Events

To mark the launch of the 2020 Asia Power Index, join us for a panel discussion with Joseph S. Nye Jr., Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor, Emeritus and former Dean of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government; Senator Penny Wong, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs and Leader of the Opposition in the Senate; Professor Yuen Foong Khong, Vice Dean at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore; and Hervé Lemahieu, Director of the Lowy Institute’s Asian Power and Diplomacy Program. 

Join us for this conversation with one of America’s most experienced and influential military leaders. General James Mattis will talk with Michael Fullilove about serving as US Secretary of Defense, his career as a US Marine, and the security challenge America faces from a rising China. They will be joined by one of Australia’s most decorated military leaders, Sir Angus Houston.

Across the Pacific, economies are being devastated by the lockdowns necessary to keep the COVID-19 pandemic at bay. The threads connecting Pacific economies to the outside world – tourism, migration, remittances, investment and trade – are fraying. Double-figure economic contractions are expected in most Pacific nations, with formal employment collapsing. It will be many years before Pacific economies recover to their 2019 levels.

Australia's relations with China seem to be reaching new lows each week, with a proliferation of disputes over everything from trade to the media to COVID-19 to universities. Join the ABC's Bill Birtles and the Australian Financial Review's Michael Smith, both recently advised by the Australian government to leave China, along with Kirsty Needham, formerly of the Sydney Morning Herald and now with Reuters, for a discussion of the bilateral relationship. The discussion will be moderated by the Lowy Institute's Senior Fellow for North Asia, Richard McGregor.

Join us for the launch of the latest Lowy Institute Paper published by Penguin Random House Australia, Man of Contradictions: Joko Widodo and the Struggle to Remake Indonesia.

Author Ben Bland will discuss what makes the Indonesian president tick, his struggle to implement reform and tackle the COVID-19 crisis, and why outsiders keep getting Jokowi – and Indonesia – wrong.

Ben Bland is the Director of the Southeast Asia Program at the Lowy Institute and an award-winning former correspondent for the Financial Times in Indonesia, China and Vietnam. His first book – Generation HK: Seeking Identity in China’s Shadow – was acclaimed for its prescient insights into the deepening political crisis in Hong Kong.

Join us for the launch of the latest Lowy Institute Paper published by Penguin Random House Australia, Man of Contradictions: Joko Widodo and the Struggle to Remake Indonesia, the first English-language biography of Indonesian President Joko Widodo. Lowy Institute Executive Director Dr Michael Fullilove will speak with author Ben Bland about what makes the president tick, his struggle to implement reform and tackle the COVID-19 crisis, and why outsiders keep getting Jokowi – and Indonesia – wrong.

Join us for the launch of the latest Lowy Institute Paper published by Penguin Random House Australia, Man of Contradictions: Joko Widodo and the Struggle to Remake Indonesia.
 

Join us for a conversation with Samantha Power, one of America’s leading foreign policy voices, both as a scholar and a Cabinet member in the Obama administration. Lowy Institute Executive Director Dr Michael Fullilove will speak with Power about US foreign policy under President Donald Trump, Vice President Joe Biden’s worldview, the global implications of the coronavirus pandemic and the future of the US-China relationship.

The United Arab Emirates has built an increasingly high profile in regional affairs in recent years. Long known for its resource riches and welcoming attitude towards Western expatriates, it has developed and diversified its domestic economy at great speed, and deployed its armed forces on operations in Afghanistan, Yemen and in support of the anti–Islamic State coalition. It also has strong links with Australia, hosting the largest overseas concentration of ADF assets, as well as nearly 20,000 Australian expats, three Australian universities and two Australian international high schools. It is Australia’s main trading partner in the Middle East; more than 300 Australian companies operate there, and the UAE invests more than $11 billion in Australia.
 
Join Dr Rodger Shanahan, research fellow in the Lowy Institute’s West Asia program, for a discussion with Dr Anwar Gargash, the UAE’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, to explore the UAE’s view of the region and of its relationship with Australia.