Skip to main content
The Interpreter

Interpreter - Menu Links

  • Articles
  • Debates
  • Contributors
  • About

Published daily by the Lowy Institute

  • 2 days ago
    • China
    • Philippines
    • South Korea
    • Australia
    • Defence & Security

    Three Indo-Pacific allies, one week, and three different calculations on display

    Sophie Wushuang Yi
    Seoul disputes, Canberra proceeds, Manila hedges: how Washington’s alliance network is differentiating under pressure.
  • 2 days ago
    • China
    • North Korea
    • South Korea
    • Nuclear Weapons
    • United States

    North Korea’s nuclear ambitions are here to stay

    Gabriela Bernal
    Pyongyang’s party congress sets out five more years of military expansion, hardline diplomacy and estrangement from Seoul.
  • 2 days ago
    • Defence & Security
    • Sex and Gender

    “Autocrats fear women” – Australia’s foreign policy should act on that

    Alice Ridge , Joanna Pradela
    The same forces attacking women’s rights are undermining the rules-based order that Australia depends on.
  • 2 days ago
    • Australia
    • Sex and Gender

    Australia needs to put gender-responsive budgeting into law …

    Ramona Vijeyarasa
    … Or risk lagging on the global stage.
  • 5 Mar 2026
    • North Korea

    Kim Jong-un is in no rush to talk

    Khang Vu
    With Moscow’s backing and a growing nuclear arsenal, Pyongyang thinks it can afford to wait out Washington and Seoul.
  • 5 Mar 2026
    • Iran
    • Qatar
    • United Arab Emirates

    Iran’s threat to airline travel: The Gulf’s skies are now a chokepoint too

    Kazimier Lim
    By targeting passenger terminals rather than runways, Iran has opened a new front in economic coercion.
  • 5 Mar 2026
    • Canada

    Mark Carney’s Pacific pivot

    Grant Wyeth
    Canada’s Liberal PM is reorienting Ottawa’s world view – and eating the Conservative Party’s lunch while doing it.
  • 5 Mar 2026
    • China
    • Taiwan

    Taiwan is still working itself out

    William Leben
    A complicated history and constant threats from China keep one of Asia’s youngest democracies alive … and alert.
  • 4 Mar 2026
    • Asean
    • Nuclear Non-Proliferation, Arms Control and Disarmament
    • Nuclear Weapons

    Southeast Asia’s nuclear weapons-free zone needs reinforcement

    Brendan Taylor
    As nuclear risk returns globally, Southeast Asia's weapons-free status looks less secure and more worth defending.
  • 4 Mar 2026
    • Global Issues
    • International law
    • Pacific Islands

    Yes, it’s legal to shoot narco-subs in the Pacific – but the law has better options

    Natalie Klein
    Australia can counter drug traffickers without following Trump’s playbook.
  • 4 Mar 2026
    • China
    • Technology

    The real AI gap between China and the West isn’t chips or models but the stories we tell

    William Topping
    Risk-framing is creating regulatory paralysis.
  • 4 Mar 2026
    • China
    • Australia
    • Sustainability
    • Pacific Islands
    • United States

    Deep-sea mining: Australia’s dilemma in the Pacific

    Connor Graham
    As Pacific unity fractures on the controversial practice, Canberra’s inaction risks ceding ground to China.
  • 3 Mar 2026
    • China
    • Taiwan
    • Iran

    After Khamenei: China is watching, and so should Taiwan

    Charles Lyons Jones
    The harder lesson from Iran may be what comes after a decapitation strike.
  • 3 Mar 2026
    • Russia
    • Iran

    What the Iran conflict means for Russia

    Ian Hill
    The Russia-Iran relationship was never a true alliance – but the attack still stings Moscow.
  • 3 Mar 2026
    • China
    • Defence & Security
    • Iran

    What the Iran war means for the US-China balance

    Sam Roggeveen
    Even in the best-case scenario, China losing a friend in Tehran won’t be the blow Trump might assume.
  • 3 Mar 2026
    • Australia
    • Australian trade, investment & economy
    • Migration
    • Pacific Islands

    Want higher productivity? Replace backpackers with Pacific workers

    Peter Mares
    Australia needs to adapt its Pacific labour scheme to attract more workers and reward them more fairly.
  • 2 Mar 2026
    • Defence & Security
    • United States

    Can the US train enough welders to win a war?

