The Lowy Institute

Defence is faced with a challenge - to balance force structure and preparedness in a climate that reinforces the need for austerity coupled with a shift in global and strategic weight to our region. In his first major public address after the Chicago NATO Summit, the Chief of the Defence Force, General David Hurley, AC, DSC will address these issues to determine how the ADF must respond to be set for success in the future. General David Hurley was promoted to General and assumed his current appointment as the Chief of the Defence Force on 4 July 2011. He graduated from the Royal Military College, Duntroon into the Royal Australian Infantry Corps and served in the Royal Australian Regiment early in his career. He conducted an exchange with the 1st Battalion Irish Guards (British Army) and upon his return to Australia served with the 5th/7th Battalion. In 1989 General Hurley served a posting as the Mechanised Infantry Adviser, Australian Army Project Team Malaysia. As a Lieutenant Colonel he assumed command

In response to more widespread Somali piracy attacks and soaring crew ransoms, shipping companies are turning to private military security companies to provide both armed guards and armed patrol boats to fight pirates in the Indian Ocean. At this Lowy Lecture, Military Fellow James Brown will discuss research findings from his forthcoming  Lowy Institute Analysis "Pirates and Privateers" which considers the rise of private navies in the Indian Ocean in the past 12 months. His research traces the emergence of maritime private military security companies, details how they operate, and outlines the implications of their use for national governments and international organisations. The Lowy Institute's research project "Privateers in Australia's Conflict and Disaster Zones" aims to examine issues behind the use of private military security companies in conflict and disaster zones where Australians might be deployed. The project is funded by and conducted in collaboration with the Australian Civil Military Centre,

After a drawn-out Republican primary process, the general election is finally on. What do we know about the styles and quirks of the two presidential contenders in 2012, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney? What are their strengths and weaknesses as campaigners? What is at stake, in terms of policy, in November – for Americans, for Australians, and for the world? And is this election campaign ever going to end? The Lowy Institute is pleased to present a conversation on these topics between two keen observers of US politics, Chas Licciardello and Michael Fullilove. Chas is a member of The Chaser, the co-host of ABCNEWS24’s Planet America, and an obsessive reader of US blogs. Michael is the director of the Lowy Institute’s global issues program and a non-resident senior fellow in foreign policy at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DCSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Many pundits contend that with the economy such an important issue in the U.S. presidential election, foreign policy does not matter. It actually does, politically as well as for the U.S. role in the world. Jentleson examines the dynamics of the campaign thus far and the likely terms of foreign policy debate as we move towards election day. Bruce Jentleson, Professor of Public Policy and Political Science at Duke University, is a leading scholar of American foreign policy and has served in a number of U.S. policy and political positions. From 2009-11 he was Senior Advisor to the U.S. State Department Policy Planning Director. He also served as a senior foreign policy advisor to Vice President Al Gore in his 2000 presidential campaign and in the 2008 Obama campaign as a member of the Phoenix Initiative and a co-author of Strategic Leadership: Framework for a 21st Century National Security Strategy. An author of several books on U.S. foreign policy, he currently serves on the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) Wo

