Skip to main content
The Interpreter

Interpreter - Menu Links

  • Articles
  • Debates
  • Contributors
  • About

Published daily by the Lowy Institute

  • 14 Aug 2023
    • Aid & Development
    • Australia and the Pacific
    • Pacific Islands

    What does the new International Development Policy mean for the Pacific?

    Jessica Collins , Meg Keen
    Australia has outlined its case for being the preferred regional partner, but the Pacific needs less talk and more action.
  • 11 Aug 2023
    • Aid & Development
    • Development Assistance
    • Southeast Asia

    The constrained ambition of Australia’s new development policy

    Roland Rajah
    Aid “rebuild” focuses on quality and smarter geopolitics, but not dollars.
  • 8 Aug 2023
    • Aid & Development
    • Australia

    International development: Putting the heart back in Australian foreign policy

    Marc Purcell
    The government has taken a big step after listening to regional partners – now it has a chance to fill in the details.
  • 3 Aug 2023
    • Aid & Development
    • China
    • Indonesia
    • Australia
    • Trade
    • Sustainability
    • Technology

    Economic diplomacy: Hard labour managing geo-economic fragmentation

    Greg Earl
    Australia faces tough choices from aid to energy in a new world of government intervention in trade and industry.
  • 25 Jul 2023
    • Aid & Development
    • Timor-Leste
    • Australia

    What is Australia’s role in supporting Timor-Leste?

    Melissa Conley Tyler , Grant Wyeth
    Health and education are where Canberra can help Dili the most. But language barriers require thinking outside the box.
  • 16 May 2023
    • Aid & Development
    • Australia
    • Australian Foreign Aid

    Life in Australia’s aid program - but not as we know it

    Grace Stanhope
    The cost of development measures is being spread across government in creative ways, making coordination harder.
  • 5 May 2023
    • Aid & Development
    • Australia
    • Australian Foreign Aid

    Budget time: Will Labor rebuild Australia’s aid program, and how? 

    Roland Rajah , Riley Duke
    Global crisis and shifting economic realities mean Australia must both rebuild and modernise its development efforts.
  • 20 Apr 2023
    • Aid & Development
    • Australia
    • Pacific Islands
    • Solomon Islands

    Questions about Australian aid to fund the Pacific Games

    Stephen Howes
    Australia is backing a sports tournament over urgent development needs, and doing so may break international aid rules.
  • 30 Jan 2023
    • Aid & Development
    • Pacific Islands

    Getting it together: Pacific engagement still lacks coordination

    Meg Keen
    Showing collective action across countries and sectors is essential to Pacific development and winning friends.
  • 25 Jan 2023
    • Aid & Development
    • China – Belt and Road Initiative
    • Development Assistance
    • Australia and the Pacific
    • Australian Foreign Aid
    • Pacific Islands
    • Papua New Guinea
    • Solomon Islands

    Chinese aid to the Pacific: decreasing, but not disappearing

    Alexandre Dayant , Meg Keen , Roland Rajah
    With fewer Chinese finances available and less demand from Pacific countries, geopolitical competition is opening up.
  • 21 Dec 2022
    • Aid & Development
    • Timor-Leste
    • Australia
    • Public Diplomacy And International Broadcasting
    • Bougainville
    • Papua New Guinea
    • Review

    Seeking independence: three books to read this summer

    Jessica Collins
    From Timorese history and Bougainville’s dreams to Australia’s regional stories, catch up on essential background.
  • 16 Dec 2022
    • Aid & Development
    • Coronavirus
    • Pacific Islands

    A changing aid landscape in the Pacific

    Alexandre Dayant , Roland Rajah , Riley Duke
    Budget support was favoured during the pandemic, with loans — which must be repaid — also overtaking grants.
  • 24 Nov 2022
    • Aid & Development
    • Australia
    • Defence & Security

    Defence and development reviews: bringing parallel tracks together

    Tom Barber
    A cultural change in the way Australia’s approach to the world is formulated and prosecuted.
  • 9 Nov 2022
    • Aid & Development
    • China
    • Pacific Islands

    An explanation for the decline of China’s aid in the Pacific

    Jia Deng
    A drop in Chinese funding may be a sign of belt tightening in an effort to tackle Beijing’s own domestic debt problem.
  • 3 Nov 2022
    • Aid & Development
    • Australia
    • Global Economy
    • Trade
    • Multilateral Institutions

    Economic diplomacy: Searching for APEC

    Greg Earl
    APEC faces some new competition as Australia considers the sovereign risks involved in reducing domestic gas prices.
  • 2 Nov 2022
    • Aid & Development
    • Australian Foreign Aid
    • Sex and Gender

    Where does Australia’s new aid budget leave gender equality?

