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Published daily by the Lowy Institute

  • 7 hours ago
    • Australia
    • Energy
    • Climate change

    Green trade partnerships will make or break Australia’s renewable superpower strategy

    Robert Walker
    Without anchoring domestic green industries to external demand, these goals are wishful thinking.
  • 1 day ago
    • Australia
    • Defence & Security

    The 2026 National Defence Strategy delivers more of the same

    Mick Ryan
    Modest spending, welcome reforms, and a defence minister resistant to outside contributions.
  • 14 Apr 2026
    • Asia
    • Indonesia
    • Malaysia
    • Australia
    • Australian trade, investment & economy
    • AUKUS
    • Maritime Security
    • International law

    What the Hormuz crisis reveals about Australia’s Indonesian sea lanes

    Aristyo Rizka Darmawan
    Laws alone will not keep Australia’s vital trading routes open when it matters.
  • 14 Apr 2026
    • China
    • Australia
    • Global Issues
    • Public Opinion

    The blind spot in Australia’s approach to Chinese platforms

    Wilfred Yang Wang  , Jian Lin , Sophie Ping Sun
    An uneven approach to Asian social media apps reflects limitations in how Australia understands its region
  • 13 Apr 2026
    • Australia
    • Defence & Security
    • Antarctica

    Is the security narrative itself a threat to Antarctic stability?

    Jeffrey McGee , Tony Press
    After more than six decades of peace on the continent, Australia must flex its diplomatic muscle to maintain the status quo.
  • 10 Apr 2026
    • Indonesia
    • Australia
    • Defence & Security
    • Maritime Security
    • South China Sea
    • Russia

    There’s a bear in there: Russia in the Indo-Pacific

    Paul Pelczar
    A Russian naval visit to Jakarta barely rated a mention in Australia.
  • 9 Apr 2026
    • Australia
    • Defence & Security
    • Diplomacy

    Be informed, not just alert

    Tom Barber
    Australia’s crisis-driven communication is a symptom of the deeper problem: a failure to treat statecraft as conversation.
  • 8 Apr 2026
    • India
    • Australia
    • Energy
    • Climate change
    • Sustainability

    India’s clean energy goals set challenges and bring opportunities

    Shanthie Mariet D’Souza
    India’s new Nationally Determined Contribution for 2031 to 2035 set high targets and could reshape trade ties with partners and rivals
  • 2 Apr 2026
    • Australia
    • Global Economy

    The sovereign citizen challenge

    Lydia Khalil
    One outlaw fugitive draws attention to a bigger problem.
  • 2 Apr 2026
    • India
    • Australia
    • Diplomacy

    Soft power and the politics of sari diplomacy

    Aarti Betigeri
    For politicians who reach for South Asia’s traditional garb, cultural literacy matters far more than a perfect drape.
  • 26 Mar 2026
    • Australia
    • European Union
    • Energy
    • Trade
    • Sustainability
    • Technology

    The EU–Australia FTA plays the long game on critical minerals with no short cuts

    Brent Jackson
    Australia's minerals sector is world-class at extraction, but refining lags decades behind China – and no trade deal changes that overnight.
  • 26 Mar 2026
    • Australia
    • Defence & Security

    Australia is running on empty – in more ways than one

    Stephanie Campbell
    Australia holds just 38 days of petrol reserves and still treats geographic distance as a substitute for genuine resilience.
  • 24 Mar 2026
    • China
    • Australia
    • Defence & Security
    • Iran
    • United States

    Conventional ICBMs could end Australia’s geographic sanctuary

    David Vallance
    And with it, threaten the logic of the US alliance.
  • 23 Mar 2026
    • Australia
    • Defence & Security
    • Iran
    • United Arab Emirates

    The Al Minhad strike and Australia’s vulnerability in the Gulf

    Saima Afzal
    Australia is more exposed to hostile action in the Middle East than the government would like to admit.
  • 20 Mar 2026
    • China
    • Australia
    • Energy
    • Trade
    • Sustainability
    • Africa

    China’s $120bn minerals blitz – and what Australia stands to lose

    Marina Yue Zhang
    In a world where geopolitical leverage and prosperity accrue to those who process, refine, and manufacture, the window to change course is narrowing.
  • 19 Mar 2026
    • Japan
    • Australia
    • The Americas

    Japan’s bid to build a “de-Chinafied” rare earth supply system – with Australia and Brazil on-board

    Jing Ge
    New agreements with Lynas and Brazil's Goiás state show Japan moving from supply anxiety to market architecture.
  • 19 Mar 2026
    • Australia
    • Energy

    Australia’s fuel crisis? We told you so

    Brent Jackson
    Policy lethargy on liquid fuel security has left Australia exposed. But there are fixes that could be applied.
  • 19 Mar 2026
    • Australia
    • Diplomacy

    Style and statecraft: Fashion, diplomacy and the audiences we’re missing

    Diane Colman
    The case for fashion as foreign policy communication.
  • 19 Mar 2026
    • Japan
    • Australia
    • New Zealand