    Henry Yep
    Budgets and force plans mean little if no one can surge production when it counts.
  • 2 Mar 2026
    • Australia
    • Diplomacy
    • United States

    America’s ambassador problem

    Claire Yorke
    Transactional diplomacy doesn’t just insult allies – it destroys the patient work that keeps the world stable.
  • 2 Mar 2026
    • China
    • Japan

    Japanese investment in China keeps rising, despite political tensions

    Ryan Shih
    A decline in diplomatic relations masks a surge in Japan’s economic ties to China.
  • 2 Mar 2026
    • Space exploration

    The commercialisation of space surveillance

    Nimra Javed
    A US push to use commercial satellites for space surveillance raises hard questions about who controls strategic knowledge.
  • 27 Feb 2026
    • Technology

    The data sovereignty fault line dividing Washington and its allies

    Alana Ford
    The US wants open data flows, but its fractured digital governance at home makes that argument hard to sell.
  • 27 Feb 2026
    • Australia
    • Europe
    • Migration
    • United States

    Immigration: Trump’s puzzling Australia exemption

    Sam Roggeveen
    Why is Australia let off the hook when it presents a bigger target than Europe?
  • 27 Feb 2026
    • Pakistan

    Cricket legends are speaking up for Imran Khan. Why won’t governments?

    Shadi Khan Saif
    Celebrity activism can only go so far in relieving the plight of Pakistan’s former PM.
  • 27 Feb 2026
    • Australia
    • Defence & Security
    • United States

    Hard conversations on Australia’s defence

    Ely Ratner
    The three uncomfortable truths that Australia needs to confront about the gap between perception and reality.
  • 26 Feb 2026
    • Myanmar

    Myanmar’s junta – next to fall?

    Sean Turnell
    China’s support, however self-destructive in the long run, is holding upright Myanmar’s weak and discredited regime.
  • 26 Feb 2026
    • Asean
    • Indonesia
    • Malaysia
    • Philippines

    Sabah’s borders: Indonesia joins Malaysia-Philippines dispute

    Sue Thompson
    A border row between Malaysia and Indonesia is reviving memories of older unresolved territorial fights.
  • 26 Feb 2026
    • Asean
    • Trade
    • United States

    Southeast Asia trade after the US Supreme Court tariff decision

    Roland Rajah
    How Trump rebuilds his tariff wall will shape future trade with the region.
  • 26 Feb 2026
    • Defence & Security
    • Germany

    The dilemmas of German defence

    Marcus Colla
    Rearmament without European unity brings old tensions.
  • 25 Feb 2026
    • Climate change

    Manufacturing winter: The Olympic Games in a warming world

    Abhinandan Kumar
    New venues, old problems: the Winter Olympics cannot build its way out of climate change.
  • 25 Feb 2026
    • Australia
    • Energy
    • Sustainability
    • United States

    The hard part of net zero: mobilising big emitters behind reforms

    Nikolai Drahos
    Backing from key firms on climate policy, while not unconditional, can help translate net-zero ambition into progress.
  • 25 Feb 2026
    • Indonesia
    • Trade
    • United States

    What the aunties miss about tariffs

    Sondang Grace Sirait
    A good tariff deal means little if permits crawl and customs stumble.
  • 25 Feb 2026
    • Trade
    • Sustainability
    • Solomon Islands

    A second gold rush in Solomon Islands but a familiar extractive trap

    Riley Duke
    Gold is replacing logging as a mainstay for the economy but the government must balance revenues with stability.
  • 24 Feb 2026
    • Asean
    • Myanmar
    • Timor-Leste

    Myanmar and Timor-Leste quarrel

    Susannah Patton
    A fallout between two ASEAN members highlights Timor-Leste’s unique international personality.
  • 24 Feb 2026
    • Cambodia
    • Energy

    Cambodia can’t afford to wrap its solar power opportunity in red tape

    Ahmed Albayrak
    Outmoded electricity rules stand in the way of the kind of environmental progress investors want.
  • 24 Feb 2026
    • Australia
    • United Kingdom

