Australia's nuclear choices
As the recent debate over uranium exports to India indicates, uranium exports remain a highly contentious domestic and foreign policy issue for Australians. In a recent publication 'Australia’s Uranium Trade: The Domestic and Foreign Policy Challenges of a Contentious Export', Lowy Institute nuclear experts Rory Medcalf, Martine Letts and Fiona Cunningham have contributed chapters analysing the drivers of Australian policy and some of the key future challenges for Australian policymakers.
Rory Medcalf examines the drivers of Australian uranium export policy with regard to Russia, China and India in his chapter 'Powering major powers'. Martine Letts and Fiona Cunningham argue the case for more active nuclear industry engagement with the non-proliferation regime in a chapter drawing on original survey data collected under the auspices of the International Commission on Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament.
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| Asia's rising powers |
China and India: Beyond competitive coexistence Rory Medcalf, the Director of the Lowy Institute’s International Security Program, recently gave public lectures in Washington DC and in Melbourne on China-India relations and the risks of strategic competition between Asia’s rising giants. His Washington...
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Uranium Debate : Australia’s uranium puzzle: Why China and Russia but not India? On the eve of the Australian Labor Party’s debate about whether to allow uranium exports to India, the Lowy Institute’s Rory Medcalf examines the complex reasons behind Australian Government decisions on uranium exports to that country as well as to China and...
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Sailing into deep water
In an article in The Canberra Times on the Collins submarine fleet, David Ellery quotes a Lowy Institute Analysis by Colonel John Angevine, entitled 'Dangerous luxuries', available here.
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NSW and India: People and partnerships
 In an address to the Lowy Institute on 9 December 2011, the Premier of New South Wales, Mr Barry O'Farrell, set out his vision for building strong economic and societal links between Australia's largest state and the government, people and business community of a rising India.
His address can be heard here:
NSW and India: People and partnerships - MP3 (18MB)
This is a transcript of the Premier's speech.
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On the cusp of an Indian summer
In this opinion piece in the Indian Express newspaper, published on the eve of the Australian Labor Party’s historic policy change allowing safeguarded uranium exports to India, the Lowy Institute’s Rory Medcalf examines what an obstacle this issue had become to a trust-based Australia-India partnership. He also sought to explain for Indian readers the complex reasons for Australian Labor’s slow and tortuous policy shift on this issue.
Indian Express, 3 December 2011, p. 15
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Shared goals, converging interests: a plan for US-Australia-India cooperation in the Indo-Pacific
In this major new report launched on 4 November, scholars from the Lowy Institute, the Heritage Foundation and the Observer Research Foundation identify common challenges and opportunities facing Australia, India and the United States in the Indo-Pacific region.
The report notes that Australia-India security relations are underdeveloped and calls for the establishment of a new United States-India-Australia trilateral security dialogue.
Influential Australian foreign policy commentator Greg Sheridan welcomed the report in this front-page newspaper article.
The report will also be launched in New Delhi on Monday 7 November.
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AIIA President’s Forum: Australia and India in 2020
At the 2011 President’s Forum of the Australian Institute for International Affairs, the Lowy Institute’s Rory Medcalf spoke of the promise and prospects for Australia-India relations for the next generation.
A video of his presentation can be accessed here.
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Uranium sales to India would spread trust, not nuclear arms
In this opinion piece in The Age newspaper, the Lowy Institute’s Rory Medcalf addresses the common non-proliferation criticisms of possible Australian uranium sales to India. He writes that, on balance, a policy change at the December 2011 Australian Labor Party conference would build a new foundation of trust in Australia-India relations and help Canberra adapt to a changed non-proliferation order in the Asian century.
The Age, 2 December 2011, p. 15
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Our chance to align with the US pivot point
In this opinion piece in The Australian, the Lowy Institute's Rory Medcalf argues that Australia has an opportunity to work closely with the United States as it makes a three-fold strategic pivot: from the Middle East to Asia, from an Asia-Pacific to an Indo-Pacific concept, and towards more dispersed military access and basing which makes use of Australia's unique Indo-Pacific geography. This, he argues, is about transnational threats and balancing China, not some notion of containment.
