30 Jun 2020
China’s pipeline dream in Pakistan
The plan to transport oil across the Himalayas is a logistical nightmare. Post-Covid economics will make it even harder.
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26 Jun 2020
COVIDcast: Hugh White on Coronavirus and Asia’s power balance
The latest episode in a podcast to discuss the implications of coronavirus for Australia, the region and the world. -
24 Jun 2020
Australia’s shifting mood on climate change
This year’s intense bushfires seemed like the event that would finally move climate policy. Then came Covid-19. -
23 Jun 2020
The goals for Australia to do better
The Sustainable Development Goals are not only for poor nations – they offer a policy roadmap for Australia, too. -
22 Jun 2020
Debt threatens Digicel’s Pacific dominance
The sprawling telecoms provider is deep in the red, and it might be the company’s PNG profits that help bail it out. -
19 Jun 2020
COVIDcast: Foreign Minister Joseph Wu on Taiwan’s place in the world
The latest episode in a podcast to discuss the implications of coronavirus for Australia, the region and the world. -
18 Jun 2020
Economic diplomacy: Positive globalism and American exceptionalism
Australia strikes an upbeat attitude to global engagement, while a strong US dollar masks a retreating US. -
17 Jun 2020
Marise Payne stakes a claim for cooperation
The Foreign Minister’s China challenge will grab most attention – but what she said about multilateralism matters more. -
17 Jun 2020
Cambodia: Caught in the middle
As it navigates a post-Covid recovery, Cambodia needs to strike a balance between the US and China. -
16 Jun 2020
The geopolitical consequences of a pandemic
A global system in flux – from the US to Hong Kong, in politics as much as the economy – ultimately needs leadership. -
12 Jun 2020
Seizing the chance to chart “The India Way”
Covid-19 has allowed New Delhi to show a collaborative and constructive brand of diplomacy, instead of zero-sum rivalry. -
12 Jun 2020
COVIDcast: Xi Jinping and Covid-19
The latest episode in a podcast to discuss the implications of coronavirus for Australia, the region, and the world. -
11 Jun 2020
China toys with a new propaganda technique: Irony
The already reductive US-China spat has now been turned into an actual cartoon, in an earnest bid for foreign sympathy. -
10 Jun 2020
In Yemen, a deadly concoction of arms sales, conflict and Covid-19
Without a ceasefire, a humanitarian catastrophe fuelled by Western arms shipments is about to get much worse. -
10 Jun 2020
Climate change makes Covid-19 politics look easy
The coronavirus pandemic has led to all kinds of novel political calculations. Climate change needs even better ones. -
5 Jun 2020
COVIDcast: World economy in flux
The latest episode in a podcast to discuss the implications of coronavirus for Australia, the region, and the world. -
5 Jun 2020
Central Asian nations want to kick-start the BRI – and China is happy
Covid-19 has spurred rumours and local tensions, but economic fortunes of the region are increasingly bound to Beijing. -
4 Jun 2020
Economic diplomacy: Asian investment, super tension & the WTO hot seat
World trade could be set to fall as much as 30% this year. Who is going to be in charge of fixing the problem? -
4 Jun 2020
Aiding the Pacific during Covid – a stock-take and further steps
Money is flowing, but the proportion of support is well below amounts advanced economies are deploying for themselves. -
3 Jun 2020
US break with WHO: Where does it leave the rest of the world?
Honest assessment of the Covid-19 response will require cooperation from all member states. There is no alternative. -
3 Jun 2020
Mapping the cost of the pandemic to women in the Indo-Pacific
A new survey is a wake-up call for governments and organisations to direct urgent funding to women’s peace and security. -
1 Jun 2020
Going local: Lessons from Covid response in Indonesia
After recent disasters, policy changes shifted the model of humanitarian aid. The Covid crisis put it to the test. -
29 May 2020
Are African nations putting policing over public health?
Across the continent, measures to keep Covid-19 at bay have been accompanied by strict and sometimes brutal tactics. -
29 May 2020
COVIDcast: Dame Meg Taylor on keeping Pacific Islands safe
The latest episode in a podcast to discuss the implications of coronavirus for Australia, the region and the world. -
29 May 2020
The middle power alignment in public attitudes about Covid-19
Beijing is on the nose, leading the Western world to band together, but not with Washington at the fore. -
28 May 2020
Emergency aid amid Covid-19: Falling trust and rising obstacles
In the face of the pandemic, humanitarian operations are facing extreme challenges. The past holds a few lessons. -
28 May 2020
Designing a “built environment” for the pandemic age
Thinking about how – and just as importantly where – we live and work might just keep the community and economy healthy. -
28 May 2020
Can Pacific airlines pull out of the dive?
