Lowy Institute

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Channel • 7 Shows

News Commentary

News Commentary

Updated 18 hrs ago
News Commentary

News Commentary

Updated 13 May
News Commentary

News Commentary

Updated 7 May
Society & Culture

Society & Culture

Updated Fortnightly
News Commentary

News Commentary

Updated 01/01/2025
News

News

Updated 11/11/2022
Performing Arts

Performing Arts

Updated Monthly

2 DAYS AGO

Thomas Wright: From the White House to world disorder

Thomas Wright, Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and former senior director at the National Security Council, joins Lowy Institute Director of International Security Sam Roggeveen to discuss the Iran conflict, the future of AUKUS, and what an era of alternating American foreign policies means for Australia and its allies. Dr Wright's Lowy Institute Paper, Inflection Point: Biden, Trump, and the Future World Order, is available now. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

2 days ago

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59 min
13 MAY

Trump-Xi summit: Has America abandoned strategic competition with China?

On the eve of the upcoming Trump-Xi summit, Donald Trump's approach to China looks less like strategic competition and more like a search for a deal. In this episode, Richard McGregor speaks with Lowy Institute Nonresident Fellow and former Biden White House official, Thomas Wright, about what the Trump–Xi summit reveals, why the 2025 tariff war ended badly for Washington, and how the Democratic Party is reckoning with its own foreign policy legacy. Wright also makes the case that the world now faces not one American foreign policy, but two — and must plan accordingly. You can access Tom Wright’s Lowy Institute Paper Inflection Point: Biden, Trump, and the Future World Order here: https://www.lowyinstitute.org/publications/inflection-point-biden-trump-future-world-order More episodes of the Lowy Institute's podcasts are available on your favourite podcast apps, including Spotify, YouTube and Apple. Follow the Lowy Institute on our website, X, Instagram or LinkedIn. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

13 May

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25 min
7 MAY

After the unravelling: Confronting the new world order

The post–Cold War international order hasn't collapsed from a single shock. It's been deliberately unwound. Thomas Wright, a former Senior Director for Strategic Planning in President Biden's National Security Council, argues that China, Russia, and the United States have each adopted foreign policies that broke the foundational restraints holding the system together. By historical measures, what's emerged has the hallmarks of a pre-war environment. Drawing on his time inside the White House, Dr Wright diagnoses how we got here and what may come next. From Xi Jinping's strategy of asymmetric economic dominance, to Putin's war of conquest in Europe, to Trump's redefinition of American alliances as transactional arrangements. This event was hosted by Sam Roggeveen, Director of the Lowy Institute's International Security Program, in Melbourne on Wednesday 6 May 2026. More episodes of the Lowy Institute's podcasts are available on your favourite podcast apps, including Spotify, YouTube and Apple. Follow the Lowy Institute on our website, X, Instagram or LinkedIn. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

7 May

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1 hr
12 MAY

Catching up and pulling ahead: Inside America’s 2025 China report

For years, the conventional wisdom held that the United States retained a decisive lead over China in the technologies and industries that will define the 21st century. The 2025 report of the US–China Economic and Security Review Commission to Congress challenges that view, and its conclusions make for sobering reading. Ahead of the Trump–Xi summit where trade and technology are on the table, the Commission finds that China has not only caught up with but in multiple sectors now leads advanced economies including the United States. From electric vehicles and solar panels to quantum computing pathways and pharmaceutical supply chains, Beijing’s combination of state direction, entrepreneurial competition, and sustained investment has produced results that Western policymakers are only beginning to reckon with. In this episode, the Lowy Institute's Richard McGregor speaks with Randy Schriver and Mike Kuiken — vice-chairs of the Commission — about what their report found and what it means. They discuss China’s model of directed innovation, the case for a consolidated US economic statecraft entity, the multiple “choke points” China now holds over industrialised economies, and what sustained engagement in the Pacific, including by Australia, must look like to be effective. They also assess the military situation around Taiwan and the second-order implications of the ongoing conflict with Iran. Randy Schriver served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs in the first Trump administration. Mike Kuiken is a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution and a former senior adviser to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. More episodes of the Lowy Institute's podcasts are available on your favourite podcast apps, including Spotify, YouTube and Apple. Follow the Lowy Institute on our website, X, Instagram or LinkedIn. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

12 May

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28 min
18 HRS AGO

Myanmar at a crossroads: Five years after the coup

Myanmar has been in a state of violent upheaval since the military seized power in 2021, leading to a nationwide resistance and the collapse of vital state functions. Myanmar’s parliament recently convened for the first time in five years, with the former commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing appointed as president. Hunter Marston, Director of the Lowy Institute’s Southeast Asia Program, and Sean Turnell, a Senior Fellow in the Southeast Asia Program and former economic adviser to Aung San Suu Kyi, discuss the current state of the resistance in Myanmar, prospects for the country’s economy, and what the international community can do to encourage dialogue between all parties. More episodes of the Lowy Institute's podcasts are available on your favourite podcast apps, including Spotify, YouTube and Apple. Follow the Lowy Institute on our website, X, Instagram or LinkedIn. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

