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Published daily by the Lowy Institute

  • 4 Apr 2025
    • Technology
    • Review

    When the internet displaces the town square

    Abhijnan Rej
    At the intersection of urbanisation, technology and culture, a major geopolitical transformation is taking place.
  • 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.
  • 7 Feb 2025
    • India
    • Intelligence and security
    • Review

    Revealing India’s Cold War secrets

    Mark Pierce
    Indians worried about interference by “the foreign hand” in their affairs might have over-estimated their adversaries.
  • 8 Jan 2025
    • India
    • Review

    Manmohan Singh: Remembering an Indian reformer and internationalist

    Ujjwal Krishna
    Singh’s leadership ended India’s economic and nuclear isolation from the world and lifted hundreds of millions out of multidimensional poverty.
  • 20 Dec 2024
    • Administration
    • Review

    Your Top 10 most-read Interpreter articles in 2024

    Daniel Flitton
    After a year of momentous events, it’s time for a short break. See you in the New Year.
  • 10 Dec 2024
    • China's Military
    • Review

    A wonky memento and a China metaphor

    Sam Roggeveen
    A scale model kit offers an insight into Chinese manufacturing.
  • 5 Dec 2024
    • Review

    Loyalty over competence: A historical novel for the modern age

    Mercedes Page
    Malcolm Knox’s dark comedy about power and paranoia in Stalin’s Russia carries an enduring wisdom.
  • 3 Dec 2024
    • Diplomacy
    • Review

    What should world leaders read?

    Mark Pierce
    Unlike polls and social media, the classics teach humility.
  • 30 Oct 2024
    • Pacific Islands
    • Review

    The Translator: What is "strategic infrastructure"?

    Laura Salt
    Building lines of influence in the Pacific.
  • 17 Sep 2024
    • Geo-economics
    • Review

    The Translator: What is “economic statecraft”?

    Melissa Conley Tyler
    The power of carrots and sticks in the world of geoeconomics.
  • 8 Aug 2024
    • India
    • United Kingdom
    • Identities
    • Review

    A reckoning with empire

    Ved Shinde
    Two very different volumes on the legacies of imperialism expose the parallax of coloniser and colonised.
  • 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.
  • 24 Jul 2024
    • Diplomacy
    • Review

    Shakespeare as life coach

    Mark Pierce
    Two new books examine how the Bard’s wit and wisdom can serve as guides for modern day policy and prophecy.
  • 4 Jul 2024
    • India
    • Review

    Eyes on India

    Mark Pierce
    The burdens of history should not be confused with sentimentalism in forging a modern relationship.
  • 19 Jun 2024
    • Diplomacy
    • United Kingdom
    • Review

    How to broaden the political gene pool

    Mark Pierce
    With the United Kingdom headed for the polls, Alastair Campbell has a few suggestions on what makes a good leader.
  • 7 Jun 2024
    • Defence & Security
    • Review

    The forgotten weapon of mass destruction

    Huma Rehman
    Preventing the spread of unconventional tools of warfare requires constant vigilance.
  • 30 May 2024
    • Australian trade, investment & economy
    • Trade
    • WTO
    • Review

    Fibs, squibs, and trading digs

    Justin Brown
    Is it any wonder the public is often bemused about the merits of trade policy?
  • 28 May 2024
    • Defence & Security
    • Global Economy
    • Review

    The economics of strategy

    Sam Roggeveen
    How one discipline can learn much from another.
  • 23 May 2024
    • Review

    The month the world changed

    Mark Pierce
    New research brings a valuable insight into the role of people not usually seen or heard in stories of war.
  • 16 May 2024
    • Review

    A bread index to measure revolt

    Mark Pierce
    Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.
  • 10 May 2024
    • Review

    Noble Rushdie will not be silenced

    Mark Pierce
    Physically, Rushdie will never be the same after his attack. But as a writer, he is back.
  • 30 Apr 2024
    • Germany
    • Review

    The God in the rubble

    Marcus Colla
    Germany’s struggle with morality is not only a concern of history but an animating factor in contemporary politics.
  • 19 Apr 2024
    • Australia
    • Defence & Security
    • Maritime Security
    • Review

    Girt by sea: Redrawing Australia’s mental map

    David Brewster
    A big part of the challenge is asking the hard questions – and a new book does just that.
  • 17 Apr 2024
    • United States
    • Review

    Telling tales about “Civil War”

    Sam Roggeveen
    Politics isn’t the only strange omission from what is undoubtedly a captivating and relentless movie spectacle.
  • 9 Apr 2024
    • Review

    Life on Earth: From beginning to end

    Mark Pierce
    A new take on the history of the world starts 3.8 billion years ago and offers conclusions about our future.
  • 8 Apr 2024
    • India
    • Review

    India's turbulent history newly revealed

    Ved Shinde
    Two recent history books that improve our understanding of India's present
  • 26 Mar 2024
    • China
    • India
    • United Kingdom
    • Review

    Opium and the colonial narco-state

    Mark Pierce
    In an attempt to control 19th century trade with India and China, Britain dumped tea and resorted to a new addictive drug.
  • 15 Mar 2024
    • Trade
    • Review

    What price sanctions?

