Lowy Institute

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Channel • 7 Shows

News Commentary

News Commentary

Updated Feb 4
Performing Arts

Performing Arts

Updated Monthly
News Commentary

News Commentary

Updated Feb 4
News

News

Updated 11/11/2022
News Commentary

News Commentary

Updated 01/01/2025
Society & Culture

Society & Culture

Updated Biweekly
News Commentary

News Commentary

Updated Jan 28

FEB 4

Carney's rupture: Rethinking the rules-based order

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney delivered a frank and impassioned speech at this year's World Economic Forum at Davos. He argued that in an era of great power competition, middle powers can no longer afford to maintain the fiction of a rules-based order. While never calling out President Trump by name, Carney highlighted the broader “rupture" in the global order. Speaking with the Lowy Institute's Sam Roggeveen, Lydia Khalil discusses the value of rhetoric and dissects how Carney's remarks are being viewed in Canberra and other world capitals. While it has been much talked about, will Carney's speech shift how middle powers coordinate globally? 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. Follow Sam Roggeveen on X and LinkedIn. Follow Lydia Khalil on LinkedIn. More on this topic “Principled and pragmatic: Canada’s path”, Prime Minister Carney addresses the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting “A rupture, not a transition”:Carney’s new order, Sam Roggeveen, The Interpreter Nato without America: Europe ‘thinks the unthinkable’, Ben Hall and Henry Foy, Financial Times See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Feb 4

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26 min
JAN 28

Troy Bramston: How Gough Whitlam reshaped Australia's place in the world

Troy Bramston is a senior writer at The Australian and author of the new biography Gough Whitlam: The Vista of the New — the first comprehensive biography of Australia's 21st prime minister since his death in 2014. Drawing on newly opened archives and more than 100 interviews, Bramston offers fresh insights into one of the most consequential periods in Australian history. Speaking with the Lowy Institute's Director of Research David Dutton in Sydney, Bramston examines Whitlam's opening to China, the end of White Australia, independence for Papua New Guinea, and the complexities of East Timor and the alliance with the United States. He explores how Whitlam's realpolitik approach transformed Australian diplomacy and why his legacy continues to shape our approach to the region today. 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. Follow David Dutton and Troy Bramston on X. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jan 28

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1h 1m
FEB 4

Carney's rupture: Rethinking the rules-based order

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney delivered a frank and impassioned speech at this year's World Economic Forum at Davos. He argued that in an era of great power competition, middle powers can no longer afford to maintain the fiction of a rules-based order. While never calling out President Trump by name, Carney highlighted the broader “rupture" in the global order. Speaking with the Lowy Institute's Sam Roggeveen, Lydia Khalil discusses the value of rhetoric and dissects how Carney's remarks are being viewed in Canberra and other world capitals. While it has been much talked about, will Carney's speech shift how middle powers coordinate globally? 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. Follow Sam Roggeveen on X and LinkedIn. Follow Lydia Khalil on LinkedIn. More on this topic “Principled and pragmatic: Canada’s path”, Prime Minister Carney addresses the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting “A rupture, not a transition”:Carney’s new order, Sam Roggeveen, The Interpreter Nato without America: Europe ‘thinks the unthinkable’, Ben Hall and Henry Foy, Financial Times See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Feb 4

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26 min
JAN 19

Recast: His Father’s Son — The Xi family and the Future of China

As part of the Lowy Institute Recast series, we are republishing the best podcasts of 2025. In case you missed them the first time around or if you want revisit these engaging conversations, the Recast series has you covered. Understanding Xi Jinping and what drives him has become a global cottage industry. According to US China scholar Joseph Torigian, one of the keys to understanding Xi Jinping is his father, Xi Zhongxun. How did Xi Senior influence Xi Junior? And what lessons can be drawn from the father for today’s policymaking? Torigian speaks with the Lowy Institute’s Richard McGregor about his new biography, The Party’s Interests Come First. This episode was first published on 24 October 2025. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jan 19

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30 min
07/10/2025

Conversations: Cold War prophet

In this episode, Edward Luce, Financial Times columnist and author of Zbig, a new biography of US President Jimmy Carter’s national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, talks with Sam Roggeveen. They discuss Zbig’s stature as a foreign policy sage, his friendship and rivalry with Henry Kissinger, and what remains of the Washington foreign policy establishment that Zbig symbolised. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

