Programs & Projects
Australia's Security and the Rules-Based Order
The 2016 Defence White Paper describes a rules-based global order as a “fundamental strategic interest”.
This project, supported by the Department of Defence’s Strategic Policy Grants Program, aims to lead a national debate on the rules-based order and its implications for Australian security and defence. It will connect the legal, political, and historical debates about the nature of the global order with the practical realities of Australia’s strategic environment. It will address how the order can evolve to meet new technological challenges and modes of warfare, including grey zone operations.
Cover image: Official U.S. Navy / Flickr
Experts
Latest publications
News and media
Interactives
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…
Smart China choices
Australian commentators often appear eager to paint Australia’s China choices in stark binaries. “The money or our sovereignty: China leaves us no choice” is one representative…
Interactives
China and the Rules‑Based Order
Seven experts debate China’s approach to the rules‑based international order
Book review: “The false promise of liberal order”
Book review: Patrick Porter, The False Promise of Liberal Order: Nostalgia, Delusion and the Rise of Trump (Polity Press, 2020)
A familiar response to the growing global disorder…
World order in the time of coronavirus
The liberal order faces its greatest crisis since the end of the Cold War. Liberalism is in retreat around the world. The United States is led by a president whose America-first…
Submissions
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.
Analyses
Global Order in the Shadow of the Coronavirus: China, Russia and the West
It’s time to rethink global governance and its priorities
Five Eyes: Blurring the lines between intelligence and policy
The public aura around the decades-old “Five Eyes” intelligence sharing partnership between Australia, the US, UK, Canada, New Zealand has expanded rapidly since the name was…
Commentary
Why Australia hasn't given up on a rules-based world order
Putting 'negative globalism' talk aside, strategic shocks are forcing Canberra to think about an international system that can protect sovereignty and prevent great power conflict…