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Weeks prior to the assassination attempt against Donald Trump, the Lowy Institute hosted global terrorism expert Professor Bruce Hoffman for a podcast with Program Director Lydia Khalil. They spoke about the future prospects of political violence in the United States and discussed Hoffman’s latest book, God, Guns, and Sedition, which traces the trajectory of terrorism, particularly far-right terrorism, in the United States and assesses its present day dangers, its relationship with mainstream politics, and the harm it poses to US and global security.
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In this special episode of Conversations, the Lowy Institute’s Dr Michael Fullilove and Hervé Lemahieu discuss US President Joe Biden’s momentous decision overnight to withdraw from his bid for a second term.
In the past three weeks, US politics has been reshaped before our eyes. A resurgent former president Donald Trump, emerging from an attempt on his life, appears stronger than ever. Meanwhile, after weeks of defying calls to withdraw from the race, Joe Biden abruptly abandoned his bid for a second term as US president. Will it be enough to turn things around for the Democratic Party, and where does the United States go from here?
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In part two of our South China Sea series, Dr Oriana Skylar Mastro speaks with the Lowy Institute’s Susannah Patton about China’s objectives in the region.
Beijing is pursuing an aggressive strategy to push out the United States and prevent Southeast Asian claimant states, especially the Philippines, from exercising their sovereign rights.
Dr Mastro, Center Fellow at Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies Stanford University, Nonresident Scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and author ofUpstart: How China Became a Great Power, explains the military, political and legal dimensions of China’s approach, which has gone relatively unchecked by the United States and its allies, until now.
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In this episode, Debra Sungi of PNG’s Climate Change and Development Authority speaks with the Lowy Institute’s Oliver Nobetau.
Discussions around development in the Pacific consistently reference climate change as a major challenge. Countries such as PNG have to manage the support offered by international development partners without being overwhelmed by foreign agendas and aligning external assistance with national priorities.
In this wide-ranging conversation, Debra Sungi, who is the newly appointed director of the CCDA, as well as one of a handful of women leading government agencies in PNG and the youngest ever at only 33, discusses PNG’s national initiatives and the importance of bringing knowledge to the grass roots level. She also talks about success stories of bilateral cooperation, and dealing with the challenges of climate change and being a young woman in a position of leadership.
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The Lowy Institute’s Sam Roggeveen spoke with Sweden’s defence minister, Pål Jonson, during his recent visit to Australia. Prior to his ministerial career, Jonson worked in Sweden’s Defence Research Agency, and his depth of knowledge about not just European security but also Asia comes through in this interview. Roggeveen asks Jonson why Swedes should care about Asia, whether Europe is doing enough to help Ukraine, and why Sweden chose to join NATO now.
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Tensions between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea have reached their highest level in more than a decade. The risk of escalation, even conflict, between the two countries could test the credibility of the Philippines’ alliance with the United States.
In the first of a series focused on the South China Sea tensions, Susannah Patton, Director of the Southeast Asia Program at the Lowy Institute, discusses the Philippines’ strategy with Jonathan Malaya, Assistant Director-General of the National Security Council of the Philippines and the spokesperson for the West Philippine Sea Taskforce, the key body that coordinates Philippine agencies’ policy on the South China Sea.
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