Lowy Institute: Live Events

In this episode of COVIDcast, Sam Roggeveen, Director of the Lowy Institute’s International Security Program, sits down with the two leading researchers behind the Lowy Institute’s 2020 Asia Power Index, Hervé Lemahieu, Director of the Power and Diplomacy Program, and Alyssa Leng, Research Associate in the Power and Diplomacy Program. The 2020 edition of the Power Index, which encompasses three years of data, is the most comprehensive assessment of the changing distribution of power in Asia so far. Explore all the results on a specially designed digital platform at power.lowyinstitute.org. This is the final episode of COVIDcast. Next year we will return with a fortnightly podcast called Lowy Institute Conversations.

The authors of 'The Truth of the Palace Letters: Deceit, Ambush and Dismissal in 1975' have a conversation on the implications of the Palace Letters for the Australian Constitution, democracy, and the debate on an Australian republic. This conversation was moderated by Alex Oliver, Director of Research at the Lowy Institute, and hosted as in-person event at the Lowy Institute in Sydney. After a protracted legal battle, the ‘Palace Letters’ were released by the National Archives of Australia to the public in July 2020. In their latest book on the 1975 dismissal, Paul Kelly and Troy Bramston have delved into hundreds of the released documents, together with newly discovered archival material and interviews. The result is a revealing analysis of the workings of the constitutional monarchy, the complex web of relationships between the Queen in Buckingham Palace and the Governor-General in Canberra, and more broadly between Australia and the United Kingdom. - About the speakers - Paul Kelly is The Australian newspaper’s Editor at Large, and author of numerous books on Australian politics and history, including Howard’s Decade, a Lowy Institute Paper in 2006, and Triumph & Demise: The Broken Promise of a Labor Generation (2014). Present at Parliament House in Canberra on the day of the dismissal, Kelly has written several books on the subject, including The Dismissal: In the Queen's Name (2015) with Troy Bramston. Troy Bramston is a senior writer and columnist with The Australian, and author or editor of nine books, including Paul Keating: The Big-picture Leader (2016); Robert Menzies: The Art of Politics (2019); and Rudd, Gillard and Beyond (2014). Bramston has discovered new archival documents and interviewed most of the key players in the dismissal. He co-authored The Dismissal: In the Queen's Name with Paul Kelly and is currently writing a biography of Bob Hawke.

In this episode of The Director’s Chair, Michael Fullilove speaks with one of the leading US Democratic voices on foreign policy, Kurt Campbell. From 2009 to 2013, Kurt served as the Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs under Secretary Clinton in the Obama administration, where he is widely credited as a key architect of the “pivot to Asia.” He is CEO of The Asia Group, and serves as Chairman of the Board of the Center for a New American Security, which he co-founded with Michèle Flournoy in 2007. Michael and Kurt discuss Kurt’s upbringing, his working life, President-elect Biden’s likely policy towards Asia, the current disagreement between Canberra and Beijing, and future relations between the Biden administration and the Morrison government.

As part of the Lowy Institute's Lowy Lecture broadcast, we put together a short ‘year in review’ that marks a turbulent year in world politics and describes how the Institute has found new ways of delivering its content despite COVID-19 restrictions. This 'year in review' is followed by the 2020 Lowy Lecture delivered by Fareed Zakaria, one of the world’s most interesting and influential observers of international affairs. Dr Zakaria spoke about US-China relations and, in the Q&A with Dr Michael Fullilove, the implications of the superpower rivalry for Australia. The annual Lowy Lecture is the Lowy Institute’s flagship event, at which a prominent speaker reflects on Australia and the world. Past Lecturers have included German Chancellor Angela Merkel, UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, former CIA Director David Petraeus, News Corp Chairman Rupert Murdoch, Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Lowy Institute Chairman Sir Frank Lowy and Prime Minister John Howard, who delivered the inaugural Lowy Lecture in 2005. Dr Zakaria delivered this year's lecture via webcast from the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City. The Lowy Institute is grateful for the support of the sponsors of the 2020 Lowy Lecture: BHP and Capital Group.

In this episode of COVIDcast, Ben Bland, a research fellow at the Lowy Institute, sat down with Tom Tugendhat MP to discuss the UK’s COVID-19 crisis, the imminent Brexit endgame and why the British government is taking a tougher stance on China. Tugendhat is a rising star in the ruling Conservative party and chair of the UK parliament’s foreign affairs committee. COVIDcast is a Lowy Institute pop-up podcast for anyone interested in understanding the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on global politics. In each episode, Lowy Institute experts and invited guests discuss the implications of this crisis for the world.

On Monday 23 November, the Lowy Institute held a panel event at Canberra's National Press Club with the principal researchers behind the annual Asia Power Index. Hervé Lemahieu and Alyssa Leng, were joined by Roland Rajah, the Lowy Institute’s lead economist, to present the Index’s key findings and early results from a follow-on project looking at the future of global economic power to 2050. The event was moderated by Sam Roggeveen, Director of the Lowy Institute’s International Security Program.

