Delivering the 2020 Lowy Lecture, Dr Fareed Zakaria evaluates the turbulent year in world politics marked by the growing rivalry between the US and China, and the coronavirus pandemic. The Lowy Lecture is followed by an extended Q&A with Lowy Institute Executive Director Dr Michael Fullilove.

The annual Lowy Lecture is the Lowy Institute’s flagship event, at which a prominent speaker reflects on Australia and the world. Past Lecturers have included German Chancellor Angela Merkel, UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, former CIA Director David Petraeus, News Corp Chairman Rupert Murdoch, Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Lowy Institute Chairman Sir Frank Lowy and Prime Minister John Howard, who delivered the inaugural Lowy Lecture in 2005. Dr Zakaria delivered this year's lecture via webcast from the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City.

The Lowy Institute is grateful for the support of the sponsors of the 2020 Lowy Lecture: BHP and Capital Group

- Event Speakers -

Fareed Zakaria hosts Fareed Zakaria GPS for CNN Worldwide, which earned a Peabody Award in 2011 and has received multiple Emmy nominations. He is also a columnist for The Washington Post and a contributing editor at The Atlantic. Dr Zakaria is the author of a number of New York Times bestselling books, the latest of which is Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World. Previously, Zakaria was editor of Newsweek International, managing editor of Foreign Affairs, a columnist for Time and an analyst for ABC News.

Dr Michael Fullilove AM is the Executive Director of the Lowy Institute. He writes widely on Australian and US foreign policy in publications including The New York Times, Financial Times, The Atlantic and Foreign Affairs, as well as in the Australian press. Dr Fullilove 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 (Penguin).

Since 2013, the annual Owen Harries Lecture has honoured the enormous contribution Mr Harries, who was a Nonresident Fellow at the Lowy Institute, made to the international policy debate in Australia and the US. This was the first such lecture since Mr Harries’ passing in June, and we were honoured that it was delivered by Francis Fukuyama, one of the most influential political scientists of his generation.

Dr Francis Fukuyama offers a defence of liberalism in theory and in practice. This lecture includes Dr Fukuyama's analysis of left-wing and right-wing identity politics, Trumpist politics outlasting Donald Trump's presidency, and president-elect Joe Biden's foreign policy. Dr Fukuyama joined the Lowy Institute via webcast from California. His lecture is followed by a conversation with Lowy Institute Executive Director Michael Fullilove. 

Event Speakers

Dr Francis Fukuyama is a Senior Fellow at Stanford University's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. He has written widely on issues in development and international politics. His 1989 essay The End of History? was a global sensation. It was published in The National Interest, under then-editor Owen Harries.

Dr Michael Fullilove AM writes widely on Australian and US politics and foreign policy in publications including The New York Times, Financial Times, The Atlantic and Foreign Affairs, as well as in the Australian press.

Photo: Fronteiras do Pensamento / Flickr

Two of Washington’s most respected and influential journalists join the Lowy Institute to discuss the 2020 US presidential election, Donald Trump's presidency, and prospects of a Biden White House.

Susan Glasser is a staff writer at The New Yorker and Peter Baker is the Chief White House Correspondent for The New York Times. 

Glasser and Baker assess the implications of a Trump or Biden win, discuss President Trump's latest press conference, and discuss the shape of a possible Biden administration. This conversation was chaired by Lowy Institute Executive Director Dr Michael Fullilove and recorded at 1pm AEDT on 6 November 2020. 

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Now in its eighth year, the Lowy Institute Media Award is Australia’s premier award for recognising excellence in foreign affairs journalism. It is presented to an Australian journalist or team working in print, broadcast or online media who has deepened the knowledge or shaped the discussion of international policy. The winner or winning team receives $20,000.

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the Institute decided not to hold a Media Award Dinner in 2020. Instead, on Thursday 29 October, the Institute broadcast a 30-minute online video presentation featuring the finalists and their work.

