In conversation with leading US foreign policy practitioner and thinker Richard Haass, the President of the Council on Foreign Relations. Lowy Institute Executive Director Michael Fullilove speaks with Dr Haass about President Biden’s foreign policy, China, Russia and the international implications of the coronavirus pandemic.

Dr Richard Haass is a veteran diplomat, a prominent voice on American foreign policy, and an established leader of nonprofit institutions. He is in his nineteenth year as President of the Council on Foreign Relations, an independent, nonpartisan membership organisation, think tank, publisher, and educational institution dedicated to helping people better understand the world and the foreign policy choices facing the United States and other countries. He previously served as an adviser to President George H.W. Bush and as the Director of Policy Planning in the State Department during George W. Bush’s first term.

Dr Michael Fullilove AM is the Executive Director of the Lowy Institute. He is the author of several books, including Rendezvous with Destiny: How Franklin D. Roosevelt and Five Extraordinary Men Took America into the War and into the World, which won the NSW Premier's Literary Award for Non-Fiction. In 2019 Dr Fullilove was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for significant service to international relations.

Recorded on Wednesday 4th August 2021

China’s ruling communist party celebrates the 100th anniversary of its founding on 1 July 2021. Not only is it the world’s largest political party, with over 90 million members, it is also the richest, presiding over an economy en route to surpass that of the US.

Richard McGregor, Lowy Institute senior fellow, hosted a discussion with three leading China specialists about the anniversary and what it means for Australia and the world.

Chris Buckley is an award winning New York Times China correspondent.

Melinda Liu has spent more than a quarter century living and working as a foreign correspondent in Beijing; she is Newsweek's Beijing Bureau Chief.

Steve Tsang is director of the China Institute at SOAS university in London.

Papua New Guinea has been contending with a Covid-19 outbreak that has put its fragile health system under intense pressure. Case numbers have in recent weeks stabilised but there are concerns that vaccine hesitancy and limited resources are leaving the country facing the threat of a third wave of cases.

Since early 2020, Police Commissioner David Manning has been at the forefront of the Papua New Guinea’s pandemic response. First as the Emergency Controller and since the middle of last year as the designated Pandemic Controller, he has been at the centre of responses from public health orders, travel requirements and quarantine through to coordinating testing and tracing efforts.

In Conversation event with PNG Police Commissioner and Pandemic Controller David Manning, hosted by the Australia-Papua New Guinea Network’s Shane McLeod.

A conversation with one of the foremost chroniclers of American life. Author Lawrence Wright discussed his new book, The Plague Year, which tells the story of Covid-19 on a global and an intimate scale, illuminating the medical, economic, political and social ramifications of the pandemic.

Lowy Institute Executive Director Michael Fullilove interviewed Wright about his writing and journalism career, and the state of US politics.

Recorded on 22 June 2021.

A conversation with Ted Hui, the pro-democracy politician who made the tough call to abandon Hong Kong and seek refuge in Australia. How did the crackdown on the city’s democratic freedoms affect him and his family? What happens to Hong Kong now? How will he fight for his city’s freedoms from his home in Adelaide? This event was recorded on 18 June 2021.

Ben Bland, Director of the Lowy Institute’s Southeast Asia Program and author of Generation HK: Seeking Identity in China’s Shadow, moderated this conversation with Ted Hui.

Ted Hui is a Hong Kong politician in exile. He served in the Hong Kong Legislature for four years and the District Council for ten years before fleeing to Australia in 2021. Hui is an advocate for Hong Kong’s freedom, initiated the 2021 Hong Kong Charter, and has been placed on a wanted list in Hong Kong for allegedly breaching the National Security Law.

In this panel event about Australia's approach to climate change, the Lowy Institute asked: How did we get here, as a country? What does the public think? And how will Australia be placed in the lead-up to COP26 in Glasgow?

Moderating the discussion was Natasha Kassam, Director of the Institute’s Public Opinion and Foreign Policy Program and co-author of Climate Poll 2021. Panelists included: Innes Willox, Rebecca Huntley and Nick O’Malley.
 
Innes Willox is Chief Executive of the Australian Industry Group and sits on a number of boards and councils. He has previously served as Chief of Staff to the Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Alexander Downer, and as the Australian Consul General in Los Angeles.
 
Dr Rebecca Huntley is an author, most recently of How to Talk About Climate Change in a Way that Makes a Difference. She has previously led research at Essential Media and Vox Populi, and recently published a report outlining how climate action can help Australia recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.
 
Nick O’Malley is National Environment and Climate Editor for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. He is also a senior writer and a former US correspondent.

Lowy Institute conversation with one of the world’s most respected economists, Professor Raghuram Rajan. In 2005, Professor Rajan presciently warned of the risks to financial stability that lay ahead. What are those risks today? What should we make of the dramatic shift in favour of fiscal activism in advanced economies? Is Big Tech helping or hindering innovation? What is the place of social institutions in the economy? And how can India emerge from its Covid-19 crisis?

At the Lowy Institute's headquarters at 31 Bligh Street, former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull launched a new book, 'Red Zone: China’s Challenge and Australia’s Future' by Nonresident Fellow Peter Hartcher.

Hartcher’s new book explores China’s intentions in relation to Australia, and what lies behind the recent chill between the two countries. The launch event included remarks by Turnbull and Hartcher as well as a Q&A hosted by Research Director Alex Oliver.

This event was recorded on 31 May 2021.

Covid-19 remains a significant challenge for Papua New Guinea. While case numbers appear to have stabilised after a big surge earlier this year, the virus continues to spread and put further strain on already-stretched healthcare resources. Much needed vaccines have arrived and a national rollout strategy has begun. But vaccine hesitancy is a huge concern – with frontline health workers among those reluctant to accept the vaccine. A major factor appears to be online misinformation – with conspiracy theories and fake news proliferating, and adding to the burden for those trying to reduce the pandemic’s impact.

In this online event, the panellists discuss the challenges of Covid-19 and social media misinformation in Papua New Guinea. Researchers at the ABC Media Development Initiative outline their latest data tracking the spread of online misinformation, and panellists to discuss the impact it has on health outcomes, and the broader community.

This event was hosted by Shane McLeod, a Research Fellow working with the Lowy Institute’s Australia-PNG Network, at 1pm AEST on Wednesday 19 May 2021.