Articles | Lowy Institute

18 Jul 2018
Pakistan
The Grey List: more trouble for Pakistan’s economy

Adnan Aamir

Lax financial regulation sees Pakistan sanctioned, and also potentially reveal secret details of China’s mega projects.
18 Jul 2018
Aid links: an escape from the resource curse, more

Alexandre Dayant

Aid and the Thai cave rescue, postcards and rice, and a round-up of stories from the aid and development sector.
18 Jul 2018
United States
Keep calm and carry on: a message to Trump critics

Sam Roggeveen

With two-and-a-half years still to go in Trump’s first term, this level of outrage just cannot be maintained.
18 Jul 2018
Defence & Security

United Kingdom
Indo-Pacific: are the British coming back?

Geoffrey Till

Budget black holes and Russia’s growing naval truculence will test the ambition of the Royal Navy to act in Asia.
17 Jul 2018
United States

Russia
Trump-Putin: beyond election meddling

Daniel Flitton , Beba Cibralic

The Helsinki Summit was judged as a spectacle, far more than on what the talks were supposed to deliver.
17 Jul 2018
Europe

United States
The President, his partners, and Putin

David Ritchie

If America’s allies in Europe were ever in doubt, now they know: the President is a US-only leader.
17 Jul 2018
North Korea

Russia

South Korea
Koreas, gas pipelines, and Russia’s ties that bind

Dmitry V. Shlapentokh

Kim Jong-un’s summit with Donald Trump captured attention, but on the Korean Peninsula, many convoluted ploys are afoot.
17 Jul 2018
Australia

India
Australia and India: different worlds

Alexander Davis

Australia wants India to support its “rules based order”, but does New Delhi want the same rules?
16 Jul 2018
Thailand
Thai cave rescue: no country for Wild Boars

Erin Harris

Attention has turned to the “stateless” problem of three of the boys, their coach, and maybe 3 million more in Thailand.
16 Jul 2018
Australia

Indonesia
Indonesian tourism booms, Australia misses out

Ross Taylor

Despite high visa compliance rates among Indonesians, Australian policies discourage them from holidaying down under.
16 Jul 2018
Nuclear Weapons

Türkiye
Turkey must be thinking of the Bomb

Wayne McLean

While NATO wobbles and strongmen prosper, a newly authoritarian Turkey might turn towards nuclear options.
14 Jul 2018
India
Why India is buying the world’s emptiest airport

David Brewster

Geopolitical rivalry between big powers sometimes yields odd results.
14 Jul 2018
Weekend catch-up: Trump–Putin rendezvous and more

The Interpreter

ASIO and DFAT talk China, Mohammad bin Salman’s reforms and Japanese floods: the week that was on The Interpreter.
13 Jul 2018
Climate change
Japan floods a warning for a changed climate

Kumuda Simpson

Failure to radically cut global carbon emissions will mean disasters such as that in Japan will become the new normal.
13 Jul 2018
Papua New Guinea
Polio in PNG: a menace resurfaces

Kaveri Devi Mishra

A mass immunisation campaign is needed, and a dedicated effort to lift dismal health standards in the country.
13 Jul 2018
Global Economy
Short-term capital flows to emerging economies

Stephen Grenville

Surges and retreats of foreign capital flows pose a question: how could they be made less volatile and more beneficial?
13 Jul 2018
Cambodia

Japan
Why Japan is supporting Cambodia’s election

Darren Touch

Despite Western concern the ballot will be neither free or fair, Tokyo is seeking to counter China’s influence.
12 Jul 2018
Aid and the new face of entrepreneurship

Rachel Mason Nunn

Backing local entrepreneurs helps redefine the assumption that informal-sector employment is fundamentally precarious.
12 Jul 2018
Saudi Arabia
Reform in Saudi Arabia: will MbS squib it?

Anthony Bubalo

Saudi Arabia’s young tyro is trying to keep up with citizens who are demanding a lot more of their rulers and system.
12 Jul 2018
United States

Trade

China
Tit-for-tat-for-tit-for-tat

Roland Rajah

In his trade war, Donald Trump’s maximum pressure tactics look likely to prove highly counterproductive.
12 Jul 2018
Defence & Security

United States

Russia
High anxiety: Donald Trump’s summits

Stephen Blank

The summit with Putin reflects an ongoing US strategic failure to learn to think how Moscow thinks.
11 Jul 2018
Cambodia
Cambodia: dispelling the Malaysia illusion

Astrid Norén-Nilsson

No stunning surprises will be allowed in Hun Sen’s drive to remain as prime minister.
11 Jul 2018
Asia

China's Military

China
China’s expanding navy

James Goldrick

The PLA-N is growing rapidly, raising problems for personnel and the integration of new capabilities into the service.
11 Jul 2018
Defence & Security
Burdens and threats at NATO summit

Mohib Iqbal

Donald Trump’s theatrics about military spending will distract the alliance from a focus on pressing threats.
11 Jul 2018
Pacific Islands
Pacific links: Melanesian arts festival, more

Erin Harris

China offers pre-APEC meeting with Pacific leaders, the ABC in the Pacific, Solomon Islands resilience, and more
11 Jul 2018
China

Philippines
Assessing Duterte’s China investment drive

Alvin Camba

Separating the PRC and Hong Kong when calculating Chinese investment in the Philippines has major consequences.
10 Jul 2018
New Zealand
New Zealand’s P-8 purchase: straddling the gap

Euan Graham

New Zealand could change to a strategic “front line” if geopolitical competition in the South Pacific hots up.
10 Jul 2018
United Kingdom
Boris Johnson exits. Pass the salt.