Lowy Lecture Series - Benjamin Goldsmith presentation At the Lowy Lecture on 2 May 2012, Benjamin Goldsmith presented findings from a project to develop a quantitative forecasting tool for serious political instability, mass atrocities, and genocide, including software which should be of use to policy-makers thinking ahead on a 1-5 year time horizon. The project, 'Understanding and Forecasting Political Instability, Mass Atrocities, and Genocide: Combining Social Science and Machine Learning Approaches' combines expertise from political science and computer science.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For the first time in 20 years, the relationship with China played almost no part in the American Presidential election of 2008. President Obama has forged a low-key, pragmatic relationship with Beijing, but has not seen much success in building a workable "G2" that so many have called for. China kept Obama's visit to Washington in late 2009 deliberately low-key, and has refused to co-operate on the value of its currency, pressuring North Korea and Iran, or acting on global warming. Recently Washington has angered Beijing over Obama's meeting with the Dalai Lama and selling arms to Taiwan. Suisheng Zhao, one of the world pre-eminent watchers of the Sino-American relationship, explored the thinking underpinning the current relationship, and the dynamics driving the evolution of the relationship.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The last twelve months have witnessed a turning point in post-independence Malaysian politics. In elections last March, the Barisan Nasional coalition and its dominant member, the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), suffered serious reversals. The prime ministership of Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi collapsed, initiating a fraught succession process to transfer power to his deputy Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak. The 'Mahathir period' and its 'Badawi twilight' are now passing, but Mahathirism may be experiencing a revival. What will happen? Can the resurrected Anwar Ibrahim provide the answer to this national predicament, or is he merely a symptom of it?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On 24 November a new Australian Government was elected under the leadership of Kevin Rudd, MP, a Chinese-speaking former diplomat with deep expertise in foreign policy. At the Wednesday Lowy Lunch on 5 December a panel of analysts commented on prospective international policy under Mr Rudd's government. The panellists included: Dr Malcolm Cook, Program Director, Asia & the Pacific; Dr Michael Fullilove, Program Director, Global Issues; and Rory Medcalf, Program Director International Security.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Lowy Institute Blue Ribbon Panel Report, 'Australia’s diplomatic deficit: reinvesting in our instruments of international policy', is the first major public review of Australia’s diplomatic network in over 20 years. Here, members of the Panel speak at the launch of the report on Wednesday 18 March 2009. The Panel: Jillian Broadbent AO, Professor William Maley AM, Brad Orgill, Professor Peter Shergold AC, Ric Smith AO PSM and Allan Gyngell (Chairman).See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The global threat from nuclear weapons is growing, yet so too is a new international push for nuclear disarmament. On Wednesday 25 February 2009 at a lecture in the Lowy Institute's Distinguished Speakers Series, Professor Sir Lawrence Freedman examined what realistic assessments of the developing state of the international system might mean for current efforts to reduce nuclear dangers. This event was held under the Lowy Institute's partnership with the Nuclear Security Project of the Nuclear Threat Initiative (www.nuclearsecurityproject.org). This project builds on the 2007 Wall Street Journal article 'A World Free of Nuclear Weapons' by George Shultz, William Perry, Henry Kissinger and Sam Nunn.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The annual Lowy Lecture on Australia in the World is the highlight of our events calendar. The 2008 lecture was delivered by Mr Ian Macfarlane AC in Sydney on Wednesday 3 December 2008. In this lecture Mr Macfarlane seeks to answer the question of what is different about this financial crisis from the seven previous crises of the deregulated era spanning the past thirty years, and the lessons we can draw from it. Ian Macfarlane was Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia from 1996 to 2006. He has been a director of the Lowy Institute since its inception.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On 7 November 2008, as part of our Distinguished Speaker Series, the Lowy Institute hosted The Grand Chief, Rt. Hon Sir Michael Somare GCMG CH, Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea. The title of Sir Michael Somare's lecture was 'Pacific Regional Challenges'. He discussed the urgency with which the Pacific and the world must tackle the challenge of climate change, calling for a global paradigm shift to transform the way the world values a healthy and functioning natural environment.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What lessons does the Iraq conflict hold for Australia's new Defence White Paper? In the Wednesday Lunch at Lowy on 3 September, one of Australia's most experienced and distinguished military men drew upon his experience of running a 21st century urban counter-insurgency to talk about how the nature of the Iraq war should feed into the Defence White Paper process. Major Gen (Retd) Andrew James Molan, AO DSC explored the need for an effective defence force that can offer government as wide a range of security options as resources permit.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The world economy is now characterised by intense international competition for skilled immigrants. At the Wednesday Lunch at Lowy on 21 May, Professor Peter McDonald considered how Australia can recruit the migrants that it needs and what the potential obstacles may be. Peter McDonald is Professor of Demography and Director of the Australian Demographic and Social Research Institute at the Australian National University.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The annual Lowy Lecture on Australia in the World is the highlight on our events calendar. The 2006 lecture was delivered by one of Australia’s most respected international strategic thinkers and international security experts, Professor Robert O’Neill AO. In his lecture entitled Prospects and Perspectives for International Security, Professor O’Neill gave perspectives on key international security problems, based on his personal experience as a soldier, a scholar and an adviser to governments.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On 31 October, the Lowy Institute hosted an election debate between the Trade Minister, the Hon. Warren Truss, and the Shadow Trade Minister, the Hon. Simon Crean. Both speakers reaffirmed their belief that the WTO Doha Round could still deliver a global deal and presented their parties' different views on bilateral trade deals, including the ongoing negotiations with Japan and the potential for an Australia-South Korea deal in the future. The Trade Minister also used the debate to outline the Coalition's new trade policy.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Lowy Institute was pleased to present a lecture by the Federal Labor Leader, Kevin Rudd MP, on Thursday 5 July 2007, as part of its Distinguished Speaker Series. The title of Mr Rudd's lecture was 'Fresh ideas for future challenges in foreign policy', downloadable here. In this important lecture, Mr Rudd outlined Labor's approach to Australian foreign policy. He also took questions from the floor. Mr Rudd was elected Federal Labor Leader in 2006. He has extensive foreign, trade and international policy experience as a diplomat, senior bureaucrat, corporate consultant and federal parliamentarian. In 2001 he was appointed Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs (with additional responsibility for International Security in 2003 and for Trade in 2005).See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Honourable Gordon J. O’Connor, PC, MP, Canada's Minister of National Defence, spoke at the Lowy Institute on 8 September as part of the Institute's Distinguished Speaker Series. Canada and Australia are two nations which enjoy a shared heritage, common interests and a long history of external military commitments. Like Australia, Canada is undergoing a major restructuring and re-equipping of its armed forces, and has major military resources committed beyond its borders. Both nations have committed troops to Afghanistan, with over 2200 Canadian troops already in Afghanistan and an additional 400 Australian troops poised for deployment. Minister O’Connor spoke on these and other issues which affect our mutual engagement with the global environment.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Professor Hans-Henrik Holm addressed the Thursday Lunch at Lowy on the topic of the Danish cartoon media controversy, which occurred when the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten published 12 cartoons of the prophet Muhammad on September 30 2005. Hans-Henrik Holm is Professor of International Relations at the Danish School of Journalism and Aarhus University. He has held several senior academic appointments in journalism throughout Europe and the United States, including a professorial appointment at Berkeley and sits on numerous international boards dedicated to media issues. He is visiting Australia as head of delegation to a senior visiting team from the Danish School for Journalism, Scandinavia’s pre-eminent journalism school.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Despite the economic downturn following the global financial crisis, the United States remains Australia’s most significant commercial partner, taking into account the value and diversity of our two-way investment and trade flows. On Tuesday 18 May at a panel discussion on the prospects and trends in the commercial relationship between Australia and the United States, The Honourable Anthony Byrne MP, Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister and to the Minister for Trade, gave the keynote address.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.