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Published daily by the Lowy Institute

  • 8 hours ago
    • Vietnam

    The fallacy of Vietnam’s bamboo diplomacy

    Jackson Lopez
    Vietnam is prioritising appeasement of the powers that matter – Beijing and Washington – while neglecting its own long-term vulnerabilities.
  • 9 hours ago
    • AUKUS

    AUKUS will be worth the work. China’s alarm shows why Trump should get onboard

    Frank Rose
    The strategic benefits far outweigh the operational and political challenges.
  • 10 hours ago
    • 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.
  • 17 hours ago
    • China
    • Defence & Security
    • United States

    Fear, honour, and miscalculation: War game lessons in the Indo-Pacific

    Henry Yep
    Why it’s reckless to assume that wars only erupt by deliberate design.
  • 1 day ago
    • France
    • Pacific Islands
    • New Caledonia

    New Caledonia’s Bougival Accord offers path beyond independence deadlock

    Denise Fisher
    Voters in the French territory must now decide at a 2026 referendum whether to accept dual citizenship and statehood within France.
  • 1 day ago
    • Asia
    • Australia
    • Energy

    If infrastructure is the new oil, Australia is in a winning position

    Melinda Stuart
    By investing in Southeast Asia’s sustainable development, Australia can help shape regional growth and prosperity.
  • 1 day ago
    • Caucasus
    • European Union
    • Russia
    • Ukraine

    Making Greater Russia again?

    William Gourlay
    Trump’s new world order may greenlight a Russian sphere of interest, but Moscow’s geopolitical clout seems in decline.
  • 1 day ago
    • Asean
    • Timor-Leste

    Timor-Leste is ready for ASEAN, but is ASEAN ready for what comes next?

    Vu Lam
    The bloc’s inability to mediate even among its members highlights a structural blind spot: it can convene, but not intervene, even when regional cohesion is at stake.
  • 2 days ago
    • Trade
    • United States

    The America First approach to trade and tariffs is only getting started

    Robert Walker
    Multiple legal mechanisms give the US President broad authority to impose sectoral levies beyond current negotiations.
  • 2 days ago
    • Myanmar
    • Trade
    • Diplomacy
    • United States

    False recognition, tariffs, Myanmar, and the lost art of letter writing

    Sean Turnell
    Myanmar’s military ruler celebrates receiving formal correspondence from Washington, seeing diplomatic validation despite sanctions.
  • 2 days ago
    • India
    • Trade

    Pivot to the West: India’s changing trade strategy

    Ved Shinde
    Even for a country of India’s economic size, not prioritising exports is unviable.
  • 2 days ago
    • Australia
    • Coronavirus
    • Multilateral Institutions

    One Health diplomacy: How Australia can lead regional disease prevention

    Philippa Nicole Barr
    Scientific collaboration on health threats offers a new pathway for regional influence.
  • 14 Jul 2025
    • Aid & Development
    • United States

    Taxing the world’s most generous givers

    Heather Wrathall
    A 3.5% levy on diaspora remittance transfers could reduce vital flows by billions at the very time aid budgets are shrinking.
  • 14 Jul 2025
    • AUKUS

    An AUKUS ultimatum for Australia over Taiwan risks backfiring on Washington

    Andrew O'Neil
    US pressure tactics could undermine the Australia alliance it aims to strengthen.
  • 14 Jul 2025
    • AUKUS

    AUKUS: Building confidence in Australia’s submarine pathway

    Jennifer Parker
    Promises need to shift to performance, judged against a published timeline.
  • 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
    • Central Asia
    • Nuclear Non-Proliferation, Arms Control and Disarmament

    Nuclear waste to nuclear reactor: The case of Russia in Kazakhstan

    Ayushi Saini
    Facing energy deficits, Kazakhstan turns to Russia’s Rosatom for nuclear power despite a history of environmental and dependency concerns.
  • 11 Jul 2025
    • India
    • Indonesia
    • Australia
    • Defence & Security

    Can Australia, India and Indonesia really sail together?

