Indonesia and Australia: time for a step change
The relationship with Indonesia is one of Australia’s most important but it is still not on a firm footing. Government-to-government ties have been strengthening but relations are focused around a mostly negative set of security-related issues. Business-to-business links are underdone and public perceptions are in a poor state. Even incremental improvements will be hard to make without dramatic leadership gestures to provide a much needed jolt to the relationship. In this Policy Brief, Fergus Hanson offers four suggestions for lifting the relationship up a notch.
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| In Conversation |
China reform Liu Xiaobo, one of the most celebrated public intellectuals in China, was recently sentenced to 11 years in prison for incitement to subversion. Diplomats and human rights activists have joined in condemning the sentence on grounds both of its lack of legal...
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| Fergus Hanson opinion piece |
We should do more for Indonesia In an opinion piece in The Australian, Research Fellow Fergus Hanson argues that Australia's relationship with Indonesia will continue to stagnate without some major leadership gestures.
The Australian, 8 March 2010, p. 9
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| Nicholas Floyd article |
Reflections on the water’s rim: A third generation amphibious culture? In this recent RSIS Commentaries publication, Chief of Army Visiting Fellow Lieutenant Colonel Nicholas Floyd reveals how Australia’s Defence Force is embarking on something of a ‘third generation’ of amphibious culture in its military strategic thought,...
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| Fergus Hanson opinion piece |
War crimes laws are flawed and problematic In an opinion piece in The National Times, Research Fellow Fergus Hanson argues that there are serious shortcomings in Australia's war crimes legislative framework and specialist training, and a lack of investigatory muscle within the Australian Federal Police...
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PM should talk to Paul Keating about Indonesia
In an opinion piece in The Australian, Lowy Institute Visiting Fellow Hugh White argues that a stronger Jakarta can either help us or threaten us.
The Australian, 8 March 2010, p. 14
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Wednesday Lunch at Lowy - Dr Malcolm Cook presentation
At the Wednesday Lunch at Lowy on 3 March, Dr Malcolm Cook, Program Director East Asia, spoke on how Asia's continental and horizontal dimensions are reasserting themselves - in ways that question Australia's place in Asia.
His presentation can be heard here:
Asia pivots - MP3 (20MB)
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Distinguished Speaker Series - Clinton Dines presentation
On the evening of February 25th, the Lowy Institute hosted a lecture by Clinton Dines reflecting on China’s transformation in the last three decades. Clinton discussed the nature of change in the People’s Republic of China in the Reform & Opening Era: then he assessed the significance of these changes in terms of China’s growing role in the world and for governments and companies seeking effective ways to deal with this geopolitical/economic phenomenon, which simultaneously represents both huge opportunities for global development and serious challenges to the existing status quo.
Clinton Dines is one of Australia’s most knowledgeable and respected business leaders in China.
His presentation can be heard here:
China Changing Lecture - MP3 (20MB)
A transcript of his presentation can be downloaded here:
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Wednesday Lunch at Lowy - Julianne Schultz presentation
The world faces two creeping threats to its food supplies. On the one hand, expanding populations and the changing diets that accompany growing wealth have put greater strain on lagging gains in food production. On the other hand, climate change and environmental degradation are slowly contaminating food supplies and eroding agricultural productivity. At the Wednesday Lunch on 24 February, these issues were examined by Julianne Schultz, Editor of the Griffith Review, which has just published its newest edition, Food Chain. She was joined by Mark Thirlwell, Director of the Global Issues Program at the Lowy Institute, and Annmaree O’Keeffe, Research Fellow at the Lowy Institute, who have both written on these twin challenges to food security.
Their presentations can be heard here:
The challenges of food security - MP3 (21MB)
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Wednesday Lowy Lunch - Panellists' presentations
At Lunch at Lowy on 16 February an exceptional panel of visiting international experts and policy practitioners from India, Pakistan, China and the USA discussed the risks of nuclear competition between the nuclear armed states in South West Asia and China. The panellists are in Sydney for a workshop on Asia's nuclear future, co-hosted by the Institute and the US-based Non-proliferation Policy Education Center. We thank NPEC for bringing the panellists to Australia.
Photo: Professor Gareth Evans spoke at the workshop dinner on the Report of the International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament, 'Eliminating nuclear threats: a practical agenda for global policymakers', which he co-authored with Yoriko Kawaguchi.
Their presentations can be heard here:
Can nuclear competition be avoided? - MP3 (21MB)
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Distinguished Speaker Series - Helen Clark presentation
The Institute was pleased to host an address by Helen Clark, head of the United Nations Development Programme, on 12 February.
In recent times, the challenges of the developing world are compounded by multiple crises: the food and fuel crises, the global recession, climatic events, and devastating natural disasters such as the earthquake in Haiti, the tsunami in Samoa, earthquakes in Indonesia and many more. How can the international community move the development agenda forward and stay focused on achieving the Millennium Development Goals agreed by world leaders in the year 2000? Helen Clark discussed the role of the UNDP and the importance of aid in managing these priorities, while remaining flexible to the ever present threat of natural disasters and conflicts.
