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Published daily by the Lowy Institute

  • 14 Jul 2025
    • Asean
    • Myanmar
    • Global Issues

    Can Malaysia nudge ASEAN beyond non-interference to tackle the scam crisis in Myanmar?

    Liu Weiyi , Asha Hemrajani
    Traditional principles are clashing with urgent need for coordinated response to the threat of transnational crime.
  • 11 Jul 2025
    • Global Issues

    End of equality and the century of political correctness

    R. N. Prasher
    From Xi to Modi to Trump, a global shift reflects growing acceptance that not all nations – or ideologies – are equal.
  • 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.
  • 29 May 2025
    • Intelligence and security
    • Global Issues
    • Pacific Islands
    • Fiji

    From transit hub to drug market: Criminal syndicates transform Pacific threats

    Jose Sousa-Santos
    Regional leaders have been slow to grasp the infiltration of Pacific security agencies by criminal organisations.
  • 26 May 2025
    • Debt
    • Trade
    • Global Issues
    • Migration
    • United States

    The diminishing of US exceptionalism

    Jenny Gordon
    Visa bans, research cuts, and isolationist policies risk America’s global leadership and leave a void for China to fill.
  • 24 Apr 2025
    • Global Issues

    Beyond Francis: Charting the Church’s global path

    Fabrizio Bozzato
    The Church remains one of few actors capable of offering a message of hope that transcends borders.
  • 23 Apr 2025
    • India
    • Global Economy
    • Global Issues

    T20 diplomacy? The virtues of Test cricket in uncertain times

    Ved Shinde
    Finding political wisdom in sport’s long game.
  • 9 Apr 2025
    • Global Issues

    The True North’s, Star-Spangled, March of the Volunteers: How nations shape their own stubborn songs

    Mark Pierce
    Stand to attention, citizens, for the anthems of the world
  • 2 Apr 2025
    • Asean
    • Global Issues
    • Sustainability

    With 121 million smokers, Southeast Asia should turn to AI to help quit the habit

    Mochammad Fadjar Wibowo , Muhammad Daniel Azlan Mahadzir , Elyssa Liu
    Technology advances give ASEAN the opportunity to enhance tobacco controls and encourage a healthy way.
  • 1 Apr 2025
    • Global Issues
    • Review

    What matters a sense of history

    Mark Pierce
    Young and old alike, we need to think harder about how we think about the world.
  • 5 Mar 2025
    • Global Issues
    • Diplomacy

    Zelenskyy might have benefited from a warm-up before talking to Trump

    Mark Pierce
    And other hints for a president – or foreign minister – to write their own talking points
  • 27 Feb 2025
    • Diplomacy
    • Europe
    • Global Economy
    • Global Issues

    Trust in our leaders: A universal currency

    Mark Pierce
    An intangible mix of competency, honesty and commitment is the glue that holds politics, economies and societies together.
  • 17 Feb 2025
    • Europe
    • Global Issues
    • United States

    The real crisis lies within the West itself

    Patricia Schouker
    Lamenting American domestic politics is less productive than addressing the structural forces driving global instability.
  • 12 Feb 2025
    • Global Issues
    • Multilateral Institutions
    • United Nations
    • United States

    What a US withdrawal from WHO will mean for global health

    Alexandra Finch
    And it’s a raw deal for the United States, too.
  • 24 Jan 2025
    • Global Issues
    • Environment
    • Sustainability

    Why shared governance could save our oceans

    Mohd. Yunus
    Meaningful conservation requires genuine restrictions, not symbolic protections.
  • 4 Dec 2024
    • Australia
    • Diplomacy
    • Global Issues
    • Human rights
    • International law
    • Transnational Challenges

    Australia’s chance to align global efforts against “hostage diplomacy”

    Sean Turnell
    A new senate report has set out sensible recommendations for a fresh approach on wrongful detention of Australians overseas.
  • 27 Nov 2024
    • Diplomacy
    • Global Issues

    Shifting the mindset on global challenges

    Daniel Flitton
    The 2024 Lowy Lecture reinforced the timeless wisdom of coordinated action to tackle international dangers.
  • 14 Oct 2024
    • Global Issues
    • Human rights

