When Myanmar’s military seized power on 1 February, it sent the country spiralling into a political and economic crisis. Despite killing hundreds of peaceful protesters and detaining thousands of activists and politicians, the military has been unable to break the civil disobedience movement. It is unable to govern Myanmar, and risks turning the country into a failed state. As the situation deteriorates, what can the world do to help resolve the Myanmar crisis?

Scot Marciel, a former US ambassador to Myanmar; Khin Ohmar, a veteran democracy activist from Myanmar; Rizal Sukma, an Indonesian foreign policy expert; and Janelle Saffin, a Labor MP and the founder of the Australia-Myanmar Parliament Group, joined Ben Bland, Director of the Southeast Asia Program at the Lowy Institute, for a discussion on the Myanmar crisis.

This Lowy Institute Live event was recorded on 7 May 2021 at 1pm AEST.

- Event Speakers -

Scot Marciel is a Visiting Scholar and Practicioner Fellow at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford University. He was the US ambassador to Myanmar from 2016 to 2020, and previously served as US ambassador to Indonesia, US ambassador for ASEAN affairs and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for East Asia and the Pacific at the State Department.

Khin Ohmar is a democracy and human rights activist from Myanmar. She is the founder and chair of the advisory board of Progressive Voice, a human rights research and advocacy organisation. She was a student activist during the 1988 democracy uprising.

Janelle Saffin is a Labor MP in the New South Wales parliament and a former MP in Australia's federal parliament. She is the founder of the Australia-Myanmar Parliament Group and has extensive experience working on development and legal issues in Myanmar and Timor-Leste, where she served as a special adviser to former president and prime minister José Ramos-Horta.

Rizal Sukma is a Senior Researcher at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Jakarta, and the former executive director of Indonesia’s leading international think tank. He was the Indonesian ambassador to the UK from 2016 to 2020 and has served as a foreign policy adviser to President Joko Widodo.

Ben Bland is the Director of the Southeast Asia Program at the Lowy Institute. Before joining the Lowy Institute, Ben was an award-winning foreign correspondent for the Financial Times. He has an MA in Southeast Asian Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London and an undergraduate degree in History from the University of Cambridge.

On Wednesday 21 April, the Lowy Institute's Aus-PNG Network held a panel discussion with health professionals from provinces in PNG to talk about the Covid-19 situation and how local officials are contending with the virus.

Papua New Guinea is dealing with a widespread outbreak of Covid-19 that has placed already stretched health services across the country under intense strain. While the situation in the capital Port Moresby is difficult, the pandemic’s impact is also being felt in provinces across the country.

Panellists included Dr Pamela Toliman, PNG Institute of Medical Research, Goroka; Dr Stella Jimmy, Provincial Coordinator Covid-19, West Sepik Provincial Health Authority, Vanimo; Professor Brendan Crabb, CEO, Burnet Institute, Melbourne; and Shane McLeod, Project Director, Aus-PNG Network (host).

On Monday 19 April, Peter Khalil MP and Dave Sharma MP had a discussion about Australia’s place in the world with Lowy Institute’s Director of Research Alex Oliver. They covered: what Australia should be doing in the world as an engaged middle power, Australia-China relations, and the fight against climate change.

Peter Khalil is the Federal Labor Member for Wills, elected to Parliament in 2016 and re-elected at the 2019 election. Prior to his parliamentary career, Mr Khalil was a Victorian Multicultural Commissioner, an Executive Director at SBS and a Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution, Washington DC. He was foreign policy adviser to the prime minister (2007–08), served in Iraq (2003–04) with the Department of Defence and worked at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Mr Khalil has bachelor’s degrees in arts and law from Melbourne University and a master’s degree in international law from Australian National University.

Dave Sharma was elected to Parliament as the Liberal Member for Wentworth at the 2019 federal election. He was formerly a career diplomat, serving in Papua New Guinea and Washington, DC before being appointed Australia’s Ambassador to Israel in 2013. He has been an adviser to Australia’s foreign minister and was head of the International Division of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet from 2010 to 2012. He graduated in law with first class honours from the University of Cambridge.

With a priority vaccination program underway, Papua New Guinea is striving to get control of a mushrooming outbreak of Covid-19. The virus is putting immense strain on the country’s health system, with hospitals and facilities struggling to cope.

PNG Health Minister Hon. Jelta Wong has been a key figure in the country’s response. Mr Wong was first appointed Minister for Health in 2019, and after a reshuffle in late 2020 was reappointed to the key post. Mr Wong has also served in the portfolios of Police and Civil Aviation after being elected to the East New Britain seat of Gazelle Open in 2017.

Listen to this special Aus-PNG Network online event with Minister Wong in conversation with Jonathan Pryke, the Director of the Lowy Institute’s Pacific Islands Program. Recorded on 1 April 2021.

We are one year into a pandemic that has upended life as we once knew it. How has the pandemic affected women across the world – in their employment prospects, their caring and household responsibilities, the rate of domestic violence they suffer, their access to education and the mental health challenges they face?

COVID-19 has also provided lessons in leadership. New Zealand and Taiwan appeared first and third on the Lowy Institute’s recently released COVID Performance Index. To what extent can their success be attributed to the approaches and styles of their female leaders?

In this special event marking International Women's Day 2021, our panel discusses the effect the pandemic has had on women and examine women’s leadership throughout the past year.

