The Lowy Institute

At the Wednesday Lowy Lunch on 16 June, Malcolm Cook and Andrew Shearer discussed how the Australia-Japan relationship can help both countries respond to the emerging new order in international relations. This order is characterised by changing global power balances, the move towards a more multi-polar world, and traditional multilateral organisations increasingly unsuited to resolving complex global problems.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

At the Wednesday Lowy Lunch Club on 16 June, distinguished international speaker Minar Pimple addressed the Club on the important question of how well the Asia-Pacific region is doing in achieving the Millennium Development Goals and what role we and broader civil society can play in helping to achieve this ambitious agenda to tackle extreme poverty, adopted by world leaders at the United Nations in 2000.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In federal systems like Australia, international policy and broader international engagement are usually, and incorrectly, seen as solely matters for the national government. However, state governments can and do play an important role in Australia's global engagement, both economically and socially. New South Wales, as the largest and most cosmopolitan state in the country, is well placed to significantly deepen economic ties in Asia and beyond. Barry O'Farrell MP, leader of the NSW Liberal Party, spoke about New South Wales' place in the world.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Twelve months after the election of the Rudd Government, in the final Wednesday Lunch at Lowy for 2008, Lowy Institute Executive Director Allan Gyngell reflected on what we have learned about the Rudd Government's emerging foreign policy, about the Prime Minister's own contributions to it and what questions it raises for the future.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The political and economic unification of Europe through the European Union is one of the modern world's greatest political projects. Indeed, it questions many of the conventional wisdoms of political science. The evolution of the European Union is also perplexing, particularly for countries such as Australia, who are geographically distant but maintain very close ties to many European countries. On 26 September at a special Tuesday version of the Wednesday Lunch at Lowy series, Professor Jean Blondel will discuss where the European Union is headed and if it can recover from its referendum setbacks. Professor Blondel is a Professorial Fellow at the Robert Schuman Centre of Advanced Studies at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the Lowy Lecture series on 13 July 2011, International Organisation for Migration Director General Ambassador William Lacy Swing addressed factors driving contemporary international migration – demographic change, labour market demand and widening disparities between developed and developing countries. He focused on the contribution migration can make to social and economic development at global and national levels. He concluded with an analysis of the policy orientations that are available to the international community to maximise those benefits.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On 2 March 2009, as part of its Distinguished Speaker Series, the Lowy Institute hosted a speech by Mr Pascal Lamy, the Director-General of the World Trade Organization, on the values of the multilateral trading system.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

At the Wednesday Lunch at Lowy on 8 April 2009, Professor Warwick McKibbin explored how well the global financial crisis can be understood as a series of unexpected shocks, what these shocks were and how conventional economic models explain the global adjustment and the implications of alternative policy responses.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Disarming Doubt, a new book-length report produced by the Lowy Institute in partnership with the Center for the Promotion of Disarmament and Non-Proliferation, Japan Institute of International Affairs, provides a window into the debates about security, disarmament and extended deterrence in Japan, South Korea and Australia. The book was launched in Canberra on 19th April 2012. The panel discussion at the launch can be heard here.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Is China ready for global economic leadership? The East Asia Program at the Lowy Institute for International Policy was pleased to host the third China Changing Lecture, presented by Professor David Daokui Li on 19 April 2012. In this year's China Changing Lecture, Professor Li discussed China’s role in the changing world economy. Dr Li's presentation was entitled: 'Is China ready for global economic leadership?'See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mr Max Boot, Senior Fellow for National Security Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, spoke at the Lowy Institute on 17 May on the situation in Iraq, including the prospects for the current US strategy and the consequences if it fails.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week’s Wednesday Lowy Lunch focused on the foreign policy dimensions of Paul Kelly’s new book, 'The March of Patriots: The struggle for modern Australia'. Divided by temperament, politics and values, Paul Keating and John Howard had passionate views about Australia’s role in the world and the national interest strategy best calculated to realise their objectives. In his lecture Paul Kelly reviewed the different conceptions of foreign policy held by Keating and Howard and assessed the legacy they bequeathed to Kevin Rudd.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

At the Wednesday Lunch at Lowy on 12 March 2008, International Security Program Director Rory Medcalf proposed a new type of arms control initiative for the Rudd Government, one focused primarily on Asia and its rising nuclear-armed powers China and India.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For much of the twentieth century the West's conception of Asia largely focused on Northeast and Southeast Asia. For decades, this largely maritime and 'vertical' view of Asia accurately reflected the distribution of the region's economic and strategic power. But as the world enters the second decade of the twenty-first century this vertical view of Asia has outlived its usefulness, obscuring rather than illuminating emerging geo-strategic realities.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On 9 April at the Wednesday Lunch at Lowy, Singapore-based analyst and journalist Andrew Symon spoke about the increasing interest in nuclear energy in Southeast Asia, to coincide with the launch of a Lowy Institute Analysis written by him on the same topic, 'Nuclear power in Southeast Asia: implications for Australia and non-proliferation'.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On 6 June, at the Wednesday Lunch at Lowy, Professor Warwick McKibbin provided a preliminary assessment of the report released on 1 June by the Prime Ministerial Task Group on Emissions Trading. This joint government-business task group was established by the Prime Minister on 10 December 2006 with a mandate to advise on the nature and design of a workable global emissions trading system in which Australia would be able to participate.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Our regular Lowy Lunch was held on Thursday, May 3 to allow a special visiting speaker, Archbishop Pius Ncube, to update us on the current situation in Zimbabwe. Pius Alick Ncube was ordained as the Archbishop of Bulawayo (the second largest city in Zimbabwe and the centre of Matabeleland) on 25 January 1998. As a prominent critic of the Mugabe regime, Archbishop Ncube is an internationally recognised human rights activist. He has worked tirelessly in favour of social justice and against human rights abuses in Zimbabwe.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

At the Wednesday Lunch at Lowy on 20 February, Dr Simon Haines, the Reader in English at the Australian National University, spoke on 'Shakespeare, ideology and terrorism'. Shakespeare's villains subvert or dissolve ideology — it appears not to thrive in the climate of his thought. Could this be a helpful corrective in how we think about terroristic behaviour? Or indeed about 'evil' in general?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

News which reaches us from Colombia often paints a picture of a country at war with itself. But Colombia is experiencing a transformation. Security has improved sufficiently to support sustained economic growth, despite the current profound global economic turmoil. What does this mean for Colombia's future, for Latin America, and for greater Australian engagement with Colombia and the region? On Wednesday 11 March 2009, the Lowy Institute was pleased to host Mr Luis Guillermo Plata, Colombia's Minister of Trade, Industry and Tourism, who spoke on the opportunities and challenges Colombia and the region provide.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ever since the days of Franklin Roosevelt, a new president’s first hundred days in office have come to be seen as the first important measure of his performance. Next week marks the end of Barack Obama’s first hundred days as president. How impressively has he performed compared to expectations and historical precedent? Are his policies proving to be more similar to those of President Bush than may have been anticipated – or is this change we can believe in? What clues can we detect about the future directions of his administration?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.