    Annabel Dulhunty
    Gender equality is not just an “add-on”, it is essential to a functioning society. Funding must reflect that.
  • 31 Oct 2022
    • Aid & Development
    • Papua New Guinea

    By the numbers: Papua New Guinea and development funding

    Thomas Wangi
    Australian funding to its Pacific neighbour outstripped the region’s major partners by four to one during the pandemic.
  • 30 Oct 2022
    • Aid & Development
    • Fiji

    Where the buck stops: aid in Fiji

    Mere Nailatikau
    The development funding arena in the Pacific is a crowded space. But local actors are often forced to take back seat.
  • 18 Oct 2022
    • Aid & Development

    Development finance – how much, done how?

    John Eyers
    Identifying institutional options for infrastructure finance in the Asia Pacific.
  • 11 Oct 2022
    • Aid & Development
    • Australia and the Pacific
    • Australian Development Assistance
    • Pacific Islands
    • Papua New Guinea
    • United States

    The Global Fragility Act in PNG: can the US succeed?

    Jessica Collins
    A seemingly radical approach that relies on prevention and relinquishing control may be a foreign policy game-changer.
  • 7 Oct 2022
    • Aid & Development
    • Australia

    A new aid strategy: purpose, priorities, and plumbing

    Cameron Hill
    The government has a chance to define the criteria used in the hard choices about how to allocate scarce aid dollars.
  • 6 Oct 2022
    • Aid & Development
    • Australia
    • Australian trade, investment & economy
    • Multilateral Development Banks

    Economic diplomacy: Time for transparency on aid reform

    Greg Earl
    A new study reveals difficult trade-offs between development spending on governance and the decline of democracy.
  • 4 Oct 2022
    • Aid & Development
    • Development Assistance
    • Asia
    • Australia and Asia
    • Australia and the Pacific
    • Multilateral Development Banks

    Building a better development finance institution: Australia’s opportunity

    Jessica Mackenzie , Alberto Lemma
    Canberra can learn a lot about risk appetite and the culture of financing from those already in the space.
  • 3 Oct 2022
    • Aid & Development
    • China
    • Timor-Leste
    • Australia

    Greater Sunrise: Can Timor-Leste play the “China card”?

    Teesta Prakash , Jack Sato
    Beijing is a minor player in development finance for Dili – but it’s a different story with state-owned enterprises.
  • 23 Sep 2022
    • Aid & Development
    • Australia
    • Global Economy
    • Multilateral Development Banks
    • Multilateral Institutions

    Six reasons to be cautious about Australia establishing a DFI

    Jenny Gordon
    As soon as public money is on the table, there will be a line of players looking to “clip the ticket”.
  • 16 Sep 2022
    • Aid & Development
    • Australia
    • Australian Development Assistance
    • Australian Foreign Aid

    Five reasons Australia should establish a Development Finance Institution

    Roland Rajah
    A DFI would expand Canberra’s development toolkit and re-establish the country as a serious financing partner in Asia.
  • 8 Sep 2022
    • Aid & Development
    • Australia
    • Australia's Economy
    • Migration
    • Pacific Islands

    Economic diplomacy: Nation building at home and abroad

    Greg Earl
    A jobs summit highlighted the challenges in crafting a foreign policy for the middle class and balanced development aid.
  • 5 Sep 2022
    • Aid & Development
    • Asean
    • Timor-Leste

    José Ramos-Horta's Australian visit: a checklist

    Parker Novak
    The Greater Sunrise LNG field will top his agenda, along with economic diversification and ASEAN membership.
  • 5 Aug 2022
    • Aid & Development
    • China – Belt and Road Initiative
    • Development Assistance
    • Asia
    • Review

    Development finance in Asia: a memoir

    Robert Wihtol
    A former president of the Asian Development Bank reminisces about dealing with the rise of China.
  • 1 Aug 2022
    • Aid & Development
    • China
    • Chinese Foreign Aid
    • United Nations

    Unpacking China’s Global Development Initiative

    Mercedes Page
    Red flags should be flying about Beijing’s latest challenge to the international development agenda.
  • 25 Jul 2022
    • Aid & Development
    • Australia
    • Pacific Islands
    • International law

    Engaging with the Pacific: the legal angle

    Sarah McCosker , Joanne Wallis , Melissa Conley Tyler
    The often complex and transnational legal challenges facing the region are an opportunity to foster cooperation.
Pagination
  • Previous page ‹‹
  • Page 1
  • Current page 2
  • Next page Next ›

Stay informed with the latest commentary and analysis on international events from experts at the Lowy Institute and around the world.

Register

The Interpreter features in-depth analysis & expert commentary on the latest international events, published daily by the Lowy Institute.

© Copyright 2025 Lowy Institute

  • Debates
  • Contributors
  • Articles
  • About
  • Terms of Use
  • Log In
  • My bookmarks