The Australian, 15 November 2011, p. 9
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The dangers of denial: nuclear weapons in China-India relations
In this Lowy Institute Analysis, Research Associate Fiona Cunningham and International Security Program Director Rory Medcalf warn of growing security risks in the relationship between Asia’s nuclear-armed rising powers China and India. An asymmetry of capabilities and threat perceptions is helping to drive these dangers. The authors call for a strategy stability dialogue to begin between China and India, embedded in a relationship of greater mutual respect, to ensure that possible future confrontations do not involve nuclear threats or misjudgments. This publication is supported by the Lowy Institute’s partnership with the Nuclear Security Project of the Nuclear Threat Initiative, www.nuclearsecurityproject.org.
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Grand stakes: Australia’s future between China and India
On the eve of President Obama's November 2011 visit to Australia, it is clear that Canberra is seeking an Indo-Pacific strategy for an era of Chinese, Indian and sustained American power. The contours of such a strategy were assessed by the Director of the Lowy Institute’s International Security Program, Rory Medcalf, in his contribution to the 2011-12 edition of the authoritative Strategic Asia series of books, published by the US National Bureau of Asian Research in September 2011. His chapter provides the first parallel analysis of Australia’s relations with China and India in the new Asian strategic environment, and proposes ways to transform Australia-India relations (such as uranium sales) as well as to adjust the US alliance for the Asian century.
Mr Medcalf spoke recently at the launch of the book in Washington DC, and the video of the launch event can be accessed here.
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Roundtable Outcomes Statement
The Outcomes Statement of the 2011 Australia-India Roundtable held at the Lowy Institute on Monday 20 September 2011 has been released and is available for download here.
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Inaugural India-China Workshop
 On 17 and 18 October 2011, the Lowy Institute hosted the inaugural India-China Workshop, an informal dialogue bringing together Australian, Indian, Chinese and Singaporean experts. At the public concluding event, a new Lowy Institute Analysis, 'The Dangers of Denial', on the nuclear dimension of India-China relations, was launched by its authors and discussed by two Workshop participants.
The speakers at the launch can be heard here:
The Dangers of Denial: the nuclear dimension of India-China relations - MP3 (20MB)
Click on the image above to watch a video of the launch.
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Time to forge a partnership for the Asian Century
In this op-ed in The Australian, the Lowy Institute’s Rory Medcalf, convener of the Australia-India Roundtable, teams with leading Indian foreign policy commentator Raja Mohan to propose a way forward in Australia-India relations. Australia should sell uranium to India and India needs to get serious about closer security links with Australia. Both nations need to move beyond misperception.
The Australian, 19 September 2011, p. 10
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Australia-India Roundtable
 At the conclusion of the Australia-India Roundtable held at the Lowy Institute on 19-20 September 2011, four key participants - Ambassador Shyam Saran and Ambassador Ric Smith AO PSM as well as conveners Rory Medcalf and Navdeep Suri - discussed key ideas emerging from the dialogue. The Roundtable involved leading figures from diplomacy, business, media and think tanks, and is the most substantial such meeting yet held between the two countries.
Their presentations can be heard here:
Advancing Australia-India relations: Public panel - MP3 (19MB)
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Integrating with India
With the Lowy Institute hosting the 2011 Australia-India Roundtable in September, it seemed like a good time to revisit our first Lowy Institute Paper, 'India: the next economic giant'. When we published that paper back in 2004, we predicted that India would become an increasingly important economic partner for Australia. As this latest paper in the IEC series describes, so far our forecast is mostly on track.
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Rory Medcalf on Margaret Throsby’s Morning Interview
Rory Medcalf, the Director of the Lowy Institute’s International Security program, was the featured guest on ABC Classic FM’s morning program with Margaret Throsby on 30 August. The interview ranged widely, covering India’s rise, Australia-India relations, the politics of conflict, and, of course, music.
The interview is available at: http://www.abc.net.au/classic/throsby/stories/s3303357.htm
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Crisis and confidence: major powers and maritime security in Indo-Pacific Asia
Maritime tensions remain at the top of the Asian security agenda, with the 22-23 July 2011 meetings in Bali of the East Asia Summit and ASEAN Regional Forum. These issues are at the core of a major recent report from the Lowy Institute’s MacArthur Foundation Asia Security Project, which warns of the risks of war in the South China Sea and other regional waters. Authors Rory Medcalf and Raoul Heinrichs, with maritime adviser Justin Jones, examine the drivers of Asia’s maritime ‘crisis of confidence’, including clashes of sovereignty, national pride and military strategy. They conclude with a modest and realistic set of ‘confidence-building’ recommendations to avert conflict at sea, both in East Asia and across the wider Indo-Pacific region.
