Lowy Institute

An address by Hadja Lahbib, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belgium, on business and human rights. The event was presided over by Her Royal Highness Princess Astrid of Belgium, who led the Belgian Economic Mission to Australia. Following her address, the Minister joined the Lowy Institute’s Research Director Hervé Lemahieu for a panel conversation alongside Dr James Cockayne, Anti-Slavery Commissioner for New South Wales, and Professor Justine Nolan, Director of the Australian Human Rights Institute at the University of New South Wales. The discussion was centred on Europe’s expansion of corporate due diligence efforts and the implications for Australian businesses. Tuesday 24 October 2023See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The FDC Pacific Lecture, was given by the Prime Minister of the Republic of Fiji, the Hon Sitiveni Ligamamada Rabuka.    The Hon Sitiveni Rabuka is Fiji’s seventh elected Prime Minister, having previously served in the role from 1992 to 1999. He is also the current Minister for Foreign Affairs, Climate Change, Environment, Civil Service, Information, Public Enterprises and Veteran Affairs.  Prime Minister Rabuka has a distinguished military career and served as the Chair of Fiji’s Great Council of Chiefs from 1999 to 2001.    Prime Minister Rabuka spoke on Fiji’s economic recovery, future development ambitions and role in the region given intensifying geopolitical engagement. After his remarks, the Prime Minister spoke in conversation with the Lowy Institute's Executive Director, Dr Michael Fullilove AM.   The Prime Minister was introduced by the Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Senator the Hon Penny Wong.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

After a decade of foreign aid cuts, deprioritisation, and then securitisation, Australia finally has a new international development policy that aims to return development to the heart of Australia’s international statecraft. Leading that charge is Australia’s Minister for International Development and the Pacific, the Hon Pat Conroy.  In this episode of Development Futures, Minister Conroy sits down with Roland Rajah, the director of the Indo-Pacific Development Centre at the Lowy Institute, to share his thoughts on what the new policy means. How will Australia’s development program be rebuilt? What is the relationship between development and geopolitics? What will the role of governance work and civil society be? Beyond the traditional aid program, will Australia increase its impact investment and clean energy financing to Southeast Asia, and can it still lend responsibly in the Pacific? And what will be Australia’s approach to reform of the multilateral system? These questions and more are covered in this wide-ranging discussion.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Rothschild & Co Distinguished International Fellowship brings an internationally recognised intellectual and policy leader to Australia to help deepen our debate on global issues. Shivshankar Menon served as India’s National Security Adviser from 2010 to 2014, and prior to that as foreign secretary and ambassador to Beijing and Islamabad, among other capitals. India, along with Asian geopolitics, has undergone rapid and accelerating change. Will India assume the role of a traditional power in a rebalanced Asian system? How will this affect the prospects for India’s increasingly close relationship with Australia and other major actors in the region? Shivshankar Menon argued that India’s move towards working ever more closely with the West is inevitable, but the devil is in the detail.  Since 2013, the annual Owen Harries Lecture has honoured the significant contribution made to the international debate in Australia and the United States by Owen Harries, who was a Nonresident Fellow at the Lowy Institute.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode of The Director’s Chair, Michael Fullilove speaks to the leading Indian scholar and diplomat, Shivshankar Menon. They discuss Hamas’s attack on Israel, how India manages its relationship with China, and why he is an optimist about the relationship between India and Australia.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Group of 20 Common Framework was established in October 2020 as stress in sovereign debt levels of low-income countries began to emerge. However, the Framework is yet to substantially deliver on its objective of providing relief to those countries. Mariza Cooray, Senior Economist at the Lowy Institute’s Indo-Pacific Development Centre, discusses the Common Framework and the broader debates on issues in sovereign debt reform with experts Ugo Panizza and Mitu Gulati. Together, they explore why the Framework has failed, given the modern creditor landscape, whether the ongoing emerging market debt crises are as serious as those in the 1990s, the appetite for a global bankruptcy court, odious debt, and other policy issues that prevent the progress of a more inclusive sovereign debt architecture.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Green Climate Fund – the largest climate fund in the world – is seeking a new cash injection by donors in October 2023. But it's not all smooth sailing. Alexandre Dayant, the Deputy Director of the Indo-Pacific Development Centre, discusses a recent Lowy Institute policy brief with two of the authors, Georgia Hammersley and Roland Rajah. Together, they explore the key challenges hampering the Fund's efficiency, propose several reforms, and spotlight Australia's potential role in helping realise them.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

An address by foreign relations expert and former diplomat Dr Martin Indyk on US diplomacy in the Middle East and elsewhere, and lessons from history. Dr Indyk discussed his recent biography, Master of the Game: Henry Kissinger and the Art of Middle East Diplomacy, and the relevance of US diplomat Dr Kissinger for modern foreign policy challenges, including in Ukraine. After his remarks, Dr Indyk spoke in conversation with the Lowy Institute’s Executive Director Dr Michael Fullilove. Dr Martin Indyk is a former diplomat who is currently the Lowy Distinguished Fellow in US–Middle East Diplomacy at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. Prior to this, he was the executive vice president of the Brookings Institution. He served twice as US Ambassador to Israel, from 1995 to 1997, and again from 2000 to 2001. Dr Indyk was special assistant to President Bill Clinton, senior director for Near East and South Asian affairs at the US National Security Council, and assistant secretary for Near Eastern affairs at the US State Department. From 2013 to 2014, he served as President Barack Obama’s special envoy for Middle East peace. Ambassador Indyk is a founding member of the Lowy Institute Board.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Retired Major General Tamir Hayman offers unique insights on the Ukraine war, the potential for Iran to pursue a nuclear weapon, and the role of secret intelligence in an age of 'information super-abundance'. He discusses surprises in the Russian operation in Ukraine, the impact of Russian aggression on Ukraine, the challenges of ubiquitous surveillance and data abundance in intelligence gathering, and the issues surrounding Iran's nuclear program and the ineffective JCPOA.

In this episode of Pacific Change Makers, Dr Jessica Collins speaks with Vanuatu MPGloria Julia King – a mother of four, and a former national football player who is the first woman to be elected to Vanuatu’s parliament in 14 years.  Ms King pays respect to women who trailblazed before her but says, more than four decades on from independence, little has changed for women trying to make a career in national politics. At a recent FIFA World Cup Gender Symposium hosted by Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong, Ms King said that “in the community, in education, in health, in sports, in football…whatever the association or institution you’re serving in, it is important that women have a place on the table where decisions have been made.” She also says that while barriers persist for women in politics, sport is a great equalizer, irregardless of gender or ethnicity: “When it comes to football, when it comes to sports, all these barriers dissolve.” Speakers Gloria Julia King was elected to Vanuatu’s parliament in 2022 as representative for the Efate constituency, becoming the first woman elected to the chamber in 14 years. A former national football player and businesswoman, she was chef de mission of the Vanuatu team at the  Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in 2022.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.