Lowy Institute

In August 2020, Cheng Lei, a Chinese-Australian journalist, had her life turned upside down.  

An anchor in Beijing for a business television program, Cheng Lei was arrested by officers of China’s Ministry of State Security on charges of espionage.

Detained, isolated and interrogated, she was cut off from her family and friends for more than three years, until her release in late 2023. Cheng Lei is now telling her story ...

Dr John Hamre, president and CEO of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and former US Deputy Secretary of Defence, joins Dr Michael Fullilove AM, Executive Director of the Lowy Institute, to discuss President Trump’s record, his likely approach to the Western alliance, and Australia’s strategic outlook.

Their conversation touches on news that the Trump administration will conduct a review of the AU...

Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto campaigned on a promise of continuity and better economic performance. Is Prabowo living up to his campaign promises or taking the country in a new direction? The Lowy Institute's Lead Economist, Roland Rajah, speaks with Dr Eve Warburton, Director of the Australian National University's Indonesia Institute, and Indo-Pacific Development Centre Research Fellows Dr Hilman Palaon and Robert Walker...

Earlier this year, reports emerged of Russia seeking to base military aircraft at Indonesia’s Manuhua Airforce Base. While the request was rejected by Indonesia, it raises a broader question: what are Russia’s interests in Southeast Asia and how should Australia respond to its attempts to seek access to military facilities in the region?

In this podcast, Lowy Institute Research Fellow Rahman Yaacob and Ian Storey, ...

Join Sam Roggeveen and Managing Editor Daniel Flitton for a conversation about what we covered this week in Australia’s best foreign affairs magazine, The Interpreter.

Further reading:

Sadly, Russia’s mercenary verdict means Oscar Jenkins won’t be coming home anytime soon by Donald Rothwell

Why Oscar Jenkins’ trial in the Luhansk People’s Republic is a sham by Shannon Bosch

US troops in Korea may soon ...

Andrew Hauser, Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, delivered an address before the Lowy Institute on Thursday 22 May to discuss the Australia–China economic relationship in a time of great uncertainty.

Following his address, Mr Hauser was joined by Lowy Institute China expert Richard McGregor and Nonresident Fellow Dr Jenny Gordon for a panel discussion moderated by Roland Rajah, the Institute's lead economist.

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In this episode, we bring you highlights of a recent Lowy Institute event on the future of warfare. Christian Brose, President and Chief Strategy Officer of Anduril Industries, and Sam Roggeveen, Director of the Lowy Institute’s International Security Program discuss the key trends in modern warfare revealed through the world’s ongoing armed conflicts. They share their thoughts on how any future wars between major power...

The Lowy Institute Re-Cast series republishes the best podcasts from our archives. In case you missed them the first time around or if you want revisit these engaging conversations, the Re-Cast series has you covered.

Can we measure national success beyond economic growth? In August 2024, Professor Robert Costanza spoke with the Lowy Institute’s Alexandre Dayant about why countries need to move away from gross domestic produc...

Anthony Albanese has been returned as Australia’s prime minister in a landslide. In this episode, Program Directors Mihai Sora and Susannah Patton speak with host Lydia Khalil about what that means for the region. They discuss how Albanese’s re-election is being received in the Pacific and Southeast Asia and examine the continuities, opportunities and challenges for Australia’s foreign policy over the government&r...

In this episode, host Lydia Khalil speaks with former US Ambassador and Director-General of ASIO Dennis Richardson and Interpreter Managing Editor Daniel Flitton, about the Five Eyes — the powerful and strategically important intelligence sharing alliance. Its member countries, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, have sustained and protected one of the world's most unified multi...

The United States has seen profound shifts in policy since the re-election of President Donald Trump. It’s clear that the themes of Trump 1.0 — his narrow definition of the US national interest, his scepticism of alliances, and his hostility to free trade — are also animating Trump 2.0.

In a special event in the week that we mark the first 100 days of President Trump’s second term, hear insights from Susan G...

With US President Donald Trump unleashing a blitz of policy changes in his first few months in office and an Australian federal election just ahead, the Lowy Institute has released selected results from the 2025 Lowy Institute Poll. The findings provide a snapshot of how Trump is changing Australian attitudes towards the United States, and on Australians’ confidence in their political leaders’ foreign policy abilities. ...

The Lowy Institute was honoured to host His Excellency Surangel Whipps Jnr, President of the Republic of Palau, to deliver the 2025 FDC Pacific Leaders’ Address.

Since taking office in 2021, President Whipps has been a champion of Pacific leadership on regional security, climate, marine conservation and trade and economic issues.

He shares Palau’s perspective on the evolving strategic landscape in the Pacific, highlight...

Two weeks ago, Myanmar was struck by a 7.7 magnitude earthquake that devastated much of the central heartland of the country. Already ravaged by civil war, the destruction and humanitarian crisis caused by the earthquake have brought the country to the brink. The Lowy Institute’s Hervé Lemahieu talks with Vicky Bowman CMG, the Director of the Myanmar Centre for Responsible Business &m...

Amid a US retreat from the Pacific under President Donald Trump, and intense competition for regional influence between Australia and China, the Pacific faces mounting pressures from climate change, transnational crime, internal instability, and at times even political upheaval.

Listen to an insightful panel discussion with the ABC’s in-country Pacific journalists working on the frontlines of the rapidly changing political an...

Lieutenant General Simon Stuart, the Chief of Army, delivered a special address before the Lowy Institute on Thursday 3 April 2025. He spoke about the state of the Army profession and proposed key actions to strengthen the institution.

This is the third in a series of significant speeches from the Chief of Army. The first laid the theoretical foundations for the Army profession, while the second examined the historical, cultural an...

Hear from former senior NATO figure and arms control negotiator Rose Gottemoeller on the prospects for peace in Europe’s bloodiest conflict since the Second World War. Donald Trump arrived as US president promising a swift end to the war in Ukraine. But can the war end in a way that will be fair to Ukrainians, and which closes off opportunities for further Russian aggression? Rose Gottemoeller will address these complex quest...

Since his election, foreign policy coverage has been dominated by US President Donald Trump. But there is a lot more going on in the world than Trump 2.0. Many important global developments are not getting the attention they deserve. The Lowy Institute’s Lydia Khalil and Daniel Flitton, Managing Editor of The Interpreter, highlight the stories you might have missed.  

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Former senior NATO figure and arms control negotiator Rose Gottemoeller delivered the 2025 Owen Harries Lecture on Monday 24 March in Sydney. She reflected on a new era of nuclear weapons competition.

China is rapidly growing and modernising its nuclear arsenal while Russia has used nuclear sabre-rattling in its war in Ukraine. Rose Gottemoeller explores the advent of an unprecedented situation — three nuclear peers — a...