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Compromised win for hunger striker
In this op-ed in The Australian, Lowy Institute Visiting Fellow Vinod Daniel outlines the complexities of the Indian corruption debate following the Indian parliament’s concessions to hunger striking protest leader Anna Hazare. A version of this piece first appeared on the Lowy blog The Interpreter.
The Australian, 30 August 2011, p. 8
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Recognition for Lowy-MacArthur maritime security report
In an article in the Indian Express newspaper, leading Indian strategic commentator Raja Mohan reviews 'Crisis and Confidence', a major report on Asian maritime security prepared under the Lowy Institute’s partnership with the MacArthur Foundation’s Asia Security Initiative. He describes the report as possibly 'the first comprehensive discussion of ways to lower naval tensions in Asia'. Raja Mohan’s article can be found here:
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/mosquito-fleet/813231/0
The full text of 'Crisis and Confidence', by Rory Medcalf and Raoul Heinrichs with Justin Jones, can be accessed here:
http://www.lowyinstitute.org/Publication.asp?pid=1618
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India’s new world: civil society in the making of foreign policy
In this Lowy Institute Analysis, leading Indian columnist Ashok Malik and Lowy Institute program director Rory Medcalf argue that Indian foreign policy is being shaped increasingly by three dynamic aspects of civil society: business, the Indian diaspora and the aggressive Indian news media. Indian diplomacy needs to adapt to these new realities. And foreign nations need to understand them to engage with this rising power.
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Unselfish giants? Understanding China and India as security providers
In this article in a 2011 special issue of the Australian Journal of International Affairs, Lowy Institute program director Rory Medcalf assesses the drivers and strategic impacts of the increasing roles of the Chinese and Indian militaries as providers of global security public goods.
Australian Journal of International Affairs, Special Issue: Collaboration, Governance, and Security in the Asia-Pacific: Challenges for Australia and China, July 2011
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Tomes, tweets and think tanks
In his latest Advance Column in the US Studies Centre journal American Review, Lowy Institute International Security Program Director Rory Medcalf reviews five important new books on Asian security, ranging across Sino-Japanese relations, China's naval ambitions and the challenges facing Indian military modernisation. Mr Medcalf also uses the column to question whether think tanks are making effective use of social media such as twitter.
The full column can be found here:
http://www.americanreviewmag.com/Columns
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Right arguments, wrong ocean?
In this book review roundtable for the journal Asia Policy, the Lowy Institute’s Rory Medcalf appraises the core arguments of Red Star over the Pacific, by Toshi Yoshihara and Jonathan R. Holmes. Mr Medcalf focuses on the book’s treatment of China’s Indian Ocean ambitions.
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Wednesday Lunch at Lowy - Rory Medcalf presentation
 In recent years, the idea of a looming struggle between China and India has seized the imaginations of prominent strategists and journalists. Here are two rising Asian great powers with rapid economic growth, expanding global interests and modernising militaries.
In this Wednesday Lunch at Lowy, Rory Medcalf explored some plausible paths for a bilateral relationship with vast potential to shape or shake the world's and Australia's future.
His presentation can be heard here:
Unravelling rivalry: China and India - MP3 (21MB)
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When the flag follows trade
In this opinion piece from The Times of India, Indian columnist Ashok Malik and Lowy Institute program director Rory Medcalf argue that the Indian Government needs to coordinate its diplomacy with the expansion of its business interests around the globe. A key step will be to merge the external affairs and commerce ministries. This article is based on the two authors’ new Lowy Institute Analysis, India’s New World: Civil Society in the Making of Foreign Policy.
The Times of India, 3 May 2011
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In remembrance of India’s nuclear and strategic guru
In this obituary essay in Foreign Policy magazine, Lowy Institute International Security Program Director Rory Medcalf pays tribute to K Subrahmanyam, independent India’s leading strategic thinker, who passed away on 2 February 2011. Subrahmanyam strongly influenced India’s decision both to build a nuclear deterrent and to constrain it with a policy of no first use. He combined a lifelong sense of duty, a sharp awareness of security dynamics and a democratic ethos.
The full text can be accessed here:
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/02/03/in_remembrance_of_indias_nuclear_and_strategic_guru?page=full
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Sino-Indian maritime relations: managing mistrust in the Indian Ocean
In the Lowy Institute's latest Strategic Snapshot, International Security Program Associate Ashley Townshend explores the strategic dynamics between China and India in the Indian Ocean. While the potential for rivalry exists, Mr Townshend argues that the combination of a skewed distribution of capabilities and collective interest in stability, together with a range of enhanced confidence-building mechanisms, should go a long way to dampening the region's underlying competitive impulses.
