Events

China is a rapidly ageing country. According to the World Bank, the working age population is predicted to fall by 10% by 2040. While the size of the workforce is falling, the pool of over 65s are rising, predicted to reach 350 million by the same year.

What are the economic effects of a shrinking labour pool and rising number of aged dependents, and how will the two-child policy limit these effects? Join Dr Merriden Varrall, Director of the East Asia Program at the Lowy Institute, Dr Jane Golley, Associate Director of the Australian Centre on China in the World at the Australian National University and Dr John Edwards, Nonresident Fellow at the Lowy Institute, to explore how population dynamics will shape China’s economy and what it means for our economic future at large.

The race for Iran’s presidency is heating up as more hardline candidates join the contest. Join Lowy Institute Deputy Director Anthony Bubalo and a panel of experts to preview Iran’s crucial presidential elections on 19 May. Joining Anthony will be Dr Rodger Shanahan, Research Fellow at the Lowy Institute, Dr Naser Ghobadzadeh, from the Australian Catholic University and Alice Drury, who lived and studied in Iran between 2014 and 2016.

Allan Gyngell's new book Fear of Abandonment: Australia in the World since 1942 is a gripping and authoritative account of the way Australians and their governments have helped create the world we now inhabit. 

Join Allan Gyngell, former Executive Director of the Lowy Institute and former Prime Minister Paul Keating for a discussion of the history of Australian foreign affairs and its impact on our place in the world now.

With Western countries consumed by domestic problems, will it be China and Russia that now define the rules of global politics?

Join us for an in-conversation with Anthony Bubalo, Lowy Institute Deputy Director and Bobo Lo on the new Lowy Institute Paper published by Penguin Random House Australia, A Wary Embrace. 

In a disorderly world, each has become increasingly assertive, and their partnership has emerged from relative obscurity to acquire a new prominence. Yet appearances are deceptive. Beijing and Moscow have shown no capacity to cooperate on grand strategy or establish new international norms. This is no authoritarian alliance, but a partnership of strategic convenience – pragmatic, calculating and constrained.

Australia and Papua New Guinea have a unique relationship, with ties spanning historical, economic, political and cultural spheres. But many Australians – especially young Australians – don’t realise that PNG is Australia’s nearest neighbour and, up until 1975, was a colony of Australia. This Lowy Institute Aus-PNG Network event will bring together a panel of exceptional young Australian and Papua New Guinean leaders who are working to engage their peers in the political process and increase understanding between the two nations.

Panelists include Barbra Thomas, Executive Director of The Voice Inc., a youth leadership development organisation running programs in PNG’s major universities; Arianne Kassman, Interim Executive Director of Transparency International PNG; Lachlan McPhee, Papua New Guinea Programs Director at Oaktree, Australia’s largest youth-led development agency; and Benson Saulo, Group Indigenous Opportunities Manager at Australian Unity and founding and former Director of the National Indigenous Youth Leadership Academy.

How can it be that governments are wealthier than ever, yet fewer citizens enjoy the benefits that such wealth can bring? Never before have so many governments owned so much wealth in the form of financial assets amassed in state-controlled investment funds. Despite this, deficits persist, inequality worsens and the effects of the 2008 crash still reverberate. “Citizens’ wealth” – creating an additional source of revenue by turning states into wealth-owners - is a long-established idea, but we are yet to see this powerful tool used to its full effect.

Join the Lowy Institute for a panel discussion with Angela Cummine, political theorist and author of Citizens’ Wealth: Why (and How) Sovereign Funds Should be Managed By the People For the People, David Murray, former CEO of the Commonwealth Bank, Paul Cleary, senior journalist at The Australian and Lowy Institute Nonresident Fellow, Dr John Edwards.

With Western countries consumed by domestic problems, will it be China and Russia that now define the rules of global politics?

Join us for the launch of A Wary Embrace, a new Lowy Institute Paper published by Penguin Random House Australia with Bobo Lo. 

In a disorderly world, each has become increasingly assertive, and their partnership has emerged from relative obscurity to acquire a new prominence. Yet appearances are deceptive. Beijing and Moscow have shown no capacity to cooperate on grand strategy or establish new international norms. This is no authoritarian alliance, but a partnership of strategic convenience – pragmatic, calculating and constrained.