18 hrs ago

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24 min
28 APR

The decline of the West: Samir Puri on “Westlessness” and the new global order

Samir Puri, former UK diplomat and author of Westlessness: The Great Global Rebalancing, joins Transnational Challenges Program Director Lydia Khalil to explore the long decline of Western dominance in world affairs. They discuss why the rise of the non-West is about far more than China's challenge to the United States, and how the BRICS bloc is reshaping global networks. They also explore what a more multipolar world means for a country like Australia — Western by heritage, but increasingly embedded in Asia. More episodes of the Lowy Institute's podcasts are available on your favourite podcast apps, including Spotify, YouTube and Apple. Follow the Lowy Institute on our website, X, Instagram or LinkedIn. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

28 Apr

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28 min
4 MAY

A multilateral green trade pact?

International trade has faced multiple shocks in recent years, making the need to reform the architecture of global trade more urgent than ever. Aligning new trade rules with global net-zero ambitions will be crucial to providing the necessary incentives for firms and economies to decarbonise. Many have already recognised the need to “green” trade. But how to do it? The Lowy Institute’s Grace Stanhope and Robert Walker are joined by Ryan Mulholland, a senior fellow for international economic policy at the US-based Center for American Progress, to discuss what green trade is, how it fits into global decarbonisation efforts, and how governments could go about designing green trade agreements. They also discuss how major economies like the United States and China fit into a green trade future, where Australia might fit, and what it’s like being at the forefront of negotiations. More episodes of the Lowy Institute's podcasts are available on your favourite podcast apps, including Spotify, YouTube and Apple. Follow the Lowy Institute on our website, X, Instagram or LinkedIn. Further reading: See Ryan’s latest work on green trade here: https://www.inettt.org/news-blog/unilateralism-in-trade-calls-for-a-new-approach-to-build-a-green-future Robert’s latest work on green trade and implications for Australia here: https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/green-trade-partnerships-will-make-or-break-australia-s-renewable-superpower See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

4 May

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22 min
4 MAR

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on sovereignty, middle powers, and dealing with Trump

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney visited the Lowy Institute in Sydney for a special event on Wednesday 4 March 2026.Speaking at a moment of acute global uncertainty, Prime Minister Carney reiterated his argument that the rules-based international order is not in transition but in rupture, and that middle powers like Canada and Australia cannot afford to wait for it to be restored. He outlined why sovereignty in the 21st century extends far beyond borders and defence, how middle powers can build collective strength through issue-based coalitions, and why legitimacy and trust are advantages the great powers cannot buy.Prime Minister Carney also addressed the escalating conflict in the Middle East, Canada's recalibrated relationships with China, India, the United States, and United Nations, and his approach to dealing with President Trump.More episodes of the Lowy Institute's podcasts are available on your favourite podcast apps, including Spotify, YouTube and Apple. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

4 Mar

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1hr 5min
26 MAR

The Trump Strategy: Stephen Biegun's 2026 Owen Harries Lecture

What is the strategy driving Donald Trump's assertive use of American power? In the 2026 Owen Harries Lecture, former US Deputy Secretary of State Stephen E Biegun offers a frank insider's assessment of President Trump's foreign policy across both his first and second terms. He discusses President Trump's reorientation of US policy toward China, the Abraham Accords, his efforts to maximise pressure on Iran, and the dramatic raid that captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Stephen Biegun traces the historical precedents behind President Trump's decisions and examines the logic, and the limits, of a foreign policy built on fear, leverage, and dealmaking.He argues that a strategy designed to produce fear in adversaries and respect from everyone must be accompanied by consistent reassurance to friends. Following the lecture, Stephen Biegun joined Lowy Institute Executive Director Dr Michael Fullilove AM for a conversation exploring these themes further. Since 2013, the annual Owen Harries Lecture has honoured the significant contribution made to the international debate in Australia and the United States by Owen Harries, who was a Nonresident Fellow at the Lowy Institute. This event is part of the Rothschild & Co Distinguished International Fellowship. More episodes of the Lowy Institute's podcasts are available on your favourite podcast apps, including Spotify, YouTube and Apple. Follow the Lowy Institute on our website, X, Instagram or LinkedIn. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

26 Mar

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1hr 4min
18 MAR

Australia's Southeast Asia blind spot with Michael Wesley

Australia's cultural and strategic ties lie in the Western world and its economic links are overwhelmingly in North Asia. So what is Southeast Asia to Australia? Why does the region matter, and what should Australia do to overcome its long-sightedness? Michael Wesley is one of Australia's most incisive observers of world affairs. On Wednesday 18 March 2026, he joined the Lowy Institute's Sam Roggeveen to discuss why Australia perennially overlooks Southeast Asia in its strategic and economic considerations. More episodes of the Lowy Institute's podcasts are available on your favourite podcast apps, including Spotify, YouTube and Apple. Follow the Lowy Institute on our website, X, Instagram or LinkedIn. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

18 Mar

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1 hr

The Lowy Institute is a leading international think tank that looks at the world from Australia’s perspective.

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