Lowy Institute

In this episode of Lowy Institute Conversations, Research Fellow Jennifer Hsu talks with Nixi Cura to explore and assess some of China’s major soft power initiatives, including its successes and failures over the last five years. They discuss the role of Chinese visual culture, notably contemporary Chinese art as a medium of projecting China’s soft power. Nixi Cura read East Asian Studies at Yale University then specialised in Chinese painting, Buddhist art and Romanesque architecture at the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University. Nixi was the Director of the Arts of China programs at Christie’s Education in London. She is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Glasgow and has held the role of Senior Fellow in the Cultural Leadership program at the Royal Academy of Arts. At SOAS University of London she served as Senior Teaching Fellow in Art History & Archaeology, and as a Doctoral Researcher embarked on a project focusing on the tomb of the Qianlong emperor. Nixi’s publications and research interests range from Qing painting and material culture to modern and contemporary Chinese visual culture.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode of Lowy Institute Conversations, Research Fellow Jennifer Hsu talks with Sarah Tong to explore and assess some of the key stressors of the Chinese economy and major economic policies that have emerged in the last five years. They discuss the contradictory forces at play that are impeding economic structural reforms, the prospect of slower growth and how the international environment will shape domestic economic priorities. Sarah Tong is a Senior Research Fellow of the National University of Singapore’s East Asian Institute and leads its economics cluster. She previously worked at the Development Research Centre of China’s State Council. She obtained her PhD in Economics from the University of California at San Diego. Her research interests concentrate on the development and transformation of the Chinese economy, including trade and foreign investment, development of regions, financial sector reforms, reforms of state-owned enterprises, and China’s evolving industrial and technology policies. Her work has appeared in publications such as the Journal of International Economics and the Review of Development Economics.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Chinese Communist Party will shortly hold its 20th National Congress during a highly unsettled period in international affairs. In February, after President Putin and President Xi declared a "friendship without limits", Russia launched its brutal invasion of Ukraine. In August, China responded to US Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taipei with major military exercises. Meanwhile, President Biden has become increasingly vocal in his support for Taiwan. Just days ahead of the CCP Congress, the Lowy Institute hosted the head of one of the most influential think tanks in Washington. Richard Fontaine addressed the Lowy Institute on the present and future of international order. After his remarks, Mr Fontaine spoke with Lowy Institute Executive Director Michael Fullilove about US security policy in Asia, China’s challenge to the United States and the rules-based order, as well as how the Ukraine war is being viewed in Washington. Richard Fontaine is Chief Executive Officer of the Center for a New American Security. He served as President of CNAS from 2012–19 and before that as Senior Fellow from 2009–12. Prior to his time at CNAS, he was foreign policy adviser to Senator John McCain and worked at the US State Department, the National Security Council, and on the staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. This event was hosted as part of the project Australia's Security and the Rules-Based Order, which receives funding from the Australian Department of Defence Strategic Policy Grants Program. See more about this event at the Lowy Institute website.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

At a time of significant geopolitical uncertainty, India is taking an ever more prominent role in world affairs. From its membership of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, to the influential part that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has played in talks with Russia's President at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit, India is asserting its voice on major international issues. Dr S. Jaishankar is India's leading diplomat. Before entering parliament, he was Foreign Secretary, and previously served as Ambassador in Beijing and Washington, DC. Before that he held posts in Tokyo, Moscow, Singapore, Colombo and Budapest. Dr Jaishankar addressed the Lowy Institute on the growing importance of India's relationship with Australia and the interests that both countries share as members of the security-focused Quad. After his remarks, Dr Jaishankar spoke in conversation with Executive Director Michael Fullilove. Dr S. Jaishankar was appointed India's Minister for External Affairs in 2019 following his election to the upper house of India's parliament for the state of Gujarat. Dr Jaishankar served as Foreign Secretary (2015–2018) and previously represented India in a number of senior diplomatic roles including Ambassador to the United States (2013–2015) and Ambassador to China (2009–2013). Dr Jaishankar holds a PhD in International Relations from Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi and in 2019 was awarded the Padma Shri civilian honour. His book, The India Way: Strategies for an Uncertain World, was published in 2020. For more information about this event, visit the Lowy Institute website.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has become an international symbol of resistance as he leads his country’s response to Russia’s brutal invasion. From his defiant leadership on the streets of Kyiv in the early weeks of the attack to his eloquent advocacy on the global stage, President Zelenskyy has become an internationally admired figure at the heart of some of the most remarkable events in world affairs in recent decades. In this special address, President Zelenskyy spoke from Ukraine via live video link. After his address, he spoke in conversation with Executive Director Michael Fullilove.  Volodymyr Zelenskyy was elected President of Ukraine in 2019. He graduated from the Kyiv National Economic University in 2000 with a degree in law before co-founding and leading the television production company Kvartal 95, responsible for the comedy series Servant of the People, in which he played a teacher who was unexpectedly elected president. President Zelenskyy's heroic leadership in leading Ukraine’s defence against Russia's invasion has been recognised around the world, including in the form of the Ronald Reagan Freedom Award and the 2022 Profile in Courage Award from the John F. Kennedy Library. More information about this event can be found at the Lowy Institute website.