National carriers, many already struggling, have been hit hard in the Covid-19 crisis and will need to adapt to survive. -
27 May 2020
A cry for help as Covid‑19 sweeps Latin America and hunger bites
Shortages are returning to a continent with literal red flags to show the virus is compounding poverty. -
26 May 2020
New Caledonia: coronavirus deepens the divide
An independence leader has accused France of “colonialist” Covid-19 measures in a bid to shore up the loyalist vote. -
22 May 2020
COVIDcast Episode 12: Pandemic, emerging markets, and US dollar
The latest episode in a podcast to discuss the implications of coronavirus for Australia, the region and the world. -
22 May 2020
The battle for a Covid vaccine risks losing the “war”
A quest to find the “magic bullet” is drawing dangerous political lines. Without cooperation, nobody wins. -
21 May 2020
Now is the right time to bring Fiji into trans-Pacific bubble talks
With the tourist industry reeling, quick action will kickstart island economies more than a well-intended afterthought. -
20 May 2020
India’s Covid-19 tracing app: Power in the right hands?
Download rates for tracing apps can also be read to indicate how much trust there is in government. -
20 May 2020
Covid-19: The need to aid Asia to open up
For Western donors, this has not been their finest hour, yet collective action offers a chance to revive past success. -
19 May 2020
Covid-19 chaos creates fertile ground for cyberattacks
Major events that capture population attention, whether pandemics or elections, are ripe for manipulation. -
19 May 2020
PNG and Covid-19: The costs of economic stress
Many people will seek cultural supports, while a few might turn to crime. But this is far from a harbinger for chaos. -
18 May 2020
Covid-19 is not the biggest threat to UN peacekeeping
Sexual misconduct undermines the fundamental goals of peacekeeping operations. Why does it persist? -
18 May 2020
Constitutional questions over Solomon Islands’ coronavirus crackdown
Sweeping emergency powers must be used in a manner “reasonably justifiable”, not as an excuse to marginalise opponents. -
15 May 2020
Covid-19 exposes the need for a European constitution
The pandemic has ruptured the fragile solidarity at the heart of the European project. There is a chance to fix it. -
15 May 2020
In an Olympic-sized challenge, Japan’s golden chance could go begging
Cancellation rumblings are understandable, but an all-or-nothing attitude is a risk, not only for sport but diplomacy. -
15 May 2020
COVIDcast Episode 11: Dave Sharma MP on COVID-19 and Pacific relations
The latest episode in a podcast to discuss the implications of coronavirus for Australia, the region, and the world. -
15 May 2020
Covid contest in Indian Ocean region: India, China jostle for top spot
Beijing’s Belt and Road could get very expensive indeed, with cash New Delhi will find hard to match. -
15 May 2020
To act, or not? Al-Shabaab’s response to a Covid-19 crisis in Somalia
Turmoil offers a chance to radicalise and recruit new members, yet violence also poses a risk of alienating supporters. -
14 May 2020
Muddled messages as Britain seeks to stay alert
Confusion reigned as Covid-19 lockdown eased, complex guidance raising fears Boris Johnson had made another mistake. -
14 May 2020
Covid-19 and the acceleration of state surveillance
The pandemic has suddenly made the unthinkable acceptable. Data and privacy may never be the same. -
14 May 2020
Australians doubt either US or China will emerge stronger after Covid
New Lowy polling shows Australians are disappointed in Beijing’s Covid-19 response and despairing about Washington’s. -
13 May 2020
Covid-19 and foreign policy: What’s changed, what hasn’t
Health, climate, migration and foreign investment must each contend with the virus. But it’s not all doom and gloom. -
13 May 2020
America’s rudderless Covid response
State and local officials have acted effectively to address the crisis, but they’re on their own, with no end in sight. -
13 May 2020
The health challenge in PNG is far greater than Covid-19 alone
Dismal maternal mortality rates and deadly disease had already threatened to overwhelm a weak health system.