    Japan is now the most trusted Asian power in Australia and New Zealand

    Peter Chai , Charles Crabtree
    As faith in China and the United States erodes, Japan has quietly become the partner of choice.
  • 18 Mar 2026
    • Australia
    • Iran
    • United States

    Trump says America needs no one’s help – Australia included

    Daniel Flitton
    The US president’s latest war declaration puts Australia’s foreign policy orthodoxy to the test.
  • 16 Mar 2026
    • Japan
    • Australia
    • Defence & Security
    • AUKUS
    • Intelligence and security
    • Quad
    • South China Sea
    • Diplomacy

    Australia, Japan and New Zealand should double down on collaboration

    Reuben Steff
    Shared threats and defence priorities make a formal trilateral framework a logical next step.
  • 13 Mar 2026
    • Australia
    • Pacific Islands
    • Papua New Guinea

    The PNG Chiefs will be a test of sovereignty

    Tahina Booth
    The real benefits of the NRL franchise lie not in the funding but in boosting social development and local industry.
  • 12 Mar 2026
    • Aid & Development
    • Australia
    • Climate change
    • United Nations
    • Fiji
    • Tuvalu

    COP31 still offers Australia and the Pacific a chance to reset global climate ambition

    Melanie Pill , Georgia Hammersley , Alexandre Dayant
    Three steps could turn the hosting compromise with Türkiye into real gains for the region and the world.
  • 12 Mar 2026
    • Myanmar
    • Australia

    Beyond humanitarian aid: Rethinking Australia’s Myanmar policy

    Mon Zin
    Five years after the coup, Myanmar’s instability is bleeding across borders. Canberra’s policy hasn’t kept up.
  • 12 Mar 2026
    • Australia
    • Energy
    • Technology

    Nuclear power is Australia’s missing sovereign capability

    Vincent So
    In a more predatory world, energy optionality is itself a form of power.
  • 11 Mar 2026
    • Australia
    • Energy
    • Canada

    Coal: Australia and Canada’s next middle‑power energy play

    Christopher Wright
    The chance for collaboration is not only in the minerals of the future but in the commodities of the present.
  • 9 Mar 2026
    • Australia
    • Papua New Guinea

    The PNG Chiefs: How rugby league can foster a genuine fair go

    Serena Sasingian
    Papua New Guinea’s new NRL franchise carries real nation-building potential, but its design will determine its legacy.
  • 9 Mar 2026
    • Asean
    • Australia
    • Iran

    Australia’s Iran reflex and the credibility test in Southeast Asia

    Hangga Fathana
    How Australia frames its response to the Iran strikes matters as much in Jakarta as it does in Washington.
  • 6 Mar 2026
    • 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.
  • 6 Mar 2026
    • Australia
    • Sex and Gender

    Australia needs to put gender-responsive budgeting into law …

    Ramona Vijeyarasa
    … Or risk lagging on the global stage.
  • 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
    • 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
    • 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.
  • 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
    • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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
    • 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.
  • 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
    • 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.
  • 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.
  • 17 Feb 2026
    • Aid & Development
    • Australia

    Bringing back conflict prevention as a priority in Australia’s aid program

    Lisa Denney , Thushara Dibley
    Understanding local drivers of violence can make aid more effective, but resurrecting the capability will take time.
  • 17 Feb 2026
    • India
    • Japan
    • Australia
    • Defence & Security
    • Quad
    • United States

    Can the Quad regain momentum after the India–US reset?

    Shameek Godara
    If Washington and New Delhi can compartmentalise their disagreements, the Quad becomes more predictable.
  • 16 Feb 2026
    • Indonesia
    • Japan
    • South Korea
    • Australia
    • Defence & Security

    Indonesia–Australia Security Treaty: Middle powers choosing consultation over blocs

    Emirza Adi Syailendra
    Regional states are furthering security ties to retain autonomy, not to balance a single adversary.
  • 12 Feb 2026
    • Australia
    • Terrorism
    • Technology

    Australia’s social media ban is only half the solution for online radicalisation

    James Paterson
    Tackling the supply side buys important time – but demand conundrum needs attention too.
  • 11 Feb 2026
    • Australia
    • Defence & Security

    Australia’s new National Defence Strategy must embrace adaptation as warfare evolves

    Mick Ryan
    The foundation to rapidly adapt a military institution and its society to a time of war must be set down in peacetime.
  • 10 Feb 2026
    • India
    • Australia
    • Trade

    India and Australia’s trade deal remains half-finished

    Sanchari Ghosh
    Economic integration hasn't kept pace with geopolitical convergence.
  • 9 Feb 2026
    • Australia
    • Africa

    Why Australia should look west … to East Africa

    Christopher Burke
    Maritime security, critical minerals and digital resilience connect East Africa directly to Australian interests.
  • 6 Feb 2026
    • Indonesia
    • Australia
    • Defence & Security

    The placebo risk to the Australia–Indonesia “common security” treaty

    Hangga Fathana
    The language focuses on consultation and coordination without requiring concrete action when it counts.
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