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On 2 September 2022, the Lowy Institute hosted a rare insight into the story of women in the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) from its Director-General, Rachel Noble. ASD is Australia’s foreign signals intelligence, cyber security, and offensive cyber operations agency. At this in-person event, the Director-General shared her experiences as a woman in a male dominated career and her thoughts on what leaders and managers can do to help to continue breaking down barriers for women. Following her speech, the Director-General spoke in conversation with Lowy Institute Executive Director Michael Fullilove and took questions from the audience. Rachel Noble PSM is the Director-General of the Australian Signals Directorate. Prior to her appointment, she was the Head of the Australian Cyber Security Centre in the Australian Signals Directorate. Rachel has held senior roles in the Department of Home Affairs, Department of Immigration and Border Protection, and Department of Defence. Rachel was formerly National Security Chief Information Officer and Cyber Policy Coordinator in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, a role in which she received a Public Service Medal for her work.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 2021, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) said that right-wing extremism makes up 50 per cent of its priority caseload. Since that announcement, intelligence and law enforcement agencies have disrupted a number of plots related to right-wing extremists in Australia. But this is not only an issue in Australia. There has been a 250 per cent increase in right-wing terrorism globally. So, what exactly is right-wing extremism and how is its potential for violence growing? Why is it a global problem? How does it threaten democracy and what should we do about it? Rise of the Extreme Right answers these questions.Award-winning investigative journalist Nick McKenzie, whose recent work includes a major investigation on Australian neo-Nazi groups, will launch the book. Lydia Khalil will also speak about her book and her experiences as a counter-terrorism specialist in the United States and Australia. Lydia and Nick will then take questions from our audience.  Lydia Khalil is a Research Fellow at the Lowy Institute and an Associate Research Fellow at Deakin University. She began her counter-terrorism and national security career after the September 11 attacks. She is a recognised expert on terrorism and extremism, having worked for the White House Office of Homeland Security, US Department of Defense, the New York Police Department, Boston Police Department and the Council on Foreign Relations. She is a frequent media commentator and has been widely published. Nick McKenzie is an award-winning investigative journalist for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. He has presented major investigations for the ABC's Four Corners and 7:30, 60 Minutes and The Australian Financial Review. With almost 20 years' experience, his investigations span foreign affairs, defence and national security, corporate wrongdoing, politics, organised crime and corruption, the criminal justice system and social affairs. His work has sparked Royal Commissions and parliamentary inquiries, and prompted investigations in Australia, the United States and Britain into corruption and bribery.Sam Roggeveen, Director of the Lowy Institute's International Security Program, will chair this event.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode of the Aus-PNG Network Leadership Series, Mihai Sora speaks to Andrew Kuliniasi, award-winning playwright and Drama Director at the Moresby Arts Theatre, about how the dramatic arts engage with important social issues in Papua New Guinea.  Andrew tells Mihai about his own work, “Looking at the past informs the future…Meisoga as a play was about a sixteen-year-old girl that had to become the head of her clan, that had to become the matriarch. And I looked at that and I went, wow, this is a story that can inspire other women. And I remember having the lead actress at the time, who is mousy and shy, just become a lion on stage.”  “PNG is such a beautiful country,” says Andrew. “And it’s rich with so many stories and…social issues that happen, and the stories that come from that…may be hard and gritty and tough to swallow, or maybe even beautiful and amazing and triumphant. And I want to be able to show truth and build the industry here. If I’m not going to do it, who is? I can only be the change that I want.”  Andrew Kuliniasi is a playwright and Drama Director at the Moresby Arts Theatre, and Creative Director to PNG Fashion Week. Andrew’s works include Meisoga, He is Victor and his latest production, For My Father, premiering on September 1st.   Mihai Sora is the Project Director of the Australia-Papua New Guinea Network at the Lowy Institute. Mihai’s research focuses on Australian foreign policy in the Pacific, Australia-PNG relations, and geopolitics in the region. Mihai has more than a decade’s experience as an Australian diplomat with postings to Solomon Islands and Indonesia, and was a Pacific Analyst at the Office of National Assessments. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With Australia's security focus now firmly on the Pacific, it is easy to dismiss Australia's twenty-year military involvement in the Middle East as an aberration, or simply as a legacy function of our alliance with the United States. Yet Australia's direct connections and interests in the Middle East are much greater now than they were before the country committed military forces to the region. Canberra has a greater diplomatic presence, a military base, deeper economic interests and more significant people-to-people links in the Middle East than ever before. The evacuations by Australian troops from Lebanon in 2006 and Afghanistan in 2021, as well as the direct security threat to Australia posed by the rise of Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, show how we cannot insulate ourselves from the dynamics and instability of the region. In a new Analysis paper, Lowy Institute Nonresident Fellow Rodger Shanahan argues that Australia's contemporary focus on the Pacific should not blind it to the fact that it has continuing interests in the Middle East. Rather, Canberra should seek to leverage its regional ties and ongoing influence in the Middle East to better effect — to create greater balance in Australian foreign policy.  The event commenced with opening remarks by His Excellency Abdulla al-Sabousi, Ambassador of the United Arab Emirates to Australia. Followed by an overview of the paper by Dr Shanahan and a Q&A with Dr Shanahan and Professor Karima Laachir, Director of the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies at the Australian National University, moderated by Hervé Lemahieu, Director of Research at the Lowy Institute.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ben Scott talks to Maria Rost Rublee, an Associate Professor of Politics & International Relations at Monash University, and Alan Kuperman, an Associate Professor in the LBJ School of Public Affairs, University of Texas at Austin, about Australia's plan to acquire nuclear powered submarines, and what that means for nuclear non-proliferation.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.