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Breaking down old barriers
In this op-ed in The Times of India, Program Director Rory Medcalf argues the case for Australia to end its ban on uranium exports to India, in order to fulfil a much-needed strategic partnership between the two Indian Ocean democracies. This is an extended version of a piece that first appeared in The Age.
Times of India, 25 January 2011, p. 20
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The first Lowy India Forum
On 28 September 2010 the Lowy Institute held the first in its new India Forum series of discussions, convened by Rory Medcalf. These will be closed-door meetings at which experts, opinion makers and members of the policy and business communities with an interest in India can candidly share views and ideas on topical issues about this important rising power. The first session focused on the challenges ahead for the Australia-India relationship. Future meetings will address specific aspects of India’s political, economic and strategic future. The series will provide a platform for the growing network of Sydney-based India scholars to engage with the wider policy and academic communities.
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Time to sell uranium to India
Rory Medcalf argues that Australia should lift its ban on uranium sales to India, for the sake of economics, climate change and international fairness.
The Age, 21 January 2011, p 15
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Reaction to Australia's uranium impasse with India
John Kerin quotes Rory Medcalf in an article in the Australian Financial Review describing the reaction of the Indian Foreign Minister, S.M. Krishna, to Australia's continued ban on civilian nuclear sales to India, warning that this may damage relations between the countries.
In the Times of India today, Rory Medcalf's opinion piece makes the argument that the continued ban illustrates Australia's lack of trust in India, and sits at odds with a relationship which is otherwise strengthening. America, Canada and other nations have already commenced nuclear trade with India.
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A case for a national mission on museums
In an opinion piece in The Hindu, Lowy Institute Visiting Fellow Vinod Daniel writes that it may be time for a planned five-year approach to renew the thousands of museums across India.
The Hindu, 15 January 2011
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Terror games: understanding risk and security in New Delhi
In this Lowy Institute Perspective, International Security Program Director Rory Medcalf examines the risks and background of possible terrorism at the October 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi.
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Silver lining for India in threat of tarnished games
In this op-ed in The Weekend Australian, Lowy Institute India specialist Rory Medcalf argues that the fiasco around Commonwealth Games preparations might just have a long-term payoff for India if it strengthens internal forces seeking to reduce corruption and complacency in the way the nation is run.
The Australian, 25-26 September 2010, p. 23
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India must master the great game
India needs to stay cool in the face of diplomatic and security provocations by China, argues International Security Program Director Rory Medcalf in this opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal. Through development, deterrence and diplomacy New Delhi can be prepared for looming rivalry.
The Wall Street Journal Asia, 3 September 2010, p. 9
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Australia and India: how to advance
In this new Lowy Institute Perspective, Lowy Institute Program Director Rory Medcalf argues that a mix of flawed policy and flawed perception is holding back a truly strategic partnership between Australia and India.
This text is based on a speech delivered by Mr Medcalf at the Advance Global Australians Emerging Leaders' Conference in New Delhi on 4 May 2010.
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Rory Medcalf interview
In this extended interview on the ABC Australia Network’s Business Today program, Lowy Institute India expert Rory Medcalf looks at the meaning and political implications of India’s return to high economic growth.
The interview is available at:
http://australianetwork.com/businesstoday/
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It's a natural alliance
In this opinion piece in The Times of India, Lowy Institute program director and India expert Rory Medcalf argues that flawed perceptions and flawed policy are holding Australia and India back from a potentially deep strategic partnership. This article, which cites recent Lowy Institute polling, is based on a speech Mr Medcalf gave at the Advance Global Australians’ Emerging Leaders Summit in New Delhi on 4 May.
The Times of India, 14 May 2010
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India ahoy
In this opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal (Asia), International Security Program Director Rory Medcalf argues that India needs to sustain its smart naval diplomacy to manage tensions as China’s role increases in the Indian Ocean.
Wall Street Journal, 29 April 2010
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Writing a new chapter
In this opinion piece in The Times of India, Lowy Institute program director and India expert Rory Medcalf looks at what the sudden rise of Julia Gillard as Prime Minister might mean for Australia-India relations, including the vexed issue of uranium sales.