Moving the development agenda forward in today’s world - MP3 (20MB)
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Japan is crucial to our future
In an opinion piece in The Australian Financial Review, Lowy Institute Visiting Fellow Hugh White argues against the Rudd Government's antagonising Japan over the issue of whaling.
Australian Financial Review, 24 February 2010, p. 63
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Resilience the key to fighting terrorism
In an opinion piece in The Sydney Morning Herald, Sam Roggeveen, editor of the Lowy Institute blog, The Interpreter, argues that the government hasn't really embraced 'resilience' in its new counter-terrorism strategy.
Sydney Morning Herald, 24 February 2010, p. 11
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Clear the air with India
In this op-ed in The Australian, senior Lowy researchers Fergus Hanson and Rory Medcalf argue that Canberra needs to commission an independent committee of inquiry to set the record straight about the crimes against Indian students in Australia, and to pressure the Victorian government to provide comprehensive information. This, it is argued, will be an essential foundation for rebuilding the damaged Australia-India relationship.
The Australian, 18 February 2010, p. 12
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Frustrated US struggles to open dialogue with China
In an opinion piece in The Sydney Morning Herald, Dr Michael Fullilove, Program Director Global Issues, argues that after years of playing a strong diplomatic game, China may have overreached a little.
Sydney Morning Herald, 22 February 2010, p. 11
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Carry trade can harm recovering economies
In an Economic Briefing in The Australian Financial Review, Lowy Institute Visiting Fellow Stephen Grenville writes that a bounce back for the flow of international capital may not be good news.
Australian Financial Review, 22 February 2010, p. 23
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2010 Australia-UAE Dialogue
From 4 to 5 February 2010 the Lowy Institute for International Policy convened the second Australia-UAE Dialogue.
Photo: His Highness Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Hon Stephen Smith, Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs, speaking at an informal breakfast at the 2010 Australia-UAE Dialogue.
The bilateral relationship between Australia and the United Arab Emirates has grown dramatically in recent years. Today there are over 90 flights a weeks between the two countries, defence cooperation has expanded significantly and the UAE has become Australia’s 13th largest export market worldwide.
Against this background the Australia-UAE Dialogue brought together eminent figures from business and government in both countries to discuss options for enhancing bilateral ties and cooperation.
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Wednesday Lowy Lunch - Barry Wain presentation
The recent vandalisation of a string of Christian churches in Malaysia has, again, focussed attention on the challenges of communal politics in modern Malaysia. At the Wednesday Lowy Lunch on 10 February, Barry Wain discussed how these attacks reflect a deep crisis at the heart of Malaysian politics today and how this crisis developed during the 22-year rule of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and since his retirement in 2003.
Barry Wain, author of the recently released 'Malaysian Maverick: Mahathir Mohamad in Turbulent Times', is Writer-in-Residence at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore.
His presentation can be heard here:
Malaysia: tolerant reputation, troubled reality - MP3 (17MB)
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Wednesday Lunch at Lowy - Research staff presentations
On 3 February, at the first Wednesday Lunch at Lowy for 2010, three Lowy Institute scholars discussed where the world and our region are headed after a tumultuous year in 2009. Will things be calmer or more uncertain?
Mark Thirlwell, Program Director International Economy, assessed the post-GFC global economy. Michael Fullilove, Program Director Global Issues, looked at President Obama’s second year in office and the changing global outlook, and Jenny Hayward-Jones, Program Director Myer Foundation Melanesia Program, reviewed prospects for the Pacific, with a particular focus on Papua New Guinea, Australia’s closest neighbour, and Fiji.
Their presentations can be heard here:
The year ahead - MP3 (18MB)
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Southeast Asia: an introductory history
The tenth edition of 'Southeast Asia: an introductory history', by Lowy Institute Visiting Fellow Milton Osborne has just been published by Allen Unwin.
Book details: ISBN 9781742373027
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Shaping up
On Friday 5 February, the Lowy Institute's MacArthur Project team delivered a seminar at the Australian National University entitled 'Shaping Up: Order, Change and Discontent in Asia's Security Future.' The seminar was hosted jointly by the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre and Department of International Relations, with the support of the MacArthur Foundation and the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Policing and Security
A podcast is available here.
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How the roar of China's tiger will be heard across the world
The year of the tiger began on 14 February with the Chinese lunar new year's day. In the Inquirer section of The Weekend Australian, Lowy Institute research staff described 10 ways China will shape the planet in the next 12 months.
The Australian, 13-14 February 2010, Inquirer p. 2
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Crazy days on the campaign trail
Dr Michael Fullilove reviewed the book 'Race of a Lifetime', by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, in The Sydney Morning Herald of 13 February.
Sydney Morning Herald, 13 February 2010, Review p. 32
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Lateral thinking needed on foreign aid
In an article in the National Times, Bill Bowtell, Director of the Lowy Institute's HIV/AIDS Project, argues that Senator Barnaby Joyce is doing his job by asking sensible questions about the level and purpose of the almost $4 billion we spend each year on bilateral and multilateral aid.