Daniel Flitton

Johnson still displays a twinge of anxiety in his effusive praise of British strength.
10 Jul 2018
Syria
Syria: extinguishing the flame of the revolution

Rodger Shanahan

Bashar al-Assad faces more challenges, but momentum in military campaigns is a difficult thing to stop.
10 Jul 2018
New Caledonia
New Caledonia: decolonisation in conversation

Catherine Wilson

Locals in New Caledonia share their views about the territory’s prospects ahead of the November ballot on independence.
9 Jul 2018
New Zealand
The domestic politics of New Zealand’s defence

Robert Ayson

It’s not China that animates New Zealand’s latest defence policy statement.
9 Jul 2018
United States

China

Taiwan
US Navy sails into Taiwan sunset

Sam Roggeveen

Whereas in 1996 America’s affirmations of support for Taiwan were genuine, they are now a bluff.
9 Jul 2018
Australia

China
China business and China threats

Fraser Howie

Doing business with China means being able to say no when the conditions for Australia become too onerous.
9 Jul 2018
Indonesia
Indonesia’s elections and the local result

Aisyah Llewellyn

Analysts should be wary of using regional elections as a guide for the 2019 presidential race.
7 Jul 2018
Weekend catch-up: Hambantota port and more

The Interpreter

Cambodian military politics, Nauru’s ABC ban, and “Patrons of Mateship”: the week that was on The Interpreter.
6 Jul 2018
United States

Australian Diplomacy

Australia
“Patrons” of the alliance and the missing mates

Jenny Hayward-Jones

Australia’s public diplomacy is not advanced by excluding women and failing to recognise diversity.
6 Jul 2018
Russia

United Kingdom
Novichok poisoning and the test for Britain

Shashank Joshi

The difficulty for the UK now is in crafting a fresh response to the continued effects of Russia’s brazen attack.
6 Jul 2018
India
Poor man’s cigarette: India’s unspoken epidemic

Rajesh Trichur Venkiteswaran

Watered-down regulation of the “bidi” industry has created disastrous consequences for smokers and the country alike.
5 Jul 2018
Diplomacy

Thailand
International rescue: the Thai cave response

Daniel Flitton

The latest dramatic rescue has spurred a huge international response – but cooperation never seems to outlast a crisis.
5 Jul 2018
Germany
Tail wagging the dog: Seehofer in Germany

Daniel Woker

Germany’s Minister of the Interior is the latest right-wing leader in Europe to surf the populist political wave.
5 Jul 2018
United States

South Korea
Détente divergence: the US-South Korean split

Robert E Kelly

South Koreans don’t see how destructive and divisive Donald Trump is, nor is it their concern with North Korea so close.
4 Jul 2018
Asia
Hambantota: “the Chinese port”

Aarti Betigeri

The facility is seen as an egregious example of how Beijing is using loans and aid to curry strategic influence in Asia.
4 Jul 2018
Migration
Immigration links: Mediterranean sea rescues, more

Erin Harris

Immigration policy deal in Germany, Malta charges rescue ship captain, and more links from the migration sector.
4 Jul 2018
Europe
Denmark: fading out ghettoes

Amina McCauley

A bid “to ensure good Danish knowledge” has raised fears of Islamophobia.
3 Jul 2018
Australia

Nauru
Nauru ABC ban: Australia damned by faint criticism

Daniel Flitton

Authoritarian dangers encroaching on the Pacific have been a theme of late – but not for Australia about Nauru.
3 Jul 2018
Australia
Australia’s Women, Peace and Security policy

Susan Hutchinson

The new National Action Plan needs to account for developments regarding the rights of women in conflict settings.
3 Jul 2018
United States

North Korea
Pyongyang’s promises

Khang Vu

Despite the much-trumpeted summit, Kim Jong-un does not seem to be honouring his end of the deal.
3 Jul 2018
Global Economy

Trade
Trade is not just about tariffs

Stephen Grenville

Behind-the-border measures are more important restraints on international trade.
2 Jul 2018
Japan
Sources of Shinzo Abe’s resilience

Ryosuke Hanada

The Japanese Prime Minister derives strength from weak domestic opposition and assertive external powers.
2 Jul 2018
Aid links: empowering women, mapping welfare, more

Alexandre Dayant

Combating “sugar daddies” in Kenya, reviewing Australian aid, and other links from the aid and development sector.