Times of India, 15 July 2010
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India's nuclear example
In this opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal (Asia), International Security Program Director Rory Medcalf explains why the India-Pakistan nuclear relationship is not strictly an arms race, and why it was right for President Obama to exclude this issue from the agenda of the recent Nuclear Security Summit.
Wall Street Journal, 15 April 2010
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John Lang, our forgotten Indian envoy
In this article in The Spectator (Australia), Lowy Institute Program Director and India expert Rory Medcalf suggests that a voice from the past could help ease today’s media-fed tensions between India and Australia. John Lang, Australia’s first novelist, was a pioneer of the Indian press and campaigned for the rights of Indians against the East India Company.
The Spectator (Australia), 31 March 2010
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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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Threat to cricketers may heal relations
In an opinion piece in The Age, Rory Medcalf, Program Director International Security, coordinator of the Australia-India Roundtable, suggests that the threats by India’s Shiv Sena extremists to ban Australian cricketers will alienate mainstream Indians. He argues that the crisis over the welfare of Indian students in Australia has reached a turning-point: the Shiv Sena threats, plus a reconciliation concert by Bollywood composer A R Rahman, have the potential to be a circuit-breaker, opening the way for both countries to look for a constructive solution.
The Age, 16 January 2010, p. 7
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Media raising a scare will do more harm than good
In this opinion piece in India’s Mail Today newspaper, Lowy Institute coordinator of the Australia-India Roundtable Rory Medcalf argues that sensationalist media reporting putting a racial angle on the crimes against Indian students in Australia is not in the interests of bilateral relations or of India itself.
Mail Today, 9 January 2010, p. 15
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India: Leaving the village behind
In this major review essay for The Australian Literary Review, Lowy Institute Program Director Rory Medcalf examines how some important new books on India can help Australians to understand this rising mega-democracy.
The Australian Literary Review, 2 December 2009, ppp. 12-13
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Problems to partnership: a plan for Australia-India strategic ties
In this Lowy Institute Policy Brief, Rory Medcalf, Program Director International Security, argues that Australia and India must not squander the chance to build a strategic partnership. Recent bilateral difficulties, such as over student welfare, have at least focused high-level attention on the relationship. A security declaration would be a positive step, but would need to be more than rhetoric, and include practical ideas for defence, intelligence and diplomatic cooperation to meet common challenges. Meanwhile the uranium export question has not gone away.
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Tightening an obvious tie
In this opinion piece in the Indian Express newspaper, International Security Program Director Rory Medcalf argues why India would benefit from recognising the value of prioritising a strategic partnership with Australia, in the week that Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd visits India.
Indian Express, 11 November 2009
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After the perfect storm: Indian students in Australia
In this Lowy Institute Perspective, Janaki Bahadur draws upon her experience as an Indian-born journalist living in Australia to look below the surface of this year’s controversy about the welfare of Indian students in Australia. She identifies the commercial and nationalistic drivers of the sensationalised Indian media coverage, while also observing that the intense media attention exposed genuine problems, not so much about racism as about the quality of vocational education on offer and the motives of Indian vocational students in Australia. She concludes that the storm may ultimately lead to more sustainable education and immigration policies along with improved Australia-India ties.
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Unconventional partners: Australia-India cooperation in reducing nuclear dangers
In this Policy Brief, International Security Program Director Rory Medcalf and his Indian co-author Amandeep Gill argue that an innovative partnership between Australia and India would help erode the entrenched blocs that impede progress on nuclear disarmament. Their recommendations include: a leaders’ statement; a specialised bilateral dialogue; and practical cooperation on non-proliferation export controls, with Australia promoting Indian involvement in the so-called Australia Group to raise comfort levels between New Delhi and other such arrangements. This publication was produced under the Lowy Institute’s partnership with the Nuclear Security project (www.nuclearsecurityproject.org).
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Australia's poisoned alumni: international education and the costs to Australia
In this new Lowy Institute Policy Brief, Executive Director Michael Wesley analyses the multi-faceted international student debate. It canvasses the dynamics of the international student industry and the social, economic and criminal issues faced by international students during their time in Australia. Wesley scutinises the wide-ranging implications of the problem and considers that if left unaddressed, it is likely to worsen. The paper, with its considered and instructive policy recommendations, represents an independent and relevant contribution to the debate with Wesley forewarning the potential creation of a poisoned alumni.
