With China’s military capability increasing but US military primacy still holding firm for now, bi-polarity may be the name of the game in the Asia Pacific.  But will this bipolarity hold and how are other regional countries positioned? Richard McGregor hosts Professor Hugh White, Emeritus Professor of Strategic Studies at the Australian National University (ANU) and Lowy Institute experts, Project Lead for the Asia Power Index (API) Susannah Patton and Research Director Herve Lemahieu to examine and debate the results of the 2024 API.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Eighty years ago, the Bretton Woods agreement shaped the global financial system to build a better world. While its institutions remain vital, they are struggling to meet today’s challenges — climate change, economic insecurity, and a multi-trillion-dollar development financing gap. In this podcast, Lowy Institute researchers Alexandre Dayant, Michelle Lyons and Roland Rajah explore the proposal for an Indo-Pacific Economic Resilience Bank (IERB) — a bank that will aim to diversify critical supply chains, reduce China’s dominance in clean energy, and mobilise new capital for the clean energy transition in the Indo-Pacific. Read and download the Lowy Institute Analysis The case for an Indo-Pacific Economic Resilience Bank by Michelle Lyons, Roland Rajah and Grace Stanhope.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In Asia, a battle of narratives rages. Many believe China is already an unassailably dominant force, while US primacists see it as ultimately containable. In either case, bipolarity is the order of the day. However, countries such as Australia and Japan tout the emergence of a multipolar Indo-Pacific. What do the findings of the Lowy Institute’s Asia Power Index say about these prevailing narratives? And what role can third countries play in Asia’s power politics and in its regional order? Dr Michael Green joined the Lowy Institute’s Susannah Patton and Hervé Lemahieu to debate the findings of the 2024 Asia Power Index.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sean Turnell's new Lowy Institute Paper, Best Laid Plans, was officially launched by Australia's Foreign Minister Penny Wong at an event at the National Press Club in Canberra, on Monday 14 October 2024. The new book offers a unique first-hand account of the radical reforms implemented in Myanmar under the ill-fated civilian government of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. These reforms, designed both to turn around Myanmar’s dire economy and lay the economic foundations for democracy, were brought to a dramatic end following the military coup in February 2021. Sean Turnell was one of Suu Kyi’s key economic advisers who was imprisoned alongside her in the wake of the coup.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hostage-taking and arbitrary detention by both state and non-state actors are on the rise. The Lowy Institute’s Sean Turnell, himself wrongfully imprisoned for two years in Myanmar, and Lydia Khalil discuss hostage diplomacy, its personal and global impacts and what can be done about it.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As the United States approaches a pivotal presidential election in November, populism is on the rise and key tenets of American democracy are being tested. Meanwhile, the rest of the world is preparing for two very different versions of the superpower. ‍Dr Michael Dimock, the President of Pew Research Center, joins the Lowy Institute's Ryan Neelam and Lydia Khalil to discuss the upcoming presidential election, the state of democracy, and the role of public opinion in US and global politics.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With less than a month to go before one of the most consequential presidential elections in US history, Lowy Institute experts Lydia Khalil, Hervé Lemahieu and Sam Roggeveen sit down to discuss what a potential Trump or Harris administration would mean for the United States and its relationships with allies and adversaries. Drawing on two recently published Lowy Institute interactive features in which Institute experts assess the policies, outlooks and approach to the world of the candidates, they unpack what two very different yet similarly enigmatic candidates would bring to the world stage. You can read more here.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The soundness of military strategy and the nimbleness with which strategy can adapt to unforeseen circumstances are the two most important factors in deciding victory or defeat. This is the clearest lesson to emerge from the Ukraine war, argues Mick Ryan, one of the most quoted and influential military experts on the conflict.‍We heard from Mick about the ongoing war in Ukraine and his new book in a conversation hosted by the Lowy Institute’s Sam Roggeveen, which included questions from the audience.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, we delve into the United Nations Loss and Damage Fund, the most concrete effort to address restitution for those impacted by climate change. As the recently appointed board begins crafting a global fund to financially support climate victims, much remains unresolved, including complex questions about who is eligible for money and how they can access it, how to quantify intangible impacts such as the loss of traditional knowledge, and how the Fund itself can raise enough resources to cover escalating costs. To explore these questions, Alexandre Dayant, Deputy Director of the Indo-Pacific Development Centre, talks with IPDC climate experts Dr Melanie Pill and Georgia Hammersley, who recently authored a Lowy Institute Policy Brief outlining recommendations for the Fund’s structure. You can access the Policy Brief here: A climate loss and damage fund that worksSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Monday 16 September 2024‍Indonesia is in the countdown to the October presidential transition from Joko Widodo (Jokowi) to Prabowo Subianto, who won a decisive victory in the April presidential election. Hugely ambitious and popular, Jokowi leaves a complex legacy, including strained democratic institutions, the politicisation of the police and military, and an at times transactional foreign policy that benefited China’s standing.The panel drew on perspectives presented at the 2024 Australian National University Indonesia Update conference to explore the legacy of Jokowi’s presidency and the direction that Prabowo may now seek to steer Indonesia.Eve Warburton is a senior lecturer at the Department of Political and Social Change in the Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs, and Director of ANU's Indonesia Institute at the College of Asia and the Pacific. Her research is concerned broadly with problems of representation, governance, and business-state relations, in young and developing democracies, with a regional focus on Southeast Asia and Indonesia in particular. She has published in leading disciplinary and area studies journals on these topics, and her first book manuscript, Resource Nationalism in Indonesia: Booms, Big Business and the State, was published by Cornell University Press in late 2023.Sidney Jones is Senior Adviser to the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC) in Jakarta, a non-governmental research organization she founded in 2013. She served as director from 2013 to 2021, when she returned to New York. From 2002 to 2013, Jones worked with the International Crisis Group in Jakarta, first as Southeast Asia project director, then from 2007 as senior adviser to the Asia program. Before joining Crisis Group, she worked for the Ford Foundation in Jakarta and New York (1977-84); Amnesty International in London as the Indonesia-Philippines-Pacific researcher (1985-88); and Human Rights Watch in New York as the Asia director (1989-2002). She took a leave from the latter position in 2000 to serve as chief of the human rights office of the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET). Jones holds a B.A. and M.A. from the University of Pennsylvania.Marcus Mietzner is Associate Professor at the Department of Political and Social Change, Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs at the Australian National University in Canberra. He has published extensively on Indonesian politics, including in peer-reviewed international journals such as Democratization, International Political Science Review, Governance, Journal of Democracy, Contemporary Politics, Australian Journal of International Affairs, Journal of Contemporary Asia and Critical Asian Studies. His latest book is "The Coalitions Presidents Make: Presidential Power and its Limits in Democratic Indonesia" (Cornell University Press, 2023). He is currently writing a book on the Jokowi presidency, based on a series of interviews with the outgoing president and other key actors.Rizal Sukma is a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Indonesia. Previously, he was Indonesia’s Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Ireland and the International Maritime Organization (IMO), London, from 2016 to 2020. He joined CSIS in 1990 as a researcher and assumed the role of Executive Director in 2009 until 2015. Dr Sukma also served as Chairman of International Relations, Muhammadiyah Central Executive Board (2005-2015). Since receiving a PhD in International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 1997, he has worked extensively on such issues as Southeast Asian security, ASEAN, Indonesia’s defense and foreign policy, military reform, Islam and politics, and domestic political changes in Indonesia.The panel was moderated by Susannah Patton, Director of the Southeast Asia Program at the Lowy Institute.All Lowy Institute public events are on the record and open for media attendance.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.