    John West
    When trade is made a weapon, the target isn’t always hit.
  • 7 Mar 2024
    • Intelligence and security
    • Review

    Spy novels and unicorn hunting

    Mark Pierce
    Seeking perfection among the dead ends, red herrings and lost causes, a lover of espionage lists the must-haves.
  • 29 Feb 2024
    • Defence & Security
    • United States
    • Review

    When war-planning and politics collide

    Erin Hurley
    The rhythms of the electoral cycle are too often overlooked in the conduct of conflict.
  • 22 Feb 2024
    • Review

    Words as weapons in the war of ideas

    Mark Pierce
    A new book explores the power of literature on history's battlefields.
  • 13 Feb 2024
    • Japan
    • Japan's Economy
    • Review

    How to fix Japan

    John West
    Embracing the lost art of “creative destruction” will allow the once booming economy to flourish again.
  • 29 Jan 2024
    • Australia and Climate Change
    • Australia's Defence Challenges
    • Australian Defence Force
    • Australian Navy
    • Maritime Security
    • Review

    Why big projects fail: Climate change and AUKUS submarines

    Stephen Grenville
    Construction lessons – from the Empire State to the Sydney Opera House – can inform Australia’s most pressing problems.
  • 15 Jan 2024
    • Technology
    • Review

    Manager of the internet, controller of the world?

    Sam Roggeveen
    Power is much more than GDP and tank numbers. But the US monopoly on the digital age is eroding.
  • 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.
  • 21 Dec 2023
    • Philippines
    • Human rights
    • Review

    Manila’s killing fields: Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody war on the poor

    Richard Javad Heydarian
    It’s best to not only take populists seriously, but also literally, especially when they threaten mass murder.
  • 13 Dec 2023
    • India
    • Recommendations
    • Review

    The Fix: Nationalist theatre, with a twist

    Evan Freidin
    An action film where the climax features a gritty anti-hero urging the importance of an informed vote? Watch and learn.
  • 11 Dec 2023
    • Defence & Security
    • Intelligence and security
    • Review

    Espionage top ten

    Milton Cockburn
    From George Smiley to Jackson Lamb, the best spy fiction relies not on heroes but masters of the plot.
  • 6 Dec 2023
    • Europe
    • International law
    • Review

    The Fix: A death in Malta

    Jim Nolan
    Uncovering the murky business of corruption and graft too often puts journalists’ lives at risk.
  • 6 Dec 2023
    • Europe
    • Review

    Tales from the magic circle

    Marcus Colla
    A new book explores how post-war Europe’s waves of counterculture and activism transformed the notion of revolution.
  • 29 Nov 2023
    • Recommendations
    • Review

    The Fix: Simple history is never simplistic

    Mark Pierce
    Your weekly Interpreter feature about issues, resources and helpful distractions that might otherwise be missed.
  • 17 Nov 2023
    • United Kingdom
    • Review

    Practising politics in a moral wilderness

    Mark Pierce
    Yes Minister, indeed.
  • 8 Nov 2023
    • India
    • Recommendations
    • Review

    The Fix: Escape banality, shun labels

    Ved Shinde
    Your weekly Interpreter feature about issues, resources or helpful distractions that might otherwise be missed.
  • 1 Nov 2023
    • Saudi Arabia
    • Recommendations
    • Review

    The Fix: An evolving Saudi Arabia

    Gabriela Bernal
    Your weekly Interpreter feature about issues, resources or helpful distractions that might otherwise be missed.
  • 26 Oct 2023
    • Russia
    • Ukraine
    • Review

    A Marshall Plan for Ukraine?

    John West
    History can be a useful guide, but the geopolitical circumstances of today are vastly different.
  • 23 Oct 2023
    • War Crimes
    • Review

    War crimes: The trial of a fallen French war hero and lessons for today

    Mark Pierce
    When can personal responsibility be dissolved into collective culpability?
  • 13 Oct 2023
    • Australia
    • Canada
    • The Trump Presidency
    • United States
    • Review

    Imagining Trump’s second term

    Mark Pierce
    Could Canada cope? Might Australia? Two books on the “vice in the chest and tightness in the stomach” prospect.
  • 29 Sep 2023
    • Europe
    • Review

    The decline of Europe: “Rage, rage, against the dying of the light”

    Mark Pierce
    From the early signs of decay to the recent downwards turn, Europe’s trajectory is captured with pen and voice.
  • 28 Sep 2023
    • Australia in the World
    • Australia's Defence Challenges
    • Australia-United States Relations
    • Australian Defence Force
    • Defence & Security
    • Maritime Security
    • Review

    AUKUS: A debate after the fact is still worth having

    Georgina Downer
    Can Australia’s statecraft and alliances offer alternative security options in the Indo-Pacific?
  • 21 Sep 2023
    • Germany
    • Review

    Plumbing the depths of the former East Germany’s grotesque delusion

    Mark Pierce
    A mostly unsentimental new memoir of life in the GDR ruminates on the what-ifs.
Pagination
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