Articles | Lowy Institute

3 Dec 2025
Bangladesh

India

Diplomacy

Human rights

United Nations
High stakes in India’s refusal to send former Bangladesh PM to trial

Shanthie Mariet D’Souza

A carefully worded extradition treaty means New Delhi can hedge its bets, but it should be prepared for blowback.
12 Nov 2025
United Nations
A case for UN reform that cannot wait

Febrian Alphyanto Ruddyard

The power, purpose, and the price of relevance for the global organisation at 80.
10 Nov 2025
Climate change

United Nations

Pacific Islands

Fiji

Papua New Guinea

Vanuatu
Pacific Islands: Without literacy, climate resilience is nigh on impossible

Serena Sasingian

Strategic competition has left gaping holes in regional health and education goals. The parameters need to be reset.
5 Nov 2025
Australia

Diplomacy

Multilateral Institutions

United Nations
The art of Australia’s straight-talking diplomacy

Lachlan Strahan

A foreign service known for being informal and egalitarian has worked a treat for Canberra’s envoys. But does it reward boldness?
30 Oct 2025
Australia

United Nations
Confronting the danger of a “zombie” United Nations

Penny Wong

Middle powers can act now to reform the UN – before financial crisis turns it into an empty shell.
16 Oct 2025
Aid & Development

Australia

International law

United Nations
The legal reform needed to match Australia’s global humanitarian promises

Tom Barber , Naomi Brooks

Humanitarian workers face danger abroad – and legal uncertainty at home under Australia’s current laws.
16 Oct 2025
Aid & Development

Sustainability

United Nations
Who will salvage the SDGs as Western donors retreat?

Sunaina Kumar

Developing nations can forge new coalitions to champion the 2030 Agenda and fill the leadership void.
13 Oct 2025
Australia

Defence & Security

Intelligence and security

Asylum seekers and refugees

Human rights

International law

United Nations
Australia’s role in bringing international criminals to justice

Jennifer Keene-McCann , Aruni Jayakody

Stepping up efforts to investigate and prosecute perpetrators on Australian soil will build credibility at home and abroad.
3 Oct 2025
Indonesia

Climate change

United Nations
Indonesia’s green industrial policy ahead of COP30

Bhima Yudhistira Adhinegara , Muhammad Zulfikar Rakhmat

Jakarta is playing a balancing act between business wins and climate objectives. Can it work?
26 Sep 2025
Global Economy

G20

Trade

WTO

Global Issues

Climate change

Multilateral Institutions

Space exploration

United Nations
Why we need international institutions…

Jenny Gordon

…and how to rebuild them in an era of great power competition.
19 Sep 2025
United Nations
The UN at 80: Broke, blocked and still indispensable

Izabela Pereira Watts

Despite structural flaws and funding shortfalls, multilateral cooperation offers the only path through turmoil.
16 Sep 2025
Australia

United Nations
A bingo card guide for Anthony Albanese’s speech to the United Nations

Daniel Flitton

Australia’s recent national statements reveal the familiar script the PM will likely follow in his first address to the global body.
15 Sep 2025
United Nations

United States
The big picture benefits of a UN headquarters in New York

Stéphanie Fillion

If the United States continues to diminish its role in the global institution, others are all too ready to fill the void.
3 Sep 2025
United Nations
The UN’s impossible job: Who would want to be the next Secretary-General?