The broadcast also included a conversation between Lowy Institute Executive Director Dr Michael Fullilove AM and The Hon. Peter Costello AC, Chairman of Nine Entertainment Co and former Treasurer of Australia, about the media landscape in 2020.

The winners of the 2020 Media Award were Sophie McNeill, Echo Hui and Jeanavive McGregor –for their two episodes of ABC’s Four Corners: “Rebellion”, about the fight for democracy in Hong Kong, and “Tell the World”, about the mass internment of Uighur people in Xinjiang, China.

The nominees were:

• Angus Grigg and Jemima Whyte – nominated for a series of articles in The Australian Financial Review on the Horizon Oil corruption allegations in Papua New Guinea.

• Kate Lyons – nominated for her work as Pacific Editor for Guardian Australia.

• Hans van Leeuwen – nominated for his work as Europe Correspondent for The Australian Financial Review.

The annual Lowy Institute Media Award recognises Australian journalists who have deepened the knowledge, or shaped the discussion, of international policy issues in our country.

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, this year the Institute decided not to hold a Media Award Dinner. Instead, on Thursday 29 October, the Institute broadcast a 30-minute online video presentation featuring the finalists and their work.

The broadcast also included a short conversation between Lowy Institute Executive Director Dr Michael Fullilove AM and The Hon. Peter Costello AC, Chairman of Nine Entertainment Co and former Treasurer of Australia, about the media landscape in 2020.

In their full conversation, available here, they discussed the economics of the media industry in Australia, the balance between national security and media freedom, foreign coverage as a component of Nine’s journalism, and international economic recovery after COVID.

Their conversation was recorded on Thursday 22 October.

To mark the launch of the 2020 Asia Power Index, Hervé Lemahieu, Director of the Lowy Institute’s Asian Power and Diplomacy Program, chaired a panel discussion with Joseph S. Nye Jr., Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor, Emeritus and former Dean of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government; Senator the Hon. Penny Wong, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs and Leader of the Opposition in the Senate; and Professor Yuen Foong Khong, Vice Dean at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore.

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On Thursday 15 October 2020, the Lowy Institute’s Executive Director Dr Michael Fullilove hosted an in conversation event via live video stream with General James Mattis, one of America’s most experienced and influential military leaders. General Mattis spoke about serving as US Secretary of Defense, his career as a US Marine, and the security challenge America faces from a rising China. They were joined by Sir Angus Houston, former Chief of the Australian Defence Force.

This event is part of the Lowy Institute's ‘Australia’s Security and the Rules-Based Order Project’ and is supported by the Department of Defence’s Strategic Policy Grants Program.

On October 8 2020, the Lowy Institute releases the third iteration of its Pacific Aid Map, an analytical tool that collates and analyses data on all aid projects in the Pacific. The Institute held a live online event with regional experts and development partners about how the COVID-19 crisis is playing out in the Pacific. The panel consisted of Audrey Aumua, Deputy Director-General at the Pacific Community; Charlotte Blundell, Assistant Secretary for the Pacific Partnerships & Human Development Branch, DFAT; Alexandre Dayant, research lead of the Lowy Institute's Pacific Aid Map; Michel Kerf, World Bank Country Director for Papua New Guinea and the Pacific Islands; and moderator Jonathan Pryke, Director of the Lowy Institute Pacific Islands Program.

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Australia's relations with China seem to be reaching new lows each week, with a proliferation of disputes over everything from trade to the media to COVID-19 to universities. On Thursday 24 September, the Lowy Institute hosted a live online event featuring the ABC's Bill Birtles and the Australian Financial Review's Michael Smith, both recently advised by the Australian government to leave China, along with Kirsty Needham, formerly of the Sydney Morning Herald and now with Reuters, for a discussion of the bilateral relationship. The discussion was moderated by the Lowy Institute's Senior Fellow for North Asia, Richard McGregor.

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