US National Cyber Director Chris Inglis addressed the Lowy Institute on the role of cyber in US strategy and the outlook for international cyber cooperation to build resilience and counter threats. Afterwards, he spoke in conversation with Research Fellow Ben Scott, Director of the Australia's Security and the Rules Based Order Project. 

Read more: Foreign espionage: An Australian perspective

To mark the 70th anniversary of the Australian Secret Intelligence Service, ASIS Director-General Paul Symon addressed the Lowy Institute on the past, present and future of foreign espionage from an Australian perspective. After the speech, Mr Symon spoke in conversation with Dr Michael Fullilove, Executive Director of the Lowy Institute.

Paul Symon’s military career spanned 35 years and culminated in the rank of Major General. He served as the Deputy Chief of the Australian Army from late 2008 until 2011, and from 2011–14 was Director of the Defence Intelligence Organisation. In mid-2015, Paul left the military and joined the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. He was appointed Director-General of the Australian Secret Intelligence Service on 18 December 2017.

Read more: Foreign espionage: An Australian perspective

The Solomon Islands – China security pact has sent shockwaves across the Western world, with analysts from Australia to the United States arguing that the deal represents a fundamental shift in geopolitical dynamics in Australia’s immediate region. But what does the agreement mean for Solomon Islands and the Pacific? What impact will it have on Australia’s interests in Solomon Islands? And what does it signal for the future and stability of the Pacific region? Jonathan Pryke, Director of the Lowy Institute’s Pacific Islands Program, chaired this discussion between three experts on the issue.

Dorothy Wickham is a highly experienced media and communications specialist with an in depth understanding of Pacific islands politics, cultures and effective communication practices. Dorothy was a longstanding host of what was RAMSI’s national radio talkback program Talking Truth and Managing Editor of One News Television, founding editor of social media site Melanesia News Network, and coordinator of Cchange – Solomon Islands. Dorothy is a trusted voice in Solomon Islands and the Pacific.

James Batley is a Distinguished Policy Fellow in the Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs at the Australian National University in Canberra. He joined Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs in 1984. In the early part of his career he was posted to Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia. From 1997-1999 he was Australia’s High Commissioner to Solomon Islands. From 1999-2002 he was the head of Australia’s diplomatic mission in East Timor, becoming Australia’s first Ambassador following that country’s independence in 2002. From 2004-2006 he served as the leader of the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI) and from 2007-2009 he was Australian High Commissioner to Fiji (and Permanent Representative to the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat). In Canberra Mr Batley worked in a range of senior positions including Deputy Director-General of the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) and Deputy Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT).

Graeme Smith is a fellow at the Australian National University’s Department of Pacific Affairs. He was awarded his PhD in 2008 for work that explored the motivations of China’s local officials as they attempted to implement an agricultural extension program in rural Anhui. His current research explores China’s investment, migration, military engagement, technology and aid in the Asia Pacific, with projects in Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Fiji, Timor Leste, Thailand and Vietnam. He has a particular focus on how Chinese infrastructure contractors adapt to and influence the business and political environment in Pacific Island states. He has an emerging research stream on the geopolitics of PRC private Internet companies as they look to invest in the region, including TenCent’s role in the Australian election, Baidu’s efforts to expand into Southeast Asia and Huawei and ZTE’s lobbying efforts in the Pacific. Graeme teaches The Politics of China in the Coral Bell School and hosts The Little Red Podcast with former NPR and BBC journalist Louisa Lim.

This event was broadcast on Thursday 5 May 2022.

The May 21 election has been branded by some commentators as a ‘khaki election’, one in which national security and foreign policy issues will be pivotal in deciding the result. The Coalition government has questioned the ability of the Labor Party to manage increasingly tense relations with China, and its commitment to higher defence spending. But do national security issues sway votes in Australia, and in what circumstances?  And how do voters see the relative strengths of the two parties on national security? Richard McGregor, the Lowy Institute’s Senior Fellow for East Asia, chaired this discussion between three experts on the issue.
 
Brian Loughnane, Federal Director of the Liberal Party for 13 years from 2003, is one of Australia’s most experienced political campaigners. An adviser to federal and state government ministers, he ran four federal campaigns for the Liberal Party. He is also tied into global networks as Deputy Chairman of the International Democrat Union, an alliance of centre-right political parties.

Rebecca Huntley is one of Australia’s foremost researchers and authors on social trends. She has led research at Essential Media and Vox Populi and was a director at Ipsos Australia. She now heads her own research and consultancy firm working with climate and environment NGOs, government and business on climate change strategy and communication. Rebecca was a broadcaster with the ABC and is on the Executive Board of the NSW branch of the Australian Labor Party.

Tony Mitchelmore, the founder of Visibility, a leading strategic communications firm, is a veteran of 12 state and federal elections. He has also advised state and federal political leaders of both major parties on research, messaging and communications.