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Troubled waters in need of oil
In an article in leading Indian current affairs magazine Tehelka, Rory Medcalf, coordinator of the Australia-India Roundtable, proposes some ways to deal with the crisis over the safety of Indian students in Australia. The Australian Federal and State governments have responsibilities, as do universities, but the Indian media also has a part to play.
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India's security challenges: Pakistan, Afghanistan and the neighbourhood
In the 2009 Australia-India Strategic Lecture, delivered at the Lowy Institute on 11 May, Ambassador Chinmaya Gharekhan examined India’s dangerous neighbourhood, and in particular the deep security challenges posed by the situations in Pakistan and Afghanistan. He presented a sobering picture of the prospects for these countries, and the implications for India and other countries threatened by jihadist terrorism.
Ambassador Gharekhan's lecture can be downloaded here:
India's security challenges - PDF (167KB)
His speech can be heard here:
India's security challenges - MP3 (20MB)
Video of this presentation is also available.
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Indian election win good for Australia: Rory Medcalf interview
International security program director Rory Medcalf's assessment of the importance of the Indian election result was drawn upon extensively in the Australian Financial Review. Mr Medcalf, who served as a diplomat in New Delhi and coordinates the Australia-India Roundtable, argued that the convincing win by Congress is the best chance yet to strengthen Australia-India strategic ties in addressing common challenges such as Pakistan, Afghanistan and the implications of the rise of China.
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Mumbai terrorist attacks
In this opinion piece in the Australian Financial Review, International Security Program Director Rory Medcalf assesses some of the repercussions of the Mumbai terrorist attacks. He judges that military confrontation between India and Pakistan is unlikely, and that India might instead focus on its response on fixing its domestic security capabilities. Mumbai underlines the common cause the West and India have in Afghanistan.
Australian Financial Review, 2 December 2008, p. 55
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Bridging the nuclear divide
In this opinion piece in the Indian Express, International Security Program Director Rory Medcalf argues that India should appreciate that Australia has come a long way in changing its nuclear policy by supporting the US-India deal in the Nuclear Suppliers Group. The next step should be for India and Australia to work together on arms control, non-proliferation and disarmament initiatives.
Indian Express, 10 September 2008, p. 10
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Wednesday Lunch at Lowy - Rahul Roy-Chaudhury presentation
On 4 June at the Wednesday Lunch at Lowy, leading Indian strategic analyst Rahul Roy-Chaudhury looked at India's changing strategic outlook, including in its dealings with Australia and the Asia-Pacific in a presentation entitled 'Security challenges for a rising India: Responsibilities and liabilities'.
His presentation can be heard here:
Security challenges for a rising India - MP3 (17MB)
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India's disarmament drive an idea worth pursuing
India's tenth anniversary commemoration of its nuclear weapons tests was curiously low-key. In this opinion piece in The Australian, International Security Program Director Rory Medcalf argues that India's rekindled rhetoric about nuclear disarmament offers diplomatic openings for Australia and other countries interested in reducing nuclear dangers globally.
The Australian, 12 May 2008, p. 8
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Hesitating on the brink of partnership
In this piece for the East-West Center, Washington, International Security Program Director Rory Medcalf argues that Australia and India are hesitating at the brink of real partnership in their strategic relations. It will take sustained political will on both sides over the next few years to bring the relationship to its potential. If these hopes end up unfulfilled, the reasons could well be connected to Indian perceptions, however misinformed, about Australian policies on uranium and on China.
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The promise and the limits of the US-India relationship
The 2008 Australia-India Strategic Lecture was presented at the Lowy Institute on 25 March 2008 by Ambassador Lalit Mansingh. The title of his lecture was 'The promise and the limits of the India-US relationship: What it means for Asia and the world'. The partnership between India and the United States has been a central part of the story of India's changing place in the world in recent years, and Ambassador Mansingh has played a singular role in the transformation of the relationship between the world's two largest democracies. He is a former Indian Foreign Secretary and Ambassador to the United States. His visit to Australia was supported by the Australia-India Council, the Lowy Institute's partner in the Australia-India Strategic Lecture.
Ambassador Mansingh's lecture can be heard here:
2008 Australia-India Strategic Lecture - MP3 (23MB)
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India should play its part
In this article in new Indian publication Pragati ('Progress'), International Security Program Director Rory Medcalf argues that Australia alone cannot do all the running in building a strategic partnership with India. India needs to recognise Australia as a serious strategic player in the Indo-Pacific region, not just a US ally or an adjunct to ASEAN. He also suggests that India needs to recognise the genuineness of Australia's motives on nuclear arms control, and that new efforts at co-operation between the two countries in this field could eventually help to generate bipartisanship in Australia on supplying uranium to India.