    Succumbing to the parochialism of the present

    Daniel Flitton
    The world always looks dangerous, depending on your vantage point.
  • 8 Oct 2024
    • Defence & Security
    • Middle East Conflict
    • Ukraine
    • Global Issues
    • Iran
    • Israel

    When the friendly skies above go dark, rockets light up

    Kazimier Lim
    How airspace closures signal the geopolitical strategies unfolding in the Middle East.
  • 27 Aug 2024
    • Diplomacy
    • Global Issues
    • Human rights
    • International law
    • Transnational Challenges

    Hostage diplomacy: Fresh ideas to end a modern blight

    Sean Turnell
    A new Australian senate inquiry into the practice of imprisonment for leverage offer a chance to learn from international experience.
  • 9 Aug 2024
    • Global Issues
    • Coronavirus
    • Technology

    Olympics doping controversies show global bio governance failures

    Dirk van der Kley
    From Covid to genetically modified foods or DNA databases, the world is not cooperating enough on pathogens and biological technology regulation.
  • 2 Aug 2024
    • Global Issues
    • Review

    Shots around the world: The influence of assassins on international affairs

    Mark Pierce
    Leaders are always going to be hard to protect, especially if demonstrating a common touch means touching commoners.
  • 5 Jul 2024
    • Australia
    • Global Economy
    • Global Issues
    • The Americas

    Why Australia needs more flights to Latin America

    Kazimier Lim
    Australia’s civil aviation sector needs to be an effective tool for connection and diplomacy in signalling political interests.
  • 26 Jun 2024
    • Diplomacy
    • France
    • Global Economy
    • Global Issues

    Hope for gold: The value in the Olympics

    Jenny Gordon
    An economic case is hard to make. Reputational risks abound. Yet hosts want the Games, and that’s no bad thing.
  • 24 May 2024
    • Aid & Development
    • Australia
    • Global Issues

    Should foreign aid be the government’s responsibility?

    Clay O’Brien
    A fair-go means everyone pitching in to help those in need. Plenty of options exist, if we choose to use them.
  • 22 May 2024
    • Australia
    • Global Issues

    A working definition of Sinophobia would improve the China debate

    Osmond Chiu
    Governments can address racism without shutting down discussions on the challenges of China’s rise.
  • 22 May 2024
    • Global Issues
    • Coronavirus
    • International law
    • United Nations

    No, a pandemic treaty will not usurp Australia’s sovereignty

    Alexandra Finch , Lawrence Gostin
    Damaging disinformation harms negotiations and seeks to obscure the fact that states make their own policy decisions.
  • 16 May 2024
    • Global Issues
    • International Relations

    Seek national security? Begin by becoming relevant

    Ved Shinde
    The weak needn’t suffer what they must.
  • 8 May 2024
    • Australia
    • Global Issues

    Australia’s chance to foster good health in Asia and the Pacific

    Seamus Horan
    Big questions loom as we re-evaluate our position in the region.
  • 2 Feb 2024
    • Global Issues
    • Transnational Challenges
    • Pacific Islands

    Pacific Islands: Spillover threats from transnational organised crime

    Danielle Watson , Jay Caldwell
    Facing a policing squeeze in Southeast Asia, criminal networks will increasingly shift their operations to regions of perceived weakness.
  • 11 Jan 2024
    • Global Issues
    • Human rights
    • International law
    • Migration
    • United Nations

    By default not design: the end of the asylum consensus

    Khalid Koser
    Ever since Australia adopted the “Pacific Solution”, norm busting has become the norm.
  • 3 Jan 2024
    • North Korea
    • Global Issues
    • Human rights
    • Review

    Why do we travel to unsettling places?

    Melissa Conley Tyler
    Whether the DMZ or sites of historic atrocities, place carries a connection to remind us of the precariousness of life.
  • 20 Dec 2023
    • Global Issues

    Star power: An astrologer’s take on global leadership

    Jack Sato , Jia Deng
    What’s your sign, Vladimir?
  • 4 Dec 2023
    • Global Issues
    • Climate change
    • International law
    • Transnational Challenges
    • United Nations

    Learning to live in a world without progress

    Mark Beeson
    Optimistic about the trajectory of human society? That’s brave.
  • 27 Nov 2023
    • China
    • Global Economy
    • Debt
    • Global Issues
    • United States

