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Published daily by the Lowy Institute

  • 2 days ago
    • Asean
    • Cambodia
    • Indonesia
    • Laos
    • Malaysia
    • Myanmar
    • Philippines
    • Singapore
    • Thailand
    • Vietnam

    Myanmar and ASEAN’s parallel diplomacy trap

    Vu Lam
    In Southeast Asia, national imperatives are increasingly outweighing regional cohesion.
  • 2 days ago
    • Cambodia
    • Thailand

    A border skirmish and leaked phone call sees the Thailand-Cambodia dispute surge back to life

    Susannah Patton
    An international dispute that is all about domestic politics.
  • 2 days ago
    • Bangladesh
    • Myanmar
    • Asylum seekers and refugees

    Destabilisation of refugee camps in Bangladesh could lead to a new exodus of Rohingyas

    David Brewster
    A security breakdown and aid reductions could push refugees to seek dangerous alternative routes.
  • 2 days ago
    • Asia
    • Asean
    • Australia

    No Trump photo-op for the PM but a reminder where Australia’s future lies

    Leigh Howard
    The cancelled G7 meeting is a timely reminder that Australia’s most promising opportunities lie in deeper engagement with our region.
  • 2 days ago
    • India
    • Pakistan

    India and Pakistan are on a global charm offensive, but is it worth listening?

    Chietigj Bajpaee
    Both sides have a story to tell but dialogue appears to be a dead end.
  • 2 days ago
    • Australian trade, investment & economy
    • Public Opinion
    • United States

    Australians see through tariff fears to real economic threat

    Jenny Gordon
    Latest Lowy polling shows strong support for local manufacturing, but green tech backing might be on the slide.
  • 2 days ago
    • China
    • Defence & Security
    • Diplomacy
    • United States

    US-China: Rather than mutual understanding, strive for competition without conflict

    Sophie Wushuang Yi
    Military hotlines and exercise notifications could reduce escalation risks while acknowledging persistent misreading of intent.
  • 2 days ago
    • Australia
    • Defence & Security
    • United States

    Albanese must learn that smiles and handshakes with Trump won’t save Australia’s AUKUS ambitions

    John Lee
    Dealing with Trump 2.0 demands concrete defence spending increases, not diplomatic charm, as Pentagon reviews submarine deal.
  • 2 days ago
    • China

    What year is it in China? Rethinking the timeline of a rising power

    Vincent So
    China’s international posture reflects not the confidence of a stable hegemon, but the impulses of a nationalist power in transition.
  • 18 Jun 2025
    • Human rights
    • International law
    • United States

    Why DEI won't DIE: 80 years of protecting rights and fighting for equality

    Fiona McGaughey
    The protection of human rights and principles of equality are fundamental to international law and can’t be dismantled overnight by one state alone.
  • 18 Jun 2025
    • Quad
    • Technology

    How America First could undermine the Quad’s critical minerals plans

    Manish Vaid
    A counter to Beijing’s resource dominance is best served by coordinated action, but Donald Trump wants to go his own way.
  • 18 Jun 2025
    • Sex and Gender
    • Technology

    AI’s war on consent: Women face coded misogyny

    Cynthia Mehboob
    Evidence is growing from across the world that digital platforms increasingly enable gender-based violence with authorities slow to catch-up.
  • 17 Jun 2025
    • Australia
    • Pacific Islands
    • Public Opinion

    Australia overtakes China in the Pacific as America vacates the lane

    Mihai Sora
    Public perceptions of influence measured in the latest Lowy Institute Poll see Australia surge ahead as the “permanent contest” unfolds.
  • 17 Jun 2025
    • Russia
    • Iran
    • Israel

    Israel–Iran conflict: Moscow positions itself for advantage

    Ian Hill
    Russia is once more on no-one’s side but its own.
  • 17 Jun 2025
    • Diplomacy
    • United States

    Trump's State Department purge cuts deeper than in his first presidency

    Lanni Hamblin , Melissa Conley Tyler
    Reducing America’s global diplomatic presence to pre-Second World War levels will only lead to declining influence.
  • 17 Jun 2025
    • China
    • Russia
    • Global Issues
    • Sustainability
    • Technology
    • Middle East
    • United States

    Brave new interior world: The rise of self-enhancing states

    Roderick Parkes
    Power is shifting inward, not outward, with control and influence the currency of choice.
  • 16 Jun 2025
    • Australia
    • Public Opinion

