The Lowy Institute

Yemen's growing internal crises and linkages to international terrorism have captured the attention of the international community. Yemen's position at the crossroads of international trade and in a region already bedevilled by piracy and instability are further reasons to be interested in that country's future trajectory. On 14 July the Wednesday Lowy Lunch Club heard Philip Eliason speak about Yemen's internal developments and its role as a fulcrum in a regional arc of crisis.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

After an extraordinary build-up, the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference spectacularly failed to produce an international response commensurate with the scale of the climate change issue - and there seems little prospect of an agreement in the near term. This Wednesday Lowy Lunch launched a new Lowy Policy Brief that charts an alternative course for delivering an international agreement on climate change that will commence genuine reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On Friday 16 July, Australia's Defence Minister, Senator John Faulkner, spoke at the Lowy Institute to discuss Australia's commitment and contribution to the ISAF effort in Afghanistan, in the context of Australian strategic objectives, operational developments and the challenge of capacity building.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

At the Lowy Institute on Tuesday 6 July, the Prime Minister of Australia, the Hon. Julia Gillard, gave her first major policy speech as prime minister.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Lowy Lecture Series - Dr Emanuele Ottolenghi presentation The Wednesday Lowy Lecture on 14 March 2012 explored the policy challenges posed by Iran's nuclear program with Dr Emanuele Ottolenghi. Dr Ottolenghi is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington. He has done extensive research on the connections between Iran’s energy companies and its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and he has advised several foreign ministries in Europe on this issue, and testified before the Canadian and European parliaments.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In an address at the Lowy Institute on 7 February, Professor Ross Garnaut launched his second Update Paper, 'Progress towards effective global action on climate change', which examines international developments in action on climate change since 2008, including the outcomes from Copenhagen and Cancun.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Poll was launched by Lowy Institute Executive Director, Dr Michael Wesley, and was followed by an interactive discussion with panelists, including a Q&A. The discussants were: The Hon. Bob Carr, Laura Tingle and Senator Russell Trood.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Asia's security tensions at sea are back on top of the global strategic agenda with the July 2011 visit to China by US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen. The Lowy Institute recently launched a major new publication on this subject. During the launch event in Canberra on 28 June, a presentation by principal author Rory Medcalf was followed by a panel discussion involving the authors and Director of Studies Andrew Shearer.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On 29 July in Canberra, in the latest in our Food for Thought series, Mark Thirlwell, Director of the Lowy Institute’s International Economy program, looked at our post-GFC world and tried to answer the question, 'Just how much has changed as a result of the global financial crisis?'See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With the US out of Iraq and on its way out of Afghanistan American military strategy may be reverting back to large war scenarios for its future planning. The lecture will consider the basis for this reversion, including a reassessment of the war on terror, frustration with COIN (counter-insurgency) and concerns about China, and ask whether it will be any easier for the US to avoid the lesser contingencies in the future than it has been in the past. Lawrence Freedman has been Professor of War Studies at King's College London since 1982, and Vice-Principal since 2003. Elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1995 and awarded the CBE in 1996, he was appointed Official Historian of the Falklands Campaign in 1997. He was awarded the KCMG in 2003. In June 2009 he was appointed to serve as a member of the official inquiry into Britain and the 2003 Iraq War. Professor Freedman has written extensively on nuclear strategy and the cold war, as well as commentating regularly on contemporary security issues. His most

In this lecture under the Lowy Institute's Canberra Food for Thought series, leading nuclear expert Professor Scott Sagan of Stanford University weighs up the achievements and the challenges ahead for the Obama nuclear agenda. This event, moderated by the Lowy Institute's Rory Medcalf, was supported by the Lowy Institute's partnership with the Nuclear Security Project of the Nuclear Threat Initiative. In 2009 President Obama began an ambitious bid to reduce the threat posed by nuclear weapons globally. Critics have labelled this unrealistic, but US efforts have made notable progress, including an arms-reduction treaty with Russia, a successful 2010 conference to support the Non-Proliferation Treaty, new limits on the roles of US nuclear weapons, and fresh global cooperation on securing nuclear facilities against terrorists. In this lecture under the Lowy Institute's Canberra Food for Thought series, leading nuclear expert Professor Scott Sagan of Stanford University weighs up the achievements and the chall

On Monday 11 April, Professor Michael Grubb of the University of Cambridge addressed the Lowy Lunch Club on the climate change 'policy triad' of technology, pricing and energy efficiency. Professor Grubb argued for a new framing of the problem aligned with security and geopolitical concerns, and a refreshed approach to international coordination based upon the needs of effective and efficient domestic implementation.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Halting biodiversity loss requires rethinking how humans do business with the biosphere. Innovation is needed in accounting of the goods and services nature provides humanity. Dr Aaron Bernstein discussed these issues at the Wednesday Lunch at Lowy on 21 April. Dr Bernstein is on faculty at Harvard Medical School and the Center for Health and Global Environment.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

'A Careful War’ was a compelling two-part documentary program which appeared on the ABC’s Four Corners earlier this month. Distinguished reporter Chris Masters undertook a ground-level exploration of one corner of the Afghanistan conflict. Focusing on the work of an Australian mentoring company, the program delivered important and moving perspectives on this complex battlefront from the soldiers who are fighting and the people they are fighting for. On 30 July Chris Masters delivered a public lecture on the documentary.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the Food for Thought series in Canberra, Malcolm Cook, Director of the Lowy Institute’s East Asia program, and Hugh White, a Visiting Fellow at the Institute and head of the ANU’s Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, debated what the Asian strategic order will look like in 20 to 30 years time and what that will mean for Australia’s strategic policy options.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the evening of 17 March, the Lowy Institute was very pleased to host a lecture by Professor Wang Gungwu entitled 'US and China: Respect and Equality'. The evolving US-China relationship is now the single most important and complicated major power relationship globally and one of immense importance to Australia. As Professor Wang noted, in a world of hierarchies and league tables, the semblance of equality has symbolic value. How can that translate into mutual resOn the evening of 17 March, the Lowy Institute was very pleased to host a lecture by Professor Wang Gungwu entitled 'US and China: Respect and Equality'. The evolving US-China relationship is now the single most important and complicated major power relationship globally and one of immense importance to Australia. As Professor Wang noted, in a world of hierarchies and league tables, the semblance of equality has symbolic value. How can that translate into mutual respect between the United States and China? Professor Wang is one of the world’s lead

How do China's leaders and political elites view the world? What kind of an international role would they like China to assume? At our Food for Thought on Friday 29 April, the new Director of the Lowy Institute's East Asia Program, Linda Jakobson, discussed these issues.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

At the Lowy Lecture Series on 20 July, a high-level panel, with Sandy Hollway AO, Jack De Groot and Rowan Callick, considered how well Australia's aid program is placed to respond to evolving development challenges. Annmaree O'Keeffe, Research Fellow at the Lowy Institute, chaired the discussion.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Based on research including consultations with 180 officials in ten Asia-Pacific countries over the past six years, this careful and balanced assessment of the strengths and limitations of Asia’s rise, notably the rise of China, along with the strengths and weaknesses of the United States and its ongoing leadership position in the region, demonstrates that neither China nor any other power or coalition of powers has either the ability nor the will to challenge US leadership in the Asia-Pacific.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The global context for foreign aid is changing rapidly as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) approach their deadline for cutting extreme poverty by half by 2015. The traditional donor club of OECD countries is handing much of the development leadership role to emerging powers such as Brazil, China, India and Korea. At the Lowy Lecture Series on 23 November 2011, John W. McArthur examined trends in thinking about how future aid programs can be structured.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.