The event was broadcast on Thursday 5 May 2022.

In April 2022, the Lowy Institute launched a new opinion poll on Indonesian attitudes to the world and foreign policy. The poll offers unique and fascinating insights into how the citizens of one of Asia’s most important rising nations perceive their neighbours, US-China competition, the major threats facing Indonesia, and Indonesia’s position in this increasingly contested world. It has been a decade since the Institute last surveyed Indonesian public opinion. To discuss the poll and its findings, the Institute hosted an online panel event which was chaired by Natasha Kassam, Director of the Institute’s Public Opinion and Foreign Policy Program, alongside Ben Bland, Director of the Institute’s Southeast Asia Program, Dr Evan Laksmana, a Senior Research Fellow with the Centre on Asia and Globalisation at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore and Dr Lina A. Alexandra, Head of the Department of International Relations at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Jakarta.

The United Nations’ declaration of the International Decade of Indigenous Languages (2022-2032) raises a critical issue: Indigenous languages are in an endangered state. The UN’s declaration is hoped to spur preservation and promotion of them and curb the tide of extinction. Papua New Guinea holds more Indigenous languages than anywhere else in the world. Current estimates of its living languages are between 830 to over 850, but that number is in steady decline as Papua New Guinea’s communities become more mobile and interconnected. Yet, while extinction to local languages remains a severe problem in Papua New Guinea, in 2020, a new language was added to its list – and there’s potential for more. Jessica Collins, the Lowy Institute’s Research Fellow for the Aus-PNG Network and Pacific Islands Program, talks with four experts about language, diversity, and cultural identity in Papua New Guinea. The panel includes Dr Kilala Devette-Chee, Senior Research Fellow and Program Leader of the Education Research Program at the Papua New Guinea National Research Institute; Dr Sakarepe Kamene, Head of Linguistics and Modern Languages at the University of Papua New Guinea; Adjunct Professor Craig Volker, of The Cairns Institute, James Cook University; and Dr. Lidia Federica Mazzitelli, post-doctoral researcher at the Slavic Institute, University of Cologne and scientific consultant at the Australian National University.

Whether Australia leases, buys or builds nuclear-fuelled submarines as part of the AUKUS pact with the United Kingdom and the United States, it will be the first non-nuclear state to do so. How nuclear non-proliferation issues are addressed by these three countries is not the sole test of AUKUS, but it will form an important part of managing its future trajectory and global reception.

On 14 March 2022, the Lowy Institute hosted Dr Alan J. Kuperman, Associate Professor at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs in Texas for a discussion with Hervé Lemahieu, Director of Research. They discussed the implications of AUKUS for the nuclear non-proliferation regime and how the current negotiations with the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna aim to mitigate any proliferation risks stemming from AUKUS.

Dr Alan J. Kuperman is Associate Professor of Public Affairs and founding coordinator of the Nuclear Proliferation Prevention Project at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas. He was previously Senior Policy Analyst for the nongovernmental Nuclear Control Institute, and Legislative Director for Rep. Charles Schumer in the US Congress. He holds an AB in Physical Sciences from Harvard University, an MA in International Relations and International Economics from Johns Hopkins University, and a PhD in Political Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has authored and edited books including Plutonium for Energy? Explaining the Global Decline of MOX (2018) and Nuclear Terrorism and Global Security: The Challenge of Phasing out Highly Enriched Uranium (2013).

In the midst of increasing global geopolitical tensions, Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese will address the Lowy Institute on how a Labor government would deliver national security in a complex world.

Join us online on Thursday 10 March for this major speech, live from the Lowy Institute in Sydney. Mr Albanese’s speech will be followed by a Q&A session chaired by Dr Michael Fullilove AM, Executive Director of the Lowy Institute.
 
The Hon Anthony Albanese MP is the Leader of the Opposition. He previously served as Deputy Prime Minister; Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government; Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy; and Leader of the House. He has represented the electorate of Grayndler in the federal Parliament since 1996.

The event will be broadcast live at 12:30pm AEDT on Thursday 10 March 2022. 

The events in Europe over the past week have global economic and strategic implications. Prime Minister Scott Morrison will address the Lowy Institute on the situation in Ukraine, how it affects the Indo-Pacific and what Australia is doing in response.  

Join us online at 12.30pm on Monday 7 March for this major address by the Prime Minister on the situation in Ukraine, the implications for the Indo-Pacific, and Australia's response.

After the speech, the Institute’s Executive Director Michael Fullilove will put some questions to the Prime Minister, including audience questions.

The Hon Scott Morrison MP is the 30^th Prime Minister of Australia. He previously served as Treasurer, Minister for Social Services and Minister for Border Protection. He was first elected to Parliament as the Federal Member for Cook in 2007.