story
When our security makes the neighbours feel vulnerable
Talk of new bombers ignores one important fact about the region: Australia is not in charge anymore.
Our Very Own Brexit
Australia’s Hollow Politics and Where It Could Lead Us
In conversation: Weak parties, hollow politics, and democratic danger
Could a radical break with Asia be the cost of a growing dislocation of the political parties and the Australian public?
The sharp sword: China and the drone threat to Australia
Combat drones could loiter over targets for hours longer than a crewed aircraft, posing a very different type of threat.
Are Trumpians or Boltonians in charge?
The US alliance is the great totem of Australia's foreign policy, before which our major parties kneel. But they should look up once in a while, lest the tectonic plates shift again and the totem topples.
Originally published in the Australian Financial Review
Book review: Hugh White’s How to Defend Australia
This quietly radical book calls on Australia to plan as if our US alliance will diminish to the point of vanishing.
National security: Australians and their elites
A tour through this year’s Lowy Institute Poll to see where the public differs from political leaders.
Fierravanti-Wells’ outburst tells more than just a China story
A Liberal senator’s spectacular break with party discipline shows differences on Beijing cut across partisan lines.
Australia’s election: what the hell just happened?
Don’t assume the last decade of political chaos is over as the major parties remain drained of authority and purpose.
Is Australia Next?
Amid the sound and fury of US President Donald Trump, European populists, and Brexiteers, it is tempting to think that Australia has been spared from the political turmoil sweeping Western democracies. But if one focuses not on the rise of populism but on the decline of the mainstream, Australia no
How open should Australia be about the China challenge?
Andrew Robb wants Australian officials to say more about China’s alleged behaviour.
Hanoi summit: Trump walks but time is on Kim Jong Un's side
Originally published in Australian Financial Review
What is the F-35 for, exactly?
Australia’s first two new stealth fighters have taken to local skies. Now what?
Brexit warning for Australia: Voter immigration concerns an easy fringe target
Originally published in Australian Financial Review
Book Review: the Clinton fiction
Clinton’s book has nothing new to say about politics but it may offer some insight into his assessment of the world.
Was Jim Mattis really the “last adult in the room”?
Mattis said Trump deserves a defense secretary “whose views are better aligned with yours”. Does such a person exist?
What I missed this year: America pushes back
There has been a clear shift in US thinking regarding China's long term trajectory.
Beware of joining US in a cold war it can’t win
Published in The Australian on 21 November 2018
Combat drones: Australia’s uncertain future
When it comes to stealthy combat drones, momentum is with China right now. That’s a problem for Australia.
More than words needed to meet the China challenge
There appears to be little evidence of the US preparing itself for a whole-of-nation competition with China.
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