Stéphanie Fillion

Some candidates may launch their campaign at the upcoming General Assembly, even as political paralysis and budget cuts make the job even harder.
15 Aug 2025
Afghanistan

Sex and Gender

United Nations
Afghanistan: Ten ways the Taliban is vanishing women from public life

UN Women Australia

Yet Afghan women show they have not given up – and demand that the world does not either.
5 Aug 2025
Defence & Security

Sex and Gender

United Nations
The case for women peacekeepers from those who serve

Katrina Lee-Koo , Eleanor Gordon

New field research reveals how female peacekeepers improve mission effectiveness despite persistent barriers.
30 Jul 2025
Afghanistan

Human rights

Sex and Gender

United Nations
Courage is essential for Afghanistan’s women of Radio Begum

Annmaree O’Keeffe

With girls banned from high schools and universities, a free educational broadcast service continues to make waves.
22 Jul 2025
China

Russia

Ukraine

United Nations
Chinese peacekeepers in Ukraine would be a win-win for Beijing

Justyna Szczudlik

In a skillful and delicate game, China is looking to balance Russia and the West in its support of Kyiv.
17 Jul 2025
Debt

United Nations
UN development summit shows who’s really fanning the flames

Melissa Conley Tyler

Seville’s sweltering UN conference exposed deep rifts between those pushing private finance and advocates for debt justice.
27 Jun 2025
Debt

United Nations
The Seville compromise: A move forward for development financing while Washington steps back

Grace Stanhope

What happens when the world’s biggest donor walks away?
21 May 2025
Coronavirus

Multilateral Institutions

United Nations
The World Health Assembly adopts a historic Pandemic Agreement

Alexandra Finch

While the text could have been more ambitious, it nonetheless provides a firm foundation for action on pandemics.
28 Mar 2025
India

Mauritius

United Kingdom

International law

United Nations

United States
India’s support for Chagos sovereignty speaks volumes

Sanchari Ghosh

New Delhi’s backing of Mauritius on Chagos is a calculated geopolitical move within a shifting Indo-Pacific order.
18 Mar 2025
North Korea

United Nations
Monitoring without mandate: Can sanctions succeed outside a UN framework?

Nika Pasko

The new “multilateral team” watching North Korea faces legitimacy challenges.
17 Feb 2025
Climate change

United Nations

Pacific Islands

United States
What the Pacific has said about Trump’s Paris pull-out

Isabelle Zhu-Maguire

Listen to the region and the message is clear – wrong way, go back.
14 Feb 2025
Australia in the World

Multilateral Institutions

United Nations

United States
Australia can no longer assume multilateralism will work in its favour

Mercedes Page

With US withdrawals and China's growing influence, Australia must rethink its approach to the UN.
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.
6 Feb 2025
Climate change

United Nations

Pacific Islands

China and the Pacific

Fiji

Papua New Guinea

Samoa

Solomon Islands
The global contest for the Pacific

Michael Wesley

Geopolitical fears of growing Chinese influence in Oceania are not the only interest Australia has in the region.
28 Jan 2025
China

Russia

International law

Multilateral Institutions

United Nations

United States
Abandoning the rules-based order is no solution

Malcolm Jorgensen

Competing narratives about the international order are being weaponised in an age of renewed territorial ambitions.
23 Jan 2025
Al Qaeda

Islamic State

Human rights

International law

United Nations

United States
What does the Trump presidency mean for Women, Peace and Security?

Susan Hutchinson

International peace and security requires due consideration of the world’s women. This is no radical social theory.
21 Jan 2025
Australia

United Nations
The UN Peacebuilding Commission: What’s in it for Australia?

Martina Zapf

Regional clout for one thing.
16 Jan 2025
Human rights

United Nations

United States
Melting ice caps reveals the scourge of colonialism

'Alopi Latukefu

Donald Trump shows no regard for the rights and autonomy of the Indigenous Inuit population who make up the majority of Greenland’s residents.
19 Dec 2024
Aid & Development

Development Assistance

Climate change

Multilateral Institutions

United Nations

United States
What a Trump second term holds for global development

Alexandre Dayant

Judging by track records, there's a bumpy road ahead for aid, health and climate funding.
16 Dec 2024
Indonesia

Indonesia and the Death Penalty

Malaysia

Singapore

Southeast Asia

Human rights

International law

United Nations
Southeast Asia’s death penalty laws: The ultimate political game

Kirsten Han

The region’s diverse policies on executions are about more than the war on crime.
6 Dec 2024
Nuclear Non-Proliferation, Arms Control and Disarmament