National Times, 10 February 2010
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Capital flows, the carry trade and 'sand in the wheels'
The 'carry trade', in which capital shifts from countries with low interest rates to countries with significantly higher rates, has become an important element of international capital flows over the past decade. In a new Lowy Institute Policy Brief, Dr Stephen Grenville looks at the challenges raised by these capital flows for economic policy.
The Global Financial Crisis will leave a legacy of substantial interest differentials between the slow-growing crisis countries and the emerging markets. This is likely to attract big short-term volatile capital flows which will push up exchange rates and leave these countries vulnerable to sudden outflows. Dr Grenville proposes that these countries should explore ways of discouraging these short-term inflows, and in doing this should have the backing of the IMF.
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Welcome to 2010
 At at reception at the Westin Hotel on Thursday 28 January 2010, Dr Michael Wesley, Executive Director of the Lowy Institute, spoke of what we should expect in the decade ahead.
His speech can be heard here:
Welcome to 2010 - MP3 (8MB)
A video of the presentation can be watched by clicking on the photo.
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Will America defend its Asian allies?
In an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal, Andrew Shearer, Director of Studies and Senior Research Fellow at the Lowy Institute, analyses the Pentagon's recently-released 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review and comments on some of the implications for America’s allies in Asia.
Wall Street Journal, 5 February 2010, p. 9
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The Mekong: river under threat
In this new Lowy Institute Paper, our Visiting Fellow, Dr Milton Osborne, evaluates the potentially huge social and environmental risks for the Mekong River and the millions who depend on it for their livelihood of planned dam projects in Laos and Cambodia. The mighty Mekong River is one of the key areas globally for the contest between economic development and social and environmental sustainability and for effective political cooperation between the states of mainland Southeast Asia themselves. In both cases the challenge is not being met.
To order a hard copy of this publication click here.
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China and the global environment: learning from the past, anticipating the future
China's environmental problems are now at the forefront of domestic and international concern. In this new Lowy Institute Paper, 'China and the global environment: learning from the past, anticipating the future', Dr Katherine Morton examines the potential for China's system of environmental governance to respond effectively to the crises, both within and beyond territorial boundaries.
To order a hard copy of this publication click here.
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Al-Qa'ida, tribes and instability in Yemen
In a new Lowy Institute Analysis, Sarah Phillips and
Rodger Shanahan discuss the re-emergence of a significant al-Qa’ida presence in Yemen. The authors focus on al-Qa’ida’s efforts to build relations with local Yemeni tribes, something that will be central to the movement’s prospects of cementing a long-term presence in the country. The authors point to the importance of undermining any potential nexus between al-Qaida and the tribes as critical to Western counter-terrorism efforts in the region.
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2020 vision: that sinking feeling
In an article in The Australian, ten Lowy Institute research staff describe ten aspects of our world that may vanish by 2020.
The Australian, 16 January 2010, p. 2
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Mistakes, but signs of improvement: Obama gets a B-plus for first year
In an essay in The Sydney Morning Herald, Dr Michael Fullilove, Program Director Global Issues, evaluates President Barack Obama's first year in office.
Sydney Morning Herald, 16 January 2010, p. 11
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An 'EU-style' Asian Community? A few naïve perceptions
In a lecture co-sponsored by the Lowy Institute and the University of Sydney, delivered at the University of Sydney on 2 December 2009, David Camroux, Senior Researcher at Sciences Po, the Centre for International Studies and Research, Paris, examines the possibility of an EU model for an Asian Community.
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Obama's surge
In a new Lowy Institute Policy Brief, West Asia Program Director Anthony Bubalo considers the implications of President Obama’s decision to send additional US troops to Afghanistan. 'Obama’s surge: The United States, Australia and the second war for Afghanistan' discusses how shifts in US troops numbers and strategy, combined with the planned withdrawal of Dutch forces from Oruzgan, where the bulk of the Australian military force operates, raise a number of issues for Australian policy. It recommends an independent review of the factors that have contributed to improvements in Oruzgan’s security to date, greater flexibility in the way Australia deploys its military trainers and more effort to improve the effectivess of its civilian and diplomatic contributions to the war.
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Eliminating nuclear threats
 Following the launch by Prime Ministers Rudd and Hatoyama of the report of the International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (ICNND) 'Eliminating Nuclear Threats: A Practical Agenda for Global Policymakers', the Lowy Institute convened an expert panel to assess the report and its impact on global disarmament and non-proliferation.
The moderator was Dr Michael Wesley and the panellists were Martine Letts, Rory Medcalf, and Dr Rod Lyon.
The members of the expert panel can be heard here:
Eliminating nuclear threats - MP3 (22MB)
A video of the presentation can be watched by clicking the photo above.
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Victim of success: China’s growth and environmental consequences
In the third publication from the Griffith-Lowy Institute Project on the Future of China, Roger Irvine analyses the critical relationship between China’s rapid economic development and climate change and the policy steps Beijing has taken to address these critical issues. As the world focuses on climate change talks in Copenhagen, it is crucial that we have a better understanding of China’s position on global responses to climate change and their roots in China’s own development.
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