Event Speakers

Professor Michelle Ryan, inaugural Director of the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership, ANU, and Professor of Social and Organisational Psychology, University of Exeter

Professor Jacqui True, Director of Monash University’s Centre for Gender, Peace and Security and Professor of Politics and International Relations

Natasha Kassam, Director of the Public Opinion and Foreign Policy Program at the Lowy Institute

What are the key issues likely to dominate Australia’s international agenda in 2021? China's economic statecraft, regional friction in the Pacific, the climate-change agenda, and how the world recovers economically from the coronavirus pandemic are covered in this wide-ranging panel discussion between Lowy Institute experts.

This event was hosted by the Lowy Institute at our headquarters on 31 Bligh St in Sydney on Tuesday 23 February 2021.

- Event Speakers -

Alex Oliver is the Director of Research at the Lowy Institute, where she is responsible for the Institute's team of experts and directs the research program. Until 2018, she directed the Lowy Institute's program on diplomacy and public opinion, including the annual Lowy Institute Poll.

Roland Rajah is the Lead Economist and Director of the International Economics Program at the Lowy Institute. Before joining the Lowy Institute Roland was a Senior Economist and Country Manager at the Asian Development Bank, where he worked on macro-fiscal policy, economic growth, and development issues in the Pacific region.

Jonathan Pryke is Director of the Lowy Institute’s Pacific Islands Program. Jonathan joined the Lowy Institute in 2015 from the Development Policy Centre at the Australian National University where he was a researcher, editor of the Development Policy Blog and a co-convener of the Australasian Aid Conference.

Peter Cai returns to the Lowy Institute in 2021 as director of a new project on Australia-China relations. Peter led the Institute’s China work in 2016, and is the author of the 2017 Lowy Institute Analysis Understanding China’s Belt And Road Initiative, which has become one of the world’s most consulted and popular pieces of research on the BRI.

Patrick Kaiku from UPNG, journalist Rebecca Kuku and Transparency International's Yuambari Haihuie join the Lowy Institute's Shane McLeod to talk about the topics and themes likely to be in the news in 2021 in PNG. This discussion was recorded on 9 February 2021.

Event Speakers

Rebecca Kuku is a Senior Reporter covering Politics and Security with more than eight years experience in the mainstream media. She regularly writes about Gender Based Violence and Sorcery Accusation Related Violence and other social issues. Rebecca is currently reporting for the PNG Post-Courier newspaper and is also a content contributor for The Guardian. Rebecca also publishes work through her Facebook page Becky’s World which has more than 15,000 followers.

Yuambari Haihuie is the Deputy Director (Policy and Advocacy) at Transparency International PNG. He’s been working on good governance and anti-corruption campaigns in PNG for more than six years and has contributed to TI’s research and advocacy work such as the 2017 PNG National Election Report, Corruption Risk Assessment of Mining Licences, and the need for Access to Information Legislation in PNG. He is a volunteer director on the board of the Young Professionals Network of PNG and was a participant in the 2017 Australia-PNG Emerging Leaders Dialogue.

Patrick Kaiku is a lecturer in Political Science at the University of Papua New Guinea, and has written extensively on national and international political affairs in PNG. After undergraduate and honours studies at UPNG, he received a Masters in Pacific Studies from the University of Hawaii.

Shane McLeod is a Research Fellow working with the Lowy Institute’s Australia-PNG Network. Before joining the Institute, he was a senior editor at ABC News in roles where he managed its Sydney newsroom and the flagship radio programs AM, The World Today, and PM. He is a former foreign correspondent with postings in Japan and Papua New Guinea, as well as reporting assignments throughout the Asia-Pacific region. He has also worked as a journalist in regional Queensland, Melbourne, Sydney, and Canberra.

Two of America’s most influential and respected commentators, David Ignatius of The Washington Post and Amy Walter of The Cook Political Report, joined Lowy Institute Executive Director Dr Michael Fullilove for this conversation on the Biden administration, American unity and recovery after the Trump administration and Covid-19, and the early indications of President Biden’s international policies.

Keep up to date with all Lowy Institute events via our YouTube channel, click and subscribe here.

The opportunities and challenges presented by globalisation are very much on the mind of India’s Minister for External Affairs, Dr Subrahmanyam Jaishankar. He wants India to enter the global arena “with cards to play” and, to that end, has argued for India to take a stronger approach to building its national capabilities. Those national capabilities have been tested by COVID-19, which has infected over 1 million Indians and claimed nearly 140,000 lives.

But Dr Jaishankar also recognises the need for India to focus on greater international cooperation in solving the existential problems of the day, including climate change, terrorism and pandemics.

“The world is not going to carry on with business as usual,” Dr Jaishankar recently observed. “Those with a more self-centred view of world politics will have to come to terms with the needs of the day.”

The Lowy Institute was pleased to host Dr Jaishankar at a time of great ambition for India-Australia ties. In this virtual event, the Executive Director of Australia’s Lowy Institute, Dr Michael Fullilove, chaired a discussion ranging over topics such as India’s place in the world, its relations with China, the recently reconstituted ‘Quad’ grouping, COVID-19, and the future of India’s relations with Australia.

- About the Speakers -
Dr Jaishankar was Foreign Secretary from 2015 to 2018, Ambassador to the United States from 2013 to 2015, Ambassador to China from 2009 to 2013, High Commissioner to Singapore from 2007 to 2009 and Ambassador to the Czech Republic from 2000 to 2004. He is the author of a new book, The India Way: Strategies for an Uncertain World.

Dr Fullilove writes widely on Australian and US politics and foreign policy in publications including The New York Times, Financial Times, The Atlantic and Foreign Affairs. 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).