    Andrew is a symptom of the monarchy’s existential crisis, not the cause

    Hans van Leeuwen
    Tectonic shifts in English society are fundamentally reshaping the monarchy. Australia must be ready to adapt.
  • 24 Feb 2026
    • Russia
    • Ukraine

    The Russia–Ukraine conflict: 1461 days of war

    Mick Ryan
    It is the human spirit, not hi-tech warfare, that has produced the most valuable lesson from four years on the battle front.
  • 23 Feb 2026
    • Trade
    • United States

    The Supreme Court ruling means we need international institutions more than ever

    Jenny Gordon
    Only multilateral action will ensure trade’s full benefits flow to all countries.
  • 23 Feb 2026
    • United States

    Trump’s international strategy is becoming clearer

    Ross Babbage
    Action by the US President is methodically stripping China and Russia of their partners.
  • 23 Feb 2026
    • Indonesia
    • Global Economy
    • Sustainability

    Freeport’s Papua mine deal buys time

    Bhima Yudhistira Adhinegara , Muhammad Zulfikar Rakhmat
    The harder test will be downstreaming, decarbonisation and Papuan equity.
  • 23 Feb 2026
    • Australia

    The case for universities as Australia’s soft power engine

    Michael Wesley , Melissa Conley Tyler
    Education is Australia’s fourth-largest export and a tool of statecraft yet is so often undervalued in public debates.
  • 20 Feb 2026
    • India
    • Defence & Security

    India’s fleet review was as much diplomacy as pageantry

    Sanchari Ghosh
    The country is expanding maritime influence without formal alliances.
  • 20 Feb 2026
    • Russia
    • Ukraine

    Peace in Ukraine is still out of reach

    Nikola Mikovic
    A Minsk-style ceasefire may be the best achievable outcome – and that’s not promising much.
  • 20 Feb 2026
    • Australia
    • Intelligence and security
    • Terrorism
    • Technology

    Turning AI against the conspiracy theorists

    James Paterson
    Young people no longer trust institutions – and AI may be the tool to fight back against the radicalisation risk.
  • 20 Feb 2026
    • Bangladesh

    Bangladesh charts a new multipolar course

    Intifar Chowdhury
    Dhaka has little incentive to allow its territory to become a theatre for proxy competition.
  • 19 Feb 2026
    • China
    • Australia
    • Defence & Security

    The Chinese warships Australians never got to debate

    Jennifer Parker
    The silence around a second Chinese naval deployment near Australia cost the public a chance to understand the risks.
  • 19 Feb 2026
    • Defence & Security
    • United Kingdom
    • United States

    Who’s afraid of Diego Garcia?

    David Vallance
    Behind Trump’s “DO NOT GIVE AWAY DIEGO GARCIA” bluster lies a careful deal that actually protects American power.
  • 19 Feb 2026
    • Asean
    • Australia
    • Energy
    • Climate change

    Australia’s power play in Southeast Asia

    Ruth Adler , Richard Neumann
    The region’s energy transition is stalling. An ASEAN electricity grid could change that.
  • 19 Feb 2026
    • China
    • Europe
    • Global Economy
    • Trade

    European industry faces an existential China challenge

    Henry Storey
    Exports will continue to be the linchpin of Chinese prosperity. This is not good for the global economy.
  • 18 Feb 2026
    • Asean
    • Australia
    • Global Economy

    To succeed in Southeast Asia, Australia must balance security and trade

    Hunter Marston
    Australia ranks second in defence networks but ninth in economic capability – and the region has noticed.
  • 18 Feb 2026
    • Bangladesh

    Bangladesh’s election gives India a chance to reset relations

    Grace Corcoran
    With the BNP’s landslide victory, can the neighbours move past the Hasina era?
Pagination
  • Previous page ‹ Previous
  • Current page 1
  • Page 2
  • Page 3
  • Page 4
  • Page 5
  • Page 6
  • Page 7
  • Page 8
  • Page 9
  • …
  • Next page ››

Subscribe to The Interpreter

Get the latest commentary and analysis on international events from experts at the Lowy Institute and around the world.


The Interpreter features in-depth analysis & expert commentary on the latest international events, published daily by the Lowy Institute.

© Copyright 2026 Lowy Institute

  • Debates
  • Contributors
  • Articles
  • About
  • Terms of Use
  • Log In
  • My bookmarks