    Rise of the Redback

    Selwyn Parker
    The US dollar remain the dominant currency. But China – and others – are driving the yuan as an alternative.
  • 30 Oct 2023
    • Australia in the World
    • Global Issues
    • Climate change
    • Environment
    • Sustainability
    • United States
    • US Elections

    The future isn’t what it used to be

    Mark Beeson
    Will a revolution be the way the world’s young people right the wrongs of the modern era?
  • 7 Aug 2023
    • Australia
    • Defence & Security
    • Global Issues

    Why universities are still at risk for foreign interference

    Brendan Walker-Munro
    Australian universities are vulnerable as open and collaborative institutions. With more sensitive research underway, they are also part of the solution.
  • 4 Aug 2023
    • Australia
    • Diplomacy
    • Global Issues
    • Pacific Islands
    • Africa
    • Sex and Gender

    Women belong everywhere and this World Cup proves football can be the great equaliser

    Jessica Collins
    Respect for female athletes “tearing it up on the pitch” must translate into respect off the field, too.
  • 27 Jul 2023
    • Australia
    • Nuclear Weapons
    • Global Issues
    • International law

    Nuclear weapons: “Oppenheimer” won’t make a difference, but Australia can

    Gareth Evans
    The movie missed a chance to galvanise a renewed campaign, to better protect against existential danger than rely on sheer dumb luck.
  • 26 Jul 2023
    • India
    • Australia in the World
    • Global Issues

    Why the Australian Voice referendum matters globally

    Ambika Vishwanath
    Close friends will be watching for an outcome that lives up to the values for which the country professes to stand.
  • 21 Jul 2023
    • Cambodia
    • China
    • Southeast Asia
    • Russia
    • Global Issues
    • Africa

    Who leads the world as longest in charge of their country?

    Daniel Flitton
    Put together a list and you can start to see a pattern.
  • 19 Jul 2023
    • Resource security
    • Global Issues
    • Sustainability

    What Norway might learn from Nauru after a massive phosphate find

    Genevieve Donnellon-May
    A handful of countries meet demand for an essential fertiliser ingredient – and geopolitical competition complicates the equation.
  • 15 Jun 2023
    • Asia
    • Global Issues
    • Sex and Gender

    The importance of pride: supporting LGBTQ rights in Asia

    Brenda R. Alegre
    The recent Sydney WorldPride was a milestone moment in connecting a regional and global movement.
  • 25 May 2023
    • Asia
    • Diplomacy
    • G20
    • Global Issues

    Economic diplomacy: Taking cover from the summit war of words

    Greg Earl
    Proliferating regional institutions risk becoming shooting stars, with a long trail of bureaucratic half-lives behind.
  • 19 May 2023
    • India
    • Japan
    • Australia
    • Global Issues
    • United States

    Building a Quad that lasts to the next generation

    Kate Clayton , Eleanor Shiori Hughes
    Joe Biden won’t decide the future of the Quad. But he and the other engaged leaders can help foster it.
  • 8 May 2023
    • Europe
    • Global Issues

    Lessons in sorrow: Serbia needs a gun buyback after mass shootings

    Valentina Pavlovic
    Australia’s example has shown decisive action can galvanise and protect a community in the wake of tragedy.
  • 4 May 2023
    • Global Issues
    • Sustainability
    • Pacific Islands

    The cost of crime and corruption on Pacific fisheries

    Jade Lindley
    The need for a well-funded response to illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing has never been greater.
  • 4 May 2023
    • Global Issues
    • Migration
    • Africa

    Five potential global consequences of Sudan’s escalating conflict

    Aly Verjee
    Even distant Australia could feel knock-on effects of a refugee crisis, gold smuggling and disruption to wheat crops.
  • 2 May 2023
    • Asia
    • South Korea
    • Australia
    • Free Trade
    • Global Issues

    Choosing openness in the international economy

    Andrew Leigh
    As the region seeks to rebound from a global economic downturn, the free flow of goods and services is key.
  • 29 Dec 2022
    • China
    • India
    • Indonesia
    • Global Issues
    • United States
    • Review

    Pop culture politics: How to Interpret 2022

    Daniel Flitton
    “Soft power” or reputation risk, the cross-over of popular entertainment and global politics is never far from the news.
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