Nuclear Weapons

United Nations

Iran

Iraq
Hans Blix: The arms control Einstein who turned 96 this year

Kourosh Ziabari

A consensus-builder who believes nuclear weapons are never in safe hands, no matter who holds them.
3 Dec 2024
Climate change

Environment

United Nations
COP29: The climate finance fudge

Stephen Grenville

Acrimonious debate in Baku amounted to a lost opportunity, squabbling over funds when action is needed everywhere for the energy transition.
27 Nov 2024
Climate change

Technology

United Nations

Pacific Islands

Fiji

Nauru

Papua New Guinea

Samoa

Solomon Islands

Tonga

Tuvalu
The Pacific disinformation playbook

Meg Tapia

A surge in connectivity has exacerbated the region’s challenges, undermining trust in science and government.
21 Nov 2024
Diplomacy

Climate change

Environment

United Nations
Zooming in on climate change: The experience of a virtual COP29 attendee

Isabelle Zhu-Maguire

Flying thousands of delegates across the globe has its own environmental cost – so how effective are global negotiations conducted online?
18 Oct 2024
United Nations
Answering the SOS of the United Nations

Clare Beaton-Wells

Australia’s support of the Pact for the Future is a chance to shape reform of the global organisation.
2 Oct 2024
Climate change

International law

Sustainability

Technology

United Nations
What lies beneath: There’s more to cables than geopolitics

Cynthia Mehboob

The undersea cable industry is left to tackle the challenges, while policymakers engage in national security power plays.
27 Sep 2024
Australia

Emerging Threats

Coronavirus

Transnational Challenges

United Nations
Is the world ready for its next big health crisis?

Rebecca Wakerman Powell

Antimicrobial resistance will test global responses to health security, just as Covid-19 did.
18 Sep 2024
United Nations
Does the West know how to truly hear what the Global South is saying?

Claire Yorke , Klaus Kotzé

The art of listening is an essential way to shape our future.
17 Sep 2024
United Nations
The UN “Summit of the Future” can’t afford to ignore the present

Stéphanie Fillion

Negotiations for a new global pact have hit obstacles, reflecting many of the problems facing the international system.
13 Sep 2024
Sustainability

United Nations

Space exploration
A Sustainable Development Goal for space

Tom Cernev

As human activity intensifies beyond Earth, there is a need to identify exactly what “space sustainability” means.
21 Aug 2024
Climate change

United Nations

Pacific Islands

New Caledonia

Tonga
Polycrisis in the Pacific: How leaders will respond at the PIF Summit in Tonga

Mihai Sora

A tiny capital will be host to a huge regional agenda.
5 Aug 2024
Aid & Development

China – Belt and Road Initiative

United Nations
What is China’s role in achieving the UN’s 2030 Sustainable Development Goals?

Hannah McNicol

It is time to think more seriously about the increasing relationship between Chinese and dominant international development models.
19 Jul 2024
International law

United Nations

Space exploration
Rising tensions over outer space – a new diplomatic hot zone

Rebecca Connolly

There is concern over the growing threat of space and counterspace weapon capabilities.
23 May 2024
Russia

United Nations
Putin’s foot soldier in New York: How Vassily Nebenzia fought on after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

Stéphanie Fillion

Seen as a potential heir apparent to Sergey Lavrov, Vassily Nebenzia is a mysterious but relentless envoy for the Kremlin.
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.
13 May 2024
China

Australia

Australian Navy

Defence & Security

United Nations
The cause for China’s coercion in the skies may lay under the water

Justin Burke

Better to understand now why Australia might be targeted rather than in the aftermath of a fatal incident.
10 Apr 2024
United Nations
UN-ravelling the world of United Nations acronyms

Stéphanie Fillion

With a lexicon all its own, does a reliance on the alphabet soup pose challenges to transparency and inclusivity?