    Explaining Australia’s enduring faith in democracy even as the world backslides

    Lydia Khalil
    Tech disruption and US concerns haven’t dampened Australian enthusiasm for democratic institutions.
  • 16 Jun 2025
    • Australia
    • Defence & Security
    • Public Opinion

    Australia’s military benefits beyond war – the career challenge

    David Vallance
    How to sell young people on defence force service when shared values under the US alliance appear increasingly questionable.
  • 16 Jun 2025
    • India
    • Indonesia
    • Maldives
    • Sri Lanka
    • Australia
    • Defence & Security

    Putting the “Indo” in Indo-Pacific, Australia’s westward pivot

    Rushali Saha
    Embassy openings and patrol boat gifts signal Canberra's recognition that Indian Ocean influence requires active engagement.
  • 16 Jun 2025
    • Australia
    • Public Opinion

    How should politicians “read” the 2025 Lowy Institute Poll?

    Sam Roggeveen
    Representative democracy requires politicians to weigh the public mood against their own judgment on complex policy questions.
  • 13 Jun 2025
    • Aid & Development
    • Australia
    • Africa

    Tigray can’t afford another war, and the world can’t afford to do nothing

    Sheridan Ward
    Australia should encourage international condemnation after a blockade of relief trucks in the northern regions of Ethiopia.
  • 13 Jun 2025
    • China
    • India

    China’s cartographic claims test fragile India rapprochement

    Ramita Iyer
    Despite four years of negotiations and recent agreements, territorial assertions continue to strain ties between the two powers.
  • 13 Jun 2025
    • Aid & Development
    • Poverty
    • United States

    The upside of the world’s downgrade in foreign aid

    Osmond Chiu , Danae Bosler
    Australia has an opportunity to fill the gap left by the US and Europe – and it’s good for democracy, too.
  • 12 Jun 2025
    • China

    In remembering China’s Cultural Revolution, what you don’t know will hurt you

    Linda Jaivin
    Forgetting the trauma of Mao’s chaotic decade serves Xi’s stability agenda, but personal experience shapes his authoritarian methods.
  • 12 Jun 2025
    • Australia
    • Pacific Islands
    • Papua New Guinea

    Australia-PNG relations at 50: Pride, politics and the price of partnership

    Mihai Sora
    What if more locals decide that Australia is rewarding bad behaviour at the top of PNG’s politics?
  • 12 Jun 2025
    • China
    • Global Economy
    • United States

    China banks big wins as Trump withdraws from global aid game

    Robert Wihtol
    By abandoning climate finance and health initiatives, the United States is creating unprecedented opportunities for Chinese-led multilateral banks.
  • 11 Jun 2025
    • Australia
    • United Kingdom
    • Canada
    • United States

    Australia’s royal dilemma as King Charles serves conflicting Commonwealth interests with Trump

    Hugh Piper
    If Australians found their sovereignty threatened, would people want an unelected septuagenarian Englishman representing their interests as head of state?
  • 11 Jun 2025
    • China
    • Taiwan
    • Diplomacy
    • Africa

    Taiwan’s Africa gambit

    Joseph Black
    In a world where power is defined by networks rather than borders, Taipei’s quiet diplomacy is making headway.
  • 11 Jun 2025
    • G20
    • Africa

    With the G20 summit looming, South Africa wants Trump at the table

    Isel Ras
    Ramaphosa is making a risky bet in a bid to progress an economic and development agenda the US President doesn’t believe in.
  • 10 Jun 2025
    • China
    • Climate change
    • Sustainability

    Beijing’s green mirage: How China drives environmental destruction abroad while claiming climate leadership at home

    Mohd. Yunus
    Massive commodity imports drive deforestation in Brazil and Indonesia even as domestic policies win international praise.
  • 10 Jun 2025
    • Asia
    • Defence & Security

    The logic of neutrality in the Indo-Pacific

    Vincent So
    Regional governments use deliberate ambiguity to extract benefits from both United States and China while avoiding costly commitments to either.
  • 10 Jun 2025
    • Diplomacy
    • Technology
    • Public Opinion

    Before social media, there was shortwave: Lessons from the original information wars

    Abhijnan Rej
    There is nothing new in weaponising airwaves to shape hearts and minds across borders.
  • 10 Jun 2025
    • Maritime Security
    • Energy
    • International law
    • United States