Delivering the 2020 Owen Harries Lecture, Dr Francis Fukuyama offers a defence of liberalism in theory and in practice. This lecture includes Dr Fukuyama's analysis of left-wing and right-wing identity politics, Trumpist politics outlasting Donald Trump's presidency, and president-elect Joe Biden's foreign policy. Dr Fukuyama joined the Lowy Institute via webcast from California. His lecture is followed by a conversation with Lowy Institute Executive Director Michael Fullilove. - Owen Harries Lecture - Since 2013, the annual Owen Harries Lecture has honoured the enormous contribution Mr Harries, who was a Nonresident Fellow at the Lowy Institute, made to the international policy debate in Australia and the US. This was the first such lecture since Mr Harries’ passing in June, and we were honoured that it was delivered by Francis Fukuyama, one of the most influential political scientists of his generation. - Event Speakers - Dr Francis Fukuyama is a Senior Fellow at Stanford University's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. He has written widely on issues in development and international politics. His 1989 essay The End of History? was a global sensation. It was published in The National Interest, under then-editor Owen Harries. Dr Michael Fullilove AM writes widely on Australian and US politics and foreign policy in publications including The New York Times, Financial Times, The Atlantic and Foreign Affairs, as well as in the Australian press.

In this episode of The Director’s Chair, Michael Fullilove speaks with Professor Robert Dallek, the distinguished presidential historian. Professor Dallek is a prize-winning author who has written books about Franklin D. Roosevelt, Richard Nixon, Lyndon B. Johnson and many other American presidents. Previously he has taught at Columbia, UCLA, Oxford and the University of Texas. Professor Dallek discusses his upbringing in Brooklyn during the Great Depression, his thoughts on the enduring popularity of President Kennedy, and provides an early assessment of President Donald Trump's legacy. He analyses the recent election results and makes some predictions as to the shape of Joe Biden’s presidency.

In this episode of COVIDcast, Ben Bland, the Director of the Southeast Asia Program at the Lowy Institute, sat down with Chatib Basri to discuss Indonesia’s struggle with COVID-19 and the way forward after Southeast Asia’s biggest economy slid into its first recession since the Asian Financial Crisis. Chatib is a former finance minister and head of the investment coordinating board in Indonesia. COVIDcast is a Lowy Institute pop-up podcast for anyone interested in understanding the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on global politics. In each episode, Lowy Institute experts and invited guests discuss the implications of this crisis for the world.

Two of Washington’s most respected and well-connected journalists joined the Lowy Institute to discuss the 2020 US presidential election, Donald Trump's presidency, and prospects of a Biden White House. Susan Glasser and Peter Baker assess the implications of a Trump or Biden win, discuss President Trump's latest press conference, and forecast who Vice President Joe Biden could select for his cabinet if elected president. This conversation was chaired by Lowy Institute Executive Director Dr Michael Fullilove and recorded at 1pm AEST on 6 November 2020.

The annual Lowy Institute Media Award recognises Australian journalists who have deepened the knowledge, or shaped the discussion, of international policy issues in our country. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, this year the Institute decided not to hold a Media Award Dinner. Instead, on Thursday 29 October, the Institute broadcast a 30-minute online video presentation featuring the finalists and their work. The broadcast also included a short conversation between Lowy Institute Executive Director Dr Michael Fullilove AM and The Hon. Peter Costello AC, Chairman of Nine Entertainment Co and former Treasurer of Australia, about the media landscape in 2020. In their full conversation, available here, they discussed the economics of the media industry in Australia, the balance between national security and media freedom, foreign coverage as a component of Nine’s journalism, and international economic recovery after COVID. Their conversation was recorded on Thursday 22 October.

In this episode of The Director’s Chair, Michael Fullilove speaks with one of the world’s leading Trumpologists, Dr Thomas Wright. Tom is a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington DC and a Nonresident Fellow at the Lowy Institute. His recent Lowy Institute Analysis, The Point of No Return: The 2020 Election and the Crisis of American Foreign Policy, examines implications of the 2020 US presidential election for Australia and the world. Tom reflects on his childhood in Ireland, his experience working in the US foreign policy community as an immigrant, and takes listeners on a guided tour of the world views of President Donald Trump and Vice President Joe Biden. He examines what a second Trump term, and a first Biden term, would mean for US policies on China, alliances, and global trade. He also discusses the stakes for Australia.

To mark the launch of the 2020 Asia Power Index, Hervé Lemahieu, Director of the Lowy Institute’s Asian Power and Diplomacy Program, chaired 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 the Hon. Penny Wong, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs and Leader of the Opposition in the Senate; and Professor Yuen Foong Khong, Vice Dean at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore.

In the latest episode of COVIDcast, Lowy Institute Research Fellow Lydia Khalil sat down with Olivia Troye, a former White House Coronavirus Task Force member and Homeland Security Advisor to Vice President Mike Pence to discuss the Trump administration’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Troye is the most recent Trump administration official to resign her position and come out publicly criticising the President’s handling of the pandemic. COVIDcast is a Lowy Institute pop-up podcast for anyone interested in understanding the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on global politics. In each episode, Lowy Institute experts and invited guests discuss the implications of this crisis for the world.

In this episode of The Director’s Chair, Michael Fullilove speaks with Stephen Hadley, the former national security adviser to President George W. Bush. Throughout his long career, Steve Hadley worked for four American presidents – Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush. He is Chairman of the Board of the United States Institute of Peace, a member of the Board of Directors of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a partner at Rice, Hadley, Gates & Manuel – an international consulting firm he co-founded with former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and former Secretary of Defense Bob Gates. Mr Hadley discusses his upbringing and his memories of Hillary Clinton at Yale as well as his experiences serving alongside Brent Scowcroft, James Baker, Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice and George W. Bush. He also talks about the Afghanistan and Iraq wars and provides some observations on leadership, America’s response to COVID and China.