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Published daily by the Lowy Institute

  • 3 hours ago
    • 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.
  • 11 hours ago
    • 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.
  • 1 day ago
    • 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.
  • 6 Feb 2026
    • Aid & Development
    • Australia

    Australia doubles down on Pacific infrastructure

    Roland Rajah , Riley Duke , Georgia Hammersley
    Shifting more funds to infrastructure makes sense but implementation is the real test.
  • 5 Feb 2026
    • Australia
    • Pacific Islands

    Carney's guide to Australia’s middle power dilemma in the Pacific

    Hansley Gumbaketi
    Australia’s paradox between climate policy and alliance loyalty will test a vision of flexible multilateralism.
  • 5 Feb 2026
    • China
    • Australia
    • Global Economy
    • The Americas

    Up the canal without a paddle: The lessons from Panama for Australia

    Carolin Kautz
    A case study in the costs of being seen to cross China.
  • 5 Feb 2026
    • Australia
    • Nuclear Non-Proliferation, Arms Control and Disarmament
    • Nuclear Weapons

    Can Australia help stay the nuclear doomsday clock?

    Tom Barber
    Even without an intermediary role, Australia could support confidence-building measures to reduce nuclear risk.
  • 3 Feb 2026
    • Australia
    • Defence & Security

    Reinvigorating Australia’s Naval Reserve

    Jennifer Parker
    A reserve force that served its purpose during more peaceful times no longer meets Australia's mobilisation needs.
  • 30 Jan 2026
    • Australia
    • Diplomacy

    Why are Australia’s top diplomatic jobs still for men only?

    Elise Stephenson
    Recent appointments of male envoys to London and Washington highlight persistent gender gaps at DFAT's highest level.
  • 29 Jan 2026
    • Aid & Development
    • Asia
    • Australia

    Conflict prevention or conflict avoidance in Australia’s foreign policy

    Grace Stanhope
    The greatest risk for the Indo-Pacific comes from fragmented peace efforts backed by competing geopolitical powers.
  • 22 Jan 2026
    • Japan
    • Australia
    • Australian trade, investment & economy
    • Climate change
    • Sustainability

    Japan’s net zero bet needs an Australian hedge

    Ryan Neelam , Reuben Finighan
    Australia can offer Japan what it desperately needs to realise its energy ambitions.
  • 21 Jan 2026
    • Australia
    • Global Issues
    • Canada
    • United States

    "A rupture, not a transition": Carney's new order

    Sam Roggeveen
    "When the rules no longer protect you, you must protect yourself."
  • 21 Jan 2026
    • China
    • Australia
    • AUKUS
    • Diplomacy
    • United States

    Trump has swapped “productive hypocrisy” for crude exercises of power

    Sophie Wushuang Yi
    Washington hasn’t changed its behaviour towards allies and adversaries – only its honesty about it.
  • 20 Jan 2026
    • Australia
    • Poverty
    • Asylum seekers and refugees
    • Climate change
    • Human rights
    • Migration
    • Sex and Gender
    • United States

    A rearview mirror on America’s year of foreign aid cuts

    Melissa Conley Tyler
    The ripple effects of global USAID cuts will be generational – and everyone will lose.
  • 20 Jan 2026
    • Australia
    • Defence & Security

    Keeping Australian Defence contestability independent

    Victor Abramowicz
    Forthcoming Defence reforms must avoid returning to the mistakes of the past.
  • 14 Jan 2026
    • Australia
    • Defence & Security
    • Review

    When the war is over: The limits of civilian storytelling

    Cate Carter , Richard Barrett
    A new TV series reinforces the sentimental way Australia represents wars and military service.
  • 12 Jan 2026
    • Australia
    • Australian trade, investment & economy
    • Defence & Security
    • AUKUS

    Securing Australia’s fuel supplies in a major conflict

    Victor Abramowicz
    Why gas-to-liquids plants could keep Australia running when imports stop.
  • 9 Jan 2026
    • Australia
    • Defence & Security
    • Europe

    Australia’s suddenly emerging Greenland dilemma

    Peter Layton
    Denmark has been a steadfast US ally. That this appears to count for so little in Washington should give Australia pause.
  • 4 Jan 2026
    • Australia
    • Defence & Security

    Why the Venezuela raid matters to Australia

    Mick Ryan
    Australia can learn a lot from this incident, even if it did happen far from its shores.
  • 22 Dec 2025
    • Australia

    The most influential book I read this year

    David Vallance
    A book that provides a rare insight into the basic form of political life – the individual.
  • 19 Dec 2025
    • Australia

    The element of surprise: Bondi and the Australian "conceptzia"

    Mick Ryan
    Surprise remains a central feature of Australia's security environment.
  • 18 Dec 2025
    • Australia
    • Defence & Security
    • Intelligence and security

    What a student of security studies thinks of Australia’s national strategy

    Molly Jinks
    The country’s security should be a shared democratic project but the conversations too often sideline the young.
  • 16 Dec 2025
    • Australia

    Hope and redemption at Bondi Beach

    Michael Fullilove
    Finding meaning for Australia in a despicable act of terrorism.
  • 15 Dec 2025
    • Australia
    • Global Issues

    Meeting the challenge of violent extremism

    Sam Roggeveen
    ASIO Director-General Mike Burgess' words at the Lowy Lecture in November now carry new significance.
  • 15 Dec 2025
    • Australia