    What lies beneath: Trump and the security of subsea cables

    April A. Herlevi
    To access the riches under the sea, the new US administration seeks dominance.
  • 6 Jun 2025
    • Australia
    • Migration

    Australia’s rental crisis at home also cost its reputation abroad

    Sohail Akhtar
    Migrants drawn by Australia’s inclusive image encounter discriminatory rental practices that damage the nation’s soft power.
  • 6 Jun 2025
    • Ukraine
    • Diplomacy
    • Canada
    • United States

    With friends like these…

    Mark Pierce
    In geopolitics, are the benefits of allies overrated?
  • 6 Jun 2025
    • Aid & Development
    • Australia

    A scorecard for Australian aid

    Grace Stanhope
    The measures of success with an OECD peer review about to get underway.
  • 6 Jun 2025
    • China
    • Diplomacy
    • United States

    What the US could lose by closing its universities to China

    Pete Millwood
    A chance to influence America’s most important competitor for one thing – but that’s only the start.
  • 5 Jun 2025
    • South Korea

    The transactional worldview of South Korea’s new president

    Chae Jeong
    Lee Jae-myung’s pragmatic approach will test alliance limits with America and bring a more ambiguous stance toward China.
  • 5 Jun 2025
    • Asean
    • France

    France seeks third way between US and China in Southeast Asia

    Céline Pajon
    The French leader sent a message of partnership but gave few concrete details on sustained engagement plans.
  • 5 Jun 2025
    • Defence & Security
    • Russia
    • Ukraine
    • Technology

    Ukraine’s cheap robot drones extract a heavy price from Russia

    David Kirichenko
    By pioneering tomorrow’s battlefield tactics, Kyiv is rewriting military doctrine and setting the template for future wars.
  • 5 Jun 2025
    • Australia
    • Australian trade, investment & economy

    The battle Royal over the Dollar: What a currency means to the nation

    Daniel Flitton
    The US dollar is under pressure. Australia could go it alone, at least in name.
  • 4 Jun 2025
    • Aid & Development
    • China
    • Pacific Islands
    • Papua New Guinea

    How Papua New Guinea is rewriting Pacific education partnerships with China and more

    Bernard Yegiora
    District-led programs are driving a new demand for technical degrees and signalling a new agency in foreign relations.
  • 4 Jun 2025
    • China
    • Global Economy
    • Trade
    • United States

    Global trade: Why China can’t (and won’t) come to the rescue

    Henry Storey
    Those looking for relief from US tariffs will run up against China’s mercantilism and structurally weak demand.
  • 4 Jun 2025
    • India
    • Pakistan
    • Australia
    • Defence & Security
    • Terrorism

    India’s concern could reshape Australia's Pakistan defence ties

    Kim Heriot-Darragh
    It’s a good time for Canberra to reassess military cooperation with Islamabad given limited influence and competing Indo-Pacific priorities.
  • 4 Jun 2025
    • Philippines

    Keeping up with the Dutertes, a model Philippine political dynasty

    Andrea Chloe Wong
    The preservation of power within families makes for an unhealthy democracy.
  • 3 Jun 2025
    • India
    • Australia

    Five years is a long time in Australia-India relations, but there is still more to do

    Ian Hall , Lisa Singh
    A stocktake of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.
  • 3 Jun 2025
    • Australia
    • Defence & Security

    The case against ramping up Australia’s defence spending

    Sam Roggeveen
    It’s not about the money, it’s about strategy.
  • 3 Jun 2025
    • Asia
    • Asean
    • India
    • Japan
    • South Korea
    • Trade
    • United States

    The tariff war that’s accelerating Asia’s trade transformation

    Vu Lam
    As the deadline for suspension looms, regional economies are looking to patch the vulnerabilities of regional economic architecture.
  • 3 Jun 2025
    • Europe
    • Diplomacy
    • United States

    No jacket required? Power dressing in world politics

    Clare Caldwell
    From kurtas to the three-piece suit, what world leaders wear speaks volumes.
  • 3 Jun 2025
    • Indonesia

    The real message Indonesia’s Prabowo Subianto delivered to China’s Li Qiang

    Muhammad Zulfikar Rakhmat , Yeta Purnama
    Jakarta wants to find its own value from superpower competition without picking a winner.
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