Pragati: The Indian National Interest Review, No. 11, February 2008, pp 2-4 (online at http://pragati.nationalinterest.in)
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Time to lift our game and engage India
In this opinion piece in The Age, international security program director Rory Medcalf argues that recent progress in China-India relations is a reminder that Australia needs to invest more seriously in its India diplomacy.
The Age, 17 January 2008, p. 15
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Australia-India strategic ties
On 9 February, International Security program director Rory Medcalf was interviewed by ABC broadcaster Geraldine Doogue on her Radio National program, Saturday Extra, on the challenge of advancing Australia's strategic ties with India. He argued that Australia needs to raise its India relationship to the same level as its links with Beijing, given India's massive growth potential as an economic and military power. The interview also considered the rising importance of the Indian Navy and prospects for revisiting Australian uranium sales to India. A podcast of the interview can be heard here: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/saturdayextra/stories/2008/2157619.htm
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Wednesday Lunch at Lowy - Rory Medcalf presentation
At the Wednesday Lunch at Lowy on 20 June, Rory Medcalf, Program Director International Security, assessed the likely impacts of a powerful India on Australia's future strategic environment. He drew upon his experience as a diplomat in New Delhi to consider the sources of India's new confidence as a geopolitical player, the drivers of Indian strategic behaviour, and the prospects for security partnerships with New Delhi. He suggested that, for Australia, the hard decisions in engaging India lay ahead. This presentation was reported widely in the Indian press.
His presentation can be heard here:
Dealing with a powerful India - MP3 (19MB)
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Uranium for India: avoiding the pitfalls
In a new Lowy Institute Policy Brief, Ron Walker, a former Australian Permanent Representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency, warns that selling uranium to India without the same legal obligations and non-proliferation standards that apply to our other customers could undermine our broader foreign policy interests and weaken the national consensus to continue uranium mining and exports.
The Brief argues that instead of making an exception for India, Australia should work to strengthen the international nuclear non-proliferation system and engage India in that process. The result could be a more effective non-proliferation regime and one that includes India and, potentially, one day, the other two NPT holdouts.
Ron Walker is a Visiting Fellow at the Asia-Pacific College of Diplomacy at the Australian National University. He was Chairman of the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency in 1993-1994.
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Uranium thorn
This opinion piece by Rory Medcalf in the Times of India is a version of an article previously published in the Australian Financial Review. It argues that Australia should try to reconcile its uranium and non-proliferation policies with India's rise.
Times of India, 20 April 2007
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Uranium and India: keep options open
Rory Medcalf, Program Director, International Security, writes in this opinion piece that Australia should try to reconcile its uranium and non-proliferation policies with India's rise.
Australian Financial Review, 4 April 2007
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Roaring tiger or lumbering elephant?
After years of economic underperformance, the Indian economic model has been transformed, and with it, India's growth performance. So much so that the last two years have brought both a widespread rethink on India’s prospects and a wave of foreign portfolio investment. This new-found optimism received something of a setback earlier this year, when there were sharp falls in Indian stocks markets. In a new paper that updates the analysis in his Lowy Paper 'India: the next economic giant', Mark Thirlwell takes another look at India's development model, evaluating both its strengths and its weaknesses and highlighting the idiosyncratic nature of India’s development path.
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India: the next economic giant
This Lowy Institute Paper by Mark Thirlwell assesses the emergence of India as a major new player in today's global economy.
It provides an overview of India's sustained progress with economic reform to date, examines the degree of the economy's re-engagement with the rest of the world, and describes some of the challenges that still lie ahead.
The Paper also analyses the implications of the rise of this new economic giant for the international economy and for Australia.
India: the Next Economic Giant was officially launched by the Minister for Trade, the Hon. Mark Vaile, MP, in Sydney on Friday 13 August.
To order a hard copy of this publication click here.
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Perspectives on India brings together the Lowy Institute's expanding range of publications and activities related to this rising great power. Themes covered include India's strategic and economic outlook as well as the prospects and challenges surrounding deeper Australia-India relations. The Lowy Institute's work on India includes an active program of events, notably a quarterly Lowy India Forum, a second track Australia-India Roundtable and an annual India Strategic Lecture. 