    Rahman Yaacob
    Mismatched strategic culture is the main obstacle to joint maritime security ambitions.
  • 11 Jul 2025
    • North Korea
    • South Korea
    • Russia

    Can Seoul’s soft diplomacy break the Russia–North Korea alliance?

    Khang Vu
    Pyongyang is reaping the benefits of its relationship with Moscow. South Korea’s new president wants to woo them back.
  • 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.
  • 10 Jul 2025
    • Philippines
    • Defence & Security
    • United States

    Trump’s bearhug for the Philippines

    Richard Javad Heydarian
    While other Asian allies face American pressure, the Philippines enjoys special treatment – but at the cost of strategic flexibility.
  • 10 Jul 2025
    • India
    • Australia

    India-Australia: A partnership a long time coming

    Anondeeta Chakraborty
    There are important lessons from the last time Canberra and New Delhi sought to forge common cause.
  • 10 Jul 2025
    • Europe
    • Human rights
    • International law
    • War Crimes
    • Multilateral Institutions

    Srebrenica at 30: Why this turning point for international justice still matters

    Ian Kemish
    The 1995 massacre galvanised legal accountability mechanisms that remain vital as multilateral institutions face new challenges.
  • 10 Jul 2025
    • China

    China coup? Rumours of Xi Jinping’s decline are premature

    Michael Cunningham
    Despite speculation about leadership challenges, evidence suggests Xi Jinping holds firm control over China's political system.
  • 9 Jul 2025
    • Australia
    • Migration
    • Pacific Islands

    Visa free Pacific-Australia travel is the next logical step in the relationship

    Edward Cavanough
    And is even more important as Trump dials down American engagement in the region.
  • 9 Jul 2025
    • Indonesia
    • Defence & Security
    • Technology

    Indonesia targeted in Rafale fighter jet disinformation

    Nava Nuraniyah , Jennifer Williams , Julian Droogan
    Viral videos can become weapons.
  • 9 Jul 2025
    • BRICS

    BRICS in Rio: Bigger, yet emptier than ever

    Filipe Porto
    Despite its expansion, internal fractures and absent leaders undermined the group’s influence in Rio.
  • 9 Jul 2025
    • Australia
    • Australian trade, investment & economy
    • Energy
    • Climate change
    • Sustainability

    Green energy statecraft and Australia’s clean industry future

    Elizabeth Thurbon , Oliver Yates
    A new policy model that removes the risk in clean commodity innovation will put Australia ahead of the pack.
  • 8 Jul 2025
    • Indonesia
    • Trade

    Indonesia: Prabowo’s populism clashes with economic realities

    Robert Walker , Hilman Palaon
    Mounting headwinds leave limited space for President Prabowo’s spending and centralising tendencies.
  • 8 Jul 2025
    • Review

    War stories: Our fascination with the grease and guts of conflict

    Mark Pierce
    Long after armies have left the field, the tales of conflict endure.
  • 8 Jul 2025
    • China
    • Australia
    • European Union
    • Human rights
    • Technology

    AI surveillance and the governance vacuum in the Asia-Pacific

    Monique Taylor
    While Europe moves ahead with regulation, China is exporting the infrastructure of digital control.
  • 8 Jul 2025
    • Australia
    • Defence & Security

    Allied burden-sharing must reshape Australia’s defence priorities

    Arthur Sinodinos
    US pressure for higher military spending offers a chance to demonstrate America’s security is bound up with its alliances.
  • 7 Jul 2025
    • China
    • Australia
    • Diplomacy
    • Pacific Islands

    League versus union: Australia’s rugby diplomacy needs a game plan

    Hugh Piper
    Does Australia really want to fund rival codes against each other in Pacific competition with Beijing?
  • 7 Jul 2025
    • Australia
    • Defence & Security

    Why Albanese is echoing Curtin’s call to America

    John Edwards
    A wartime declaration was as much about the confidence to see the world through Australian eyes.
  • 7 Jul 2025
    • Australia
    • Defence & Security
    • AUKUS
    • United States

    Clock ticks towards Pentagon AUKUS review deadline

    Sam Roggeveen
    The 30 days reportedly set aside for the Pentagon’s review have almost expired. An alliance crisis could be next.
  • 7 Jul 2025
    • Asylum seekers and refugees
    • International law
    • Lebanon

