The Lowy Institute

On 6 September 2006 at the Wednesday Lunch at Lowy, Jose Blanco and Roger Frankel asked whether Latin America's move to the left, its resurgent populism, links with the Middle East and rapidly growing Chinese influence will affect Australian interests and investments in the region, and global security. Jose Blanco is the Chairman of the Australia-Latin America Business Council (ALABC). Roger Frankel is the Director of consulting company Frank Advice (international), and a former Australian Ambassador to Venezuela.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On 2 July 2008 at the Wednesday Lunch at Lowy, Lieutenant Colonel Mark O’Neill offered a contemporary personal perspective on the experience of moving from theoretical considerations of counterinsurgency to involvement with actual counterinsurgency practice. Mark’s presentation drew on his recent seven month experience as the Senior Adviser at the Multinational Force Iraq’s Counterinsurgency Center for Excellence, during which he worked in various parts of the country.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On 18 June 2008 at the Wednesday Lunch at Lowy, Dr Atul Khare, United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary General for Timor-Leste discussed the challenges of nation-building in the post-conflict environment of East Timor and the role of neighbouring countries in meeting those challenges.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Lowy Institute was pleased to host, as part of its Distinguished Speaker Series, the Commonwealth Attorney-General, Robert McClelland, who in his presentation, 'Human rights: a moral compass', outlined the Government's approach to human rights and upcoming reforms aimed at strengthening Australia's leadership in this area.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

At the Wednesday Lunch at Lowy on 8 August, Jim Ingram, head of the World Food Programme for ten years, argued in a presentation entitled 'Reforming the UN: an iconoclastic view from the inside' that the focus of UN reform should shift to the economic and social activity of the wider UN system where valuable work is done.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Westerners have presumed that China's rise will take a familiar trajectory incorporating first economic, then political and social development in a broadly liberal democratic, market-driven direction. The recent tensions with Australia underline the failure of that perspective to explain modern China and its rise. What is China today and where is it heading? At the Wednesday Lunch at Lowy on 12 August, Asia-Pacific Editor of The Australian newspaper, Rowan Callick, explored the dimensions of the party-state.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On 2 April at the Wednesday Lunch at Lowy, Dr Jeffrey Eisenach, a leading regulatory economist and a global expert on content filtering technology, discussed the prospects for global regulation of the digital economy. Jeffrey A. Eisenach is Chairman of the Criterion Economics consulting firm in Washington DC and an Adjunct Professor at George Mason University Law School.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the wake of the Iraq war, both US Presidential candidates have said they will close Guantanamo Bay and take a different view from the current Administration on water boarding. Under the next US President, can we expect a revival of US and wider interest in international law when it comes to the prohibition on torture, the use of force, non-proliferation and climate change? Professor James Crawford discusses these issues as part of the Lowy Institute Distinguished Speaker Series.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

At this week's Wednesday Lunch, the Lowy Institute for International Policy launched 'Zealous democrats: Islamism and democracy in Egypt, Indonesia and Turkey'. The authors of this new Lowy Institute Paper, Anthony Bubalo, Greg Fealy and Whit Mason, all spoke about their ideas expressed in the Paper.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

China’s rise is transforming the Asia-Pacific strategic landscape, and understanding how 'China' thinks preoccupies governments across the region. At the Wednesday Lunch at Lowy on 18 November, Thomas Mahnken explored features of China’s national strategic culture, including a sense of cultural superiority, a belief that China’s natural position is that of the 'Middle Kingdom' as well as the need for China to be unified internally and free from external meddling.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As part of its Distinguished Speaker Series, the Lowy Institute was pleased to host Dr David Malone, who spoke on India's most important future bilateral relationship, that with China. David M. Malone is a distinguished Canadian diplomat and scholar. He is president of Canada’s International Development Research Centre, one of the world’s leading research institutions on development issues.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On 23 May at the Wednesday Lunch at Lowy, Visiting Fellow Hugh White spoke on the topic 'A nuclear arms race between China and the United States: what Australia can do to stop it'.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As a part of its Lowy Lecture Series on 18 April 2012, the Lowy Institute was pleased to host His Excellency Nasir A. Andisha, Afghanistan's Ambassador to Australia. Ambassador Andisha discussed how a lack of clear communications, inconsistency and the sending of mixed messages are undermining NATO/ISAF'S strategy in Afghanistan.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On 20 May 2009 at the Wednesday Lunch at Lowy, Florian Westphal, the head of media at the International Committee of the Red Cross, in a presentation entitled 'Dealing with war crimes: what role for media and humanitarian organisations?' addressed the question of how the media and humanitarian organisations can responsibly draw the attention of policy-makers to the need to investigate, put a stop to and, importantly, prevent war crimes.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

At the Wednesday Lunch at Lowy on 30 September, Deputy Director Martine Letts explored prospects for partnership between government and industry on nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament, and how Australia could lead.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

At the Wednesday Lunch at Lowy on 28 May, to mark the fifth anniversary of the founding of the Lowy Institute, Executive Director Allan Gyngell discussed the role of think tanks in shaping Australian foreign policy.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On 29 August at the Wednesday Lunch at Lowy, the Hon. Greg Hunt, MP, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Foreign Minister, talked about the global climate challenge. In his presentation he described how Australia can achieve the twin objectives of energy security and emissions reduction to create a clean energy future.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

At the Wednesday Lunch at Lowy on 23 September Dr Michael Fullilove launched his new paper making the case for Australia’s UN Security Council bid.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

At the Wednesday Lunch at Lowy on 29 October, Mark Thirlwell, Director of the Institute's International Economy program, looked at the resumed battle for the Commanding Heights of the world economy, and asked whether the apparent victory for the free market secured in the 1980s and 1990s is now about to be overturned in favour of the state.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Yemen's growing internal crises and linkages to international terrorism have captured the attention of the international community. Yemen's position at the crossroads of international trade and in a region already bedevilled by piracy and instability are further reasons to be interested in that country's future trajectory. On 14 July the Wednesday Lowy Lunch Club heard Philip Eliason speak about Yemen's internal developments and its role as a fulcrum in a regional arc of crisis.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.