07/10/2025

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25 min
JAN 27

Extremism expert: Rising misogyny is fuelling political violence worldwide

Professor Cynthia Miller-Idriss is a globally recognised expert on violent extremism and prevention, based at American University in Washington, DC. She is the author of a new book, Man Up: The New Misogyny and the Rise of Violent Extremism, which explores how misogyny is driving a surge in extremist violence throughout the West. Speaking with the Lowy Institute's Lydia Khalil, Professor Miller-Idriss explains the five tactics of misogyny in extremist movements, why Gen Z men are increasingly rejecting women's rights, and what a public health approach to prevention looks like in practice. 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. Follow Lydia Khalil on LinkedIn. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jan 27

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24 min
12/16/2019

Exporting Digital Authoritarianism, with Alina Polyakova

Digital authoritarianism is the use of digital technology by authoritarian regimes to monitor, manipulate and control both domestic and foreign populations. China and Russia are at the forefront, representing two distinct but related models. There are many dimensions to it, from the recent revelations China is developing facial recognition technology to sort people by ethnicity, to Russia’s attempts to create a sovereign Russian internet. Digital authoritarianism is reshaping the power balance between democracies and illiberal states. What can democracies do to level the playing field, without sacrificing core democratic values? My guest on this episode of Rules Based Audio, Dr Alina Polyakova, is the founding director of the Project on Global Democracy and Emerging Technology at the Brookings Institution. And she is the co-author of a recent paper, ‘Exporting Digital Authoritarianism’, published by Brookings. She argues that the west must start conceiving of the democratic digital domain as an asset in this contest, one that must be be protected and defended – but also one that’s more resilient than we think. Rules Based Audio is a half-hour, fortnightly podcast covering stories from the cracks and faultlines in the global order, hosted by Kelsey Munro and powered by the Lowy Institute. This is our last episode for 2019 and my last episode as host. Rules Based Audio will be back in 2020. Thanks for listening! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

12/16/2019

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32 min
JAN 5

Recast: The future of the Five Eyes

As part of the Lowy Institute Recast series, we are republishing the best podcasts of 2025. In case you missed them the first time around or if you want revisit these engaging conversations, the Recast series has you covered. In this episode, host Lydia Khalil speaks with former US Ambassador and Director-General of ASIO Dennis Richardson and Interpreter Managing Editor Daniel Flitton, about the Five Eyes — the powerful and strategically important intelligence sharing alliance. Its member countries, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, have sustained and protected one of the world's most unified multilateral arrangements for more than 75 years. But even the Five Eyes may not avoid the wrecking ball that is the second Trump administration. This episode was first published on 1 May 2025. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jan 5

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27 min
JAN 14

Recast: Cold War prophet

As part of the Lowy Institute Recast series, we are republishing the best podcasts of 2025. In case you missed them the first time around or if you want revisit these engaging conversations, the Recast series has you covered. In this episode, Edward Luce, Financial Times columnist and author of Zbig, a new biography of US President Jimmy Carter’s national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, talks with Sam Roggeveen. They discuss Zbig’s stature as a foreign policy sage, his friendship and rivalry with Henry Kissinger, and what remains of the Washington foreign policy establishment that Zbig symbolised. This episode was first published on 10 July 2025. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jan 14

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25 min
11/20/2025

EVENT: Present at the Destruction

Dr Michael Fullilove AM, Executive Director of the Lowy Institute, gave a speech to the Institute titled "Present at the Destruction" on Tuesday 29 November 2025. In these remarks, he reflects on the ABC Boyer Lectures he delivered a decade ago. Dr Fullilove believes we are present at the destruction of an international order that served our interests well. The liberal order has become something illiberal and disorderly. On the other hand, the return of political stability to Australia's government should set us up to make bold decisions. He assesses Australia's international policies, in particular the stabilisation of relations with China, the energetic diplomacy in Southeast Asia and the Pacific and the agreements Canberra has signed with Pacific Island countries and Indonesia. In time, he hopes these agreements will come to form a latticework of mutual strategic trust. This is the moment, Dr Fullilove suggests, for Australia to increase its investment in both diplomacy and deterrence. Our country should take on an even more demanding regional role, including by helping to coordinate the Indo-Pacific allies in their dealings with the Trump administration. After his speech, Dr Fullilove joined the Institute’s Deputy Research Director Susannah Patton for a conversation. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

11/20/2025

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1h 1m

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