    What we know about the Bondi attack

    Lydia Khalil
    There is a clear need to invest more in the prevention of extremism and violence.
  • 12 Dec 2025
    • Australia
    • Defence & Security
    • AUKUS
    • Intelligence and security
    • Maritime Security
    • Technology

    Australia all at sea on submarine cable risks

    Jocelinn Kang
    Aging fleets and a leadership void threaten the country's subsea cable resilience.
  • 12 Dec 2025
    • Australia
    • Pacific Islands

    Pacific Islands: “Friends to all” is no longer pragmatic

    Hansley Gumbaketi
    A changing geopolitical climate means the region must work together first before looking outside for help.
  • 10 Dec 2025
    • Australia
    • Defence & Security
    • Pacific Islands
    • Solomon Islands

    Postcard from Solomon Islands: The legacy of RAMSI

    Gordon Peake
    More than two decades on, what are the lasting effects of a mission to save a failing state?
  • 10 Dec 2025
    • Australia
    • Papua New Guinea

    The IMF's balancing act in Papua New Guinea

    Alexandre Dayant , Maholopa Laveil
    The IMF reform program is making welcome and unexpected progress, but the hardest work still lies ahead.
  • 9 Dec 2025
    • Australia
    • Diplomacy

    The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade: then, now and into the future

    Lachlan Strahan
    DFAT has evolved to be more diverse – but is it equipped to face the challenges of a multipolar world?
  • 5 Dec 2025
    • Aid & Development
    • Australia
    • Africa

    Landlocked Africa is an open opportunity for Australia

    Christopher Burke
    Rather than compete on aid volumes, Australia could leverage remote logistics expertise as quality partner for major projects.
  • 3 Dec 2025
    • Japan
    • Australia
    • Energy
    • Climate change

    Japan lost its climate leadership – and now Australia can help

    Richard Neumann
    Japan’s largest supplier of coal and LNG has just pledged to transition from fossil fuels – creating both tension and opportunity.
  • 3 Dec 2025
    • Australia
    • Technology

    Australia bets on old laws to manage new AI risks

    Ian Gribble
    Relying on legacy laws may seem pragmatic, but other countries are racing ahead with purpose-built AI regulation.
  • 2 Dec 2025
    • Australia
    • Defence & Security

    Want to fix Defence? Start by cutting bureaucratic bloat

    Michael Shoebridge
    Same people, same jobs, new structure – but somehow performance will improve. This story has been told before.
  • 2 Dec 2025
    • Australia
    • Review

    Australian universities: A waning soft power

    Hangga Fathana
    Driven by political mood rather than long-term strategy, higher education has become fast, fragile and transactional.
  • 2 Dec 2025
    • Australia
    • Technology
    • Africa

    One size does not fit all for social media bans

    Aletana Ajulo , Afeeya Akhand
    With half its population under 18, Nigeria shows why Australia-style digital bans could stifle democratic activism.
  • 1 Dec 2025
    • Asia
    • Australia

    Australians risk becoming “strangers in our own region”

    Zane Goebel
    A parliamentary inquiry confronts decades of decline in language learning and cultural knowledge of the region.
  • 28 Nov 2025
    • Australia
    • Climate change
    • Pacific Islands

    Can the Pacific still shape COP31 after Australia’s compromise?

    Georgia Hammersley
    Even without a co-hosting arrangement, Canberra can still push outcomes that matter for the region.
  • 27 Nov 2025
    • China
    • Australia
    • Australian trade, investment & economy
    • Energy

    Critical minerals: Why fast-tracking undermines democratic legitimacy

    Katherine Teh
    With mineral projects taking years to move from exploration to production, Australia must hasten carefully.
  • 27 Nov 2025
    • China
    • Taiwan
    • Australia
    • Defence & Security
    • Russia
    • Ukraine
    • United States

    From Kabul to Kyiv, Trump’s pattern is clear – negotiate with enemies, sideline allies

    Mick Ryan
    Australia and other partners must plainly see that America’s commitment to defending democracies is fading fast.
  • 26 Nov 2025
    • Afghanistan
    • Australia
    • Human rights
    • International law

    Australia’s “deep concern” at multilayered persecution of Afghanistan’s Hazaras

    William Maley , Niamatullah Ibrahimi
    A parliamentary motion highlights systematic violence against a community facing ethnic, religious and gender-based repression.
  • 26 Nov 2025
    • Australia
    • Climate change

    Redirecting COP31 funds could deliver Australia’s most important climate contribution yet

    Alexandre Dayant
    The $1 billion saved from not hosting could deliver more impact through Pacific infrastructure than any summit.
  • 25 Nov 2025
    • Australia
    • G20
    • Diplomacy
    • United States

    America in the age of the envoy

    Daniel Flitton
    A new emphasis in diplomacy isn’t all downside.
  • 21 Nov 2025
    • Australia
    • Diplomacy

    Of hedgehogs and foxes: It’s time for a school of Australian statecraft

    Iain MacGillivray
    As a middle power, Australia needs both bold decision-makers and quick-witted rationalists. Those skills can be taught.
  • 20 Nov 2025
    • Australia
    • Climate change

    Climate change: Compromise and progress in the heart of the Amazon

    Ryan Neelam
    Though outcomes might be less than hoped, important deals are being done at COP30.
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