Commentary

Opinion pieces by Lowy Institute experts

view

Donald Trump's bizarre logic damages US allies' trust in intelligence sharing

The US president appears to believe Australian spies are part of a deep-state conspiracy. Australia should be wary of the risks of getting drawn into his defence. Originally published in The Guardian

By Daniel Flitton

view

Being a video vigilante can serve the greater good, but that doesn't mean it's always right

Originally published in ABC News

By Daniel Flitton

view

Morrison Struggles Amidst His Bushfire Response

Originally published in the Council on Foreign Relations

By Daniel Flitton

view

Joe Biden's victory for normal

History is against a win for the former vice president in November. But you can't blame allies for hoping that yet another shock awaits. Originally published in the Australian Financial Review

By Daniel Flitton

view

Normality is at least a couple of years away

While the medical prognosis looks less alarming, the economic prospect is as grim as ever. The Reserve Bank has done what it can, now it's up to the government, writes Stephen Grenville. Originally published in the Australian Financial Review

By Stephen Grenville

view

There is no quick fix to our parlous relationship with China

Originally published in the Australian Financial Review

By Richard McGregor

view

China and Australia's relationship is souring but not weakening

COVID-19 and politics are driving them apart but trade keeps them together. Originally published in Nikkei Asian Review.

By Natasha Kassam

view

Push India towards the Quad to deter China

A four-country bulwark against Beijing's regional dominance is an idea whose time has come. To make it work, New Delhi must be convinced to join in. Originally published in the Australian Financial Review

By Lavina Lee

view

Global consensus can sway China

Events this week show that, amid the most protracted great power stand-off since the Cold War, middle powers can forge global consensus. Originally published in the Australian Financial Review

By Hervé Lemahieu

view

Investors will lose as Beijing squeezes Hong Kong

Originally published in the Australian Financial Review

By Ben Bland

view

Why Beijing feels compelled to destroy Hong Kong’s freedom

Originally published in the Sydney Morning Herald.

By Ben Bland

view

Hong Kong's new 'Basic Law' is that whatever China says, goes

Judges alone cannot protect territory from Beijing's heavy-handed interventions. Originally published in Nikkei Asian Review

By Ben Bland

view

Globalisation's still not a bad thing

Originally published in the Australian Financial Review

By Natasha Kassam

view

COVID-19 and America's counter-terrorism response

Originally published in War on the Rocks

By Lydia Khalil

view

Helping Indonesia to help ourselves

Originally published in the Australian Financial Review

By Roland Rajah, Sam Roggeveen

view

In a testy post-Covid-19 world, Chinese sanctions of Australian goods may be closer than ever

Originally published in The Guardian

By Richard McGregor

view

How Is the Coronavirus Outbreak Affecting China’s Relations with Its Asian Neighbors?

Originally published in ChinaFile and Foreign Policy

By Natasha Kassam

view

Coronavirus has shown Australian travellers have too high expectations of how the Government can help

In an opinion piece originally published on ABC News website, Alex Oliver describes the high expectations Australian travellers have of the consular assistance government can provide in a crisis. The original article can be accessed here

By Alex Oliver

view

Beware letting inexact science of modelling drive policy

Originally published in The Australian

By Stephen Grenville

view

Helicopter money is not what you think

Originally published in the Australian Financial Review

By Stephen Grenville

view

China's coronavirus aid to Pacific islands is part of geopolitical game

Beijing is using health care to improve relations in strategically significant area. Originally published in the Nikkei Asian Review.

By Jonathan Pryke, Richard McGregor

view

Why Xi will shelter behind the great wall of secrecy

Beijing will oppose an international investigation into the pandemic because accountability would put the one-party system in the dock. Originally published in the Australian Financial Review

By Richard McGregor

view

Washington could win hearts and minds in Iran

Originally published in The Australian

By Rodger Shanahan

view

How to win the war: some valuable lessons from history

Comparison with wartime sacrifices might put the necessary inconveniences into perspective. Nonresident Fellow Stephen Grenville writes on COVID-19. Originally published in The Australian

By Stephen Grenville

view

Helicopter money’s unearned popularity

Originally published in the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum

By Stephen Grenville

view

Coronavirus: Global giants stumble while agile nations inspire

Lowy Institute Executive Director Michael Fullilove writes on the ways COVID-19 will alter some of the patterns of international life. Originally published in The Australian