    The protection paradox: How refugee law fails those fleeing failed states

    Guita G. Hourani
    Legal definitions rooted in 1951 miss today’s reality – many people flee state collapse, not specific persecutors.
  • 4 Jul 2025
    • Indonesia
    • Malaysia
    • Defence & Security

    From Gallipoli to the Strait of Malacca: Why maritime choke points still decide the fate of nations

    Adam Leong Kok Wey
    How a crucial regional waterway may be affected in the event of conflict.
  • 4 Jul 2025
    • China
    • Indonesia
    • Human rights
    • Sustainability

    China isn’t the main culprit in Indonesia’s dirty nickel boom

    Muhammad Zulfikar Rakhmat
    While Chinese firms capitalise on the country’s resources, the social and environmental damage lies squarely with Jakarta.
  • 4 Jul 2025
    • Bangladesh
    • China
    • India
    • Pakistan
    • International law
    • Sustainability

    The Indus Treaty verdict: When water outlasts war

    Ishaal Zehra
    A Hague ruling against India’s treaty “abeyance” might stop a precedent that could spread from China to Bangladesh.
  • 4 Jul 2025
    • China
    • Australia
    • Diplomacy
    • United States

    Meeting Xi before Trump? Why Albanese’s diplomatic calendar matters

    Daniel Flitton
    With pressure mounting at home over a Trump meeting and a forthcoming Beijing trip raising questions about alliance priorities, the PM must show relations run both ways.
  • 3 Jul 2025
    • Vietnam
    • United States

    Vietnam’s Trump tariff deal: What it means for Asian supply chains

    Roland Rajah
    A US crackdown on Chinese goods still appears to be the target – but it all depends on the approach.
  • 3 Jul 2025
    • Quad

    Critical minerals at a critical moment: Testing the Quad’s resolve

    Shameek Godara
    The Washington meeting highlighted supply chain ambitions while US tariffs and defence spending disputes create obstacles in the group.
  • 3 Jul 2025
    • Russia
    • Climate change

    Putin’s potato politics exposes the new economics of conflict

    Henry Throp
    Sanctions are biting in a taste of the global food security crisis that climate change will bring for world politics.
  • 3 Jul 2025
    • Europe
    • Diplomacy

    Two months in, what has Pope Leo XIV signalled as his foreign policy agenda?

    Isha Desai
    With influence its main power, the Holy See is seeking to exert a more global reach.
  • 2 Jul 2025
    • Australia
    • Australian trade, investment & economy
    • Defence & Security

    Australia can’t prevaricate on tough economic and security trade-offs anymore

    Hugh Piper
    To be safer in the world, Australians might need to be less secure at home.
  • 2 Jul 2025
    • Australia
    • Defence & Security
    • Public Opinion
    • United States

    Australia-United States: How to disagree with a superpower

    Ryan Neelam
    The 2025 Lowy Institute Poll illustrates the areas of contention and convergence in a longstanding alliance.
  • 2 Jul 2025
    • Myanmar

    Myanmar’s federal future cannot be built on the junta’s foundations

    Yuyun Wahyuningrum
    Grassroots democratic movements across Myanmar are forging new institutions while ASEAN struggles with diplomatic paralysis over the coup.
  • 2 Jul 2025
    • Defence & Security

    NATO’s 5% pledge and the quiet drift from the Indo-Pacific

    Vu Lam
    Over the past five years, security ties between the Euro-Atlantic and Indo-Pacific have grown closer. But we may be witnessing the onset of a decoupling.
  • 2 Jul 2025
    • Australian trade, investment & economy
    • Technology

    Australia’s $17 trillion AI moment

    Michael Harré
    In a world where you can be fired by a bot, countries that get workplace AI governance right will reap economic gains.
  • 1 Jul 2025
    • Australia
    • Technology

    Information overload: Can we keep our minds and our democracy?

    Miah Hammond-Errey
    Algorithms and echo chambers are fracturing Australian society, but the democratic discourse hasn’t switched off yet.
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