Climate change accelerates instability in unexpected ways. Growing water scarcity, declining crop yields, and rising prices are catalysts for displacement and conflict, as witnessed in recent years in Syria and in the European migration crisis. The national security dimension of climate change receives little attention in Australia, but is the subject of intense focus overseas - particularly in the United States.

The Lowy Institute will screen a condensed version of the 2016 film, The Age of Consequences, which analyses the link between climate change and security, followed by a panel discussion. The panel will comprise Sherri Goodman, Founder and Executive Director of the CNA Military Advisory Board, Ian Dunlop, an international oil, gas and coal industry expert and former chair of the Australian Coal Association and Alan Dupont, Nonresident Fellow at the Lowy Institute and CEO of the Cognoscenti Group.

With Western countries consumed by domestic problems, will it be China and Russia that now define the rules of global politics?

Join us for the launch of A Wary Embrace, a new Lowy Institute Paper published by Penguin Random House Australia with Bobo Lo. 

In a disorderly world, each has become increasingly assertive, and their partnership has emerged from relative obscurity to acquire a new prominence. Yet appearances are deceptive. Beijing and Moscow have shown no capacity to cooperate on grand strategy or establish new international norms. This is no authoritarian alliance, but a partnership of strategic convenience – pragmatic, calculating and constrained.

“Donald Trump believes the United States is in a steep decline because of its activities on the world stage. He believes the US-led liberal international order has failed Americans. He wants others to do more and pay more and he wants the US to focus on a very narrow set of national interests, rather than the broader notions of liberal order that have shaped US strategy since the Second World War.”

This is the stark judgement of Dr Thomas Wright, Research Fellow at the Brookings Institution and a Lowy Institute Nonresident Fellow. Dr Wright is one of the brightest young scholars of US foreign policy in Washington. He has led the debate on Donald Trump’s worldview, based on deep research into Mr Trump’s statements over three decades. Anyone coming to terms with what Donald Trump means for the world should start with Dr Wright’s work.

We invite you to join us to hear Dr Wright speak about Trump’s worldview at the Lowy Institute.

The most common thing said about Donald Trump’s worldview is that he does not have one. But is that true? According to Dr Thomas Wright, “Trump’s core beliefs are his touchstone. He has been remarkably consistent on them over several decades. However, these core beliefs are narrow.” On other issues “he will say one thing one day and another the next.”
 
Dr Thomas Wright, a Fellow at the Brookings Institution and a Nonresident Fellow at the Lowy Institute, is one of the brightest young scholars of US foreign policy in Washington. He has led the debate on Donald Trump’s worldview, based on deep research into Mr Trump’s statements over three decades. Anyone coming to terms with what Donald Trump means for the world should start with Dr Wright’s work.

To hear more from Dr Thomas Wright, and for the chance to ask your own questions, join us at the National Press Club for an in-conversation event hosted by Lowy Institute Senior Fellow Sam Roggeveen.
 

“Grievance against the rest of the world is not just a part of Trump’s ideology, it is at its very core.” That is the judgement of Dr Thomas Wright, a Fellow at the Brookings Institution and a Nonresident Fellow at the Lowy Institute. That sense of grievance is already affecting America’s posture in Asia, with the Trump administration’s decision to walk away from the TPP trade agreement. What more will the Trump administration mean for America’s place in Asia’s economic and strategic order? 
 
To find out, join us for a speech by Dr Thomas Wright, one of the brightest young scholars of US foreign policy in Washington. He has led the debate on Donald Trump’s worldview, based on deep research into Mr Trump’s statements over three decades. Anyone coming to terms with what Donald Trump means for the world should start with Dr Thomas Wright’s work.

** Please note this event is being held at a different location than usual: see address details below **

Professor Koh is an international lawyer and legal scholar. From 2009 to 2012, he served as the Legal Adviser to the State Department in the Obama administration, and was the most senior legal adviser to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. He also served as the Dean of Yale Law School, and returned there as a professor in international law following his departure from the State Department. Professor Koh will address the Lowy Institute on the future of international law under the Trump administration. 

With protectionist sentiment around the world, the Shadow Treasurer will reflect on the importance of growing trade pathways in our region and the continuing importance of trade for a small open economy like Australia.

At a time of profound changes and unrivalled uncertainty in international relations, the Foreign Minister will present France’s outlook on global, regional and bilateral challenges, and its convergence with Australia's views and actions in this region and on the international stage.