By Michael Fullilove

view

How the virus could stagger Asia's giants

COVID-19 looks set to hit the emerging world hard. For Australia, what happens in India and Indonesia could be most consequential. Originally published in the Australian Financial Review

By Roland Rajah

view

The balance between medicine and economics

Lowy Institute Nonresident Fellow Stephen Grenville asks if the policy response to Covid-19 strikes the right balance in the debate between epidemiologists and economists, moderated by the public-relations experts. Originally published in The Australian

By Stephen Grenville

view

The government's bazooka is biggest, not the RBA's

Lowy Institute Nonresident Fellow Stephen Grenville evaluates the RBA's response to COVID-19. Originally published in the Australian Financial Review

By Stephen Grenville

view

China is rewriting coronavirus history and nobody will stop it

In an opinion piece published in the Nikkei Asian Review, Natasha Kassam argues that China has leapt on the opportunity to shape the global narrative about its response to the coronavirus as other countries grapple to manage the crisis

By Natasha Kassam

view

West must face its viral demons

It may be the global politics of the pandemic, rather than COVID-19 itself, that proves our undoing. Originally published in the Australian Financial Review

By Hervé Lemahieu

view

Vital to focus on fiscal policy as recession inevitable

It goes without saying that the medical response to the pandemic should have the highest policy priority ... On the economics of the pandemic, initial reactions have been quickly outdated. Originally published in The Australian

By Stephen Grenville

view

The RBA's job is to back banks, not bail out gamblers

It’s quite a while since I was at the Reserve Bank, but one of my tasks there was to draft replies to letters received. So let me try my hand at responding to Christopher Joye’s "Virus gets upper hand in battle against central banks" (AFR, March 13). Originally published in the Australian

By Stephen Grenville

view

Avoiding the wrong lessons on aid and corruption

Is development aid an effective solution to lifting countries out of poverty? Roland Rajah, Director of the International Economy Program, and Research Fellow Alexandre Dayant write on aid and corruption. Originally published in the Devpolicy Blog

By Roland Rajah, Alexandre Dayant

view

Central bank reputations at risk from impossible targets

Central banks around the world are caught in the same bind: inflation is below their target. Originally published in The Australian

By Stephen Grenville

view

Paranoid leaders hoping repression can lead to stability

This is an edited extract from the Lowy Institute Analysis ‘The Path of Least Resilience: Autocratic Rule and External Powers In The Middle East’ by Anthony Bubalo. The extract first appeared in The Australian

By Anthony Bubalo

view

Middle Powers Will Determine the Future of the Asian Order

In Asia, power is shifting. The changing balance of power is setting the stage for prolonged great power competition. As the US-led rules-based order decays, the question is what regional order – if any – will replace it

By Hervé Lemahieu

view

The coronavirus outbreak has exposed the deep flaws of Xi’s autocracy

China’s political system was meant to be all-powerful, capable of dealing with any crisis. The death of one doctor has shaken that claim. Originally published in The Guardian.

By Richard McGregor

view

Politics comes first in China's agony

In an opinion piece originally published in the Financial Review, Natasha Kassam argues that China's biggest concern in dealing with the new coronavirus is maintaining stability and keeping its grip on information

By Natasha Kassam

view

The New Wave of Middle-East Media Repression

In an opinion piece published in Project Syndicate, Lydia Khalil describes how the governments of Egypt and Saudi Arabia have suppressed unfavorable information to hold on to power. But the experiences of Iraq and Lebanon suggest that this approach has limits in political systems that depend on

By Lydia Khalil

view

How I Lost My Faith in America

The world still wants to believe in the US. But it needs some help. Originally published in The Atlantic

By Michael Fullilove

view

How the coronavirus crisis has brewed a ‘revolt of the professionals’ in China

Doctors, scientists, lawyers and journalists are pushing back against Communist Party structures in a rare backlash against suppression of information. If Beijing can learn to leave them to do their jobs, that would be real reform, akin to a mini-revolution. Originally published in South China

By Richard McGregor

view

How Beijing's silence helped spread the virus

Beijing's blaming of local officials and signs on a clampdown on information about the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak has tragic echoes of the mishandling of the SARs virus more than a decade ago, writes Richard McGregor. Originally published in the Australian Financial Review

By Richard McGregor

view

Soft power goes up in smoke

A unique connection to nature is at the heart of our international appeal. Foot-dragging on climate is squandering it. Originally published in the Australian Financial Review

By Hervé Lemahieu