Australian Diplomacy

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Resetting Australia’s relationship with the Pacific – three ideas

For almost 20 years, I have been working for, and on behalf of, the Australian government in the Pacific. And, like many of my Pacific Islander friends and colleagues, I was not shocked by the Solomon Islands security pact with China and the apparent blindsiding of Australia. Nick Warner, the former

By Anna Gibert

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Australian cricket’s soft power opportunity

Like it or not, the Australian cricket team are some of the nation’s most conspicuous representatives on the world stage. And right now, both the women’s and men’s teams have the opportunity to achieve historic successes. That’s good news for Australian soft power. Australia’s cricket

By Hugh Piper

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Dankeschön Frau Merkel

Angela Merkel had already been Chancellor for about six months when I commenced as Australian Ambassador to Germany in April 2006. Her tenure as Germany’s head of government has seen four further Australian heads of mission take up residence in Berlin, and the Australian prime ministership change

By Ian Kemish

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AUKUS: France’s strategic outcry

Last week Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom announced a new security partnership (AUKUS) and, in the process, put an end to the Attack class submarine program negotiated by France and Australia in 2016. After calling the decision “a stab in the back”, French Foreign Minister

By Eglantine Staunton

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Beyond Fortress Australia

The reality of living in a pandemic has dawned on Australia. Covid cases at the time of writing are high and still climbing. The virus is here to stay. Equally clear is that ring-fencing the country from the world — the ‘Fortress Australia’ policy — is no longer viable

By Hervé Lemahieu , Michael Fullilove, Emma Connors, Richard McGregor, John Edwards, Jonathan Pryke, Ben Bland, Lydia Khalil, Natasha Kassam, Jenny Hayward-Jones, Sam Roggeveen, Alex Oliver

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Lowy Institute Conversations: Richard Marles on Australia in the Pacific

In this episode of Conversations, Jonathan Pryke speaks with Richard Marles

By Jonathan Pryke

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Rules Based Audio (Episode 1): In Conversation with John Ikenberry

In an increasingly contested world, basic questions about how the world works, and how it should work, are being asked anew. In Rules Based Audio we will be posing those questions to some of the world’s leading thinkers and practitioners. This podcast series is part of the Lowy Institute’s Rules

By Ben Scott

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The changing face of Australia’s diplomatic network

“Pale, male, and stale” has been a consistent lament when looking at the roll call of ambassadors from most Western nations. There have been frequent calls to include more women, more people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and Indigenous communities, and to avoid plum

By Nicholas Bosworth

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Lowy Institute Diplomat Database

This Lowy Institute interactive uncovers the changing face of Australia's diplomatic network, tracking 47 years of Australian diplomatic appointments overseas. The data reveals the way issues such as political affiliation, gender, family background, and education have shaped Australia’s

By Alex Oliver, Nicholas Bosworth

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A rare test of China diplomacy

The term “political science,” as many have observed, is somewhat of an oxymoron. Of all fields of scholarly pursuit, politics is comparatively ill-suited to the processes of the scientific method. Political systems and policies cannot exactly be isolated in a laboratory. The “data sets” of

By Elliott Zaagman

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Andrew Peacock’s Timor legacy

Since his death on 13 April, tributes to former Australian foreign minister and leader of the federal opposition Andrew Peacock have flowed from across the political divide. He has been remembered as a huge figure who left an “indelible” mark on Australia in the 1970s and 1980s. Former Liberal

By Peter Job

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Chinese-Australians in the Australian Public Service

Underutilised in the Australian Public Service, Chinese-Australians are central to our China literacy and future engagement with the rising global superpower

By Yun Jiang

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Economic diplomacy: Global tax, education exports and Team Australia

Tax and spend US President Joe Biden may be grabbing the global headlines by boosting world growth with his big spending and international security with his telephone diplomacy. But US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen seems to be doing the real heavy lifting in restoring American credibility in

By Greg Earl

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Australia's relationship with China can survive – but it won't be the same again

There can be no return to the relations of the past. The question for 2021 is how to find a new settling point. Originally published in The Guardian

By Natasha Kassam

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The Case for Australia to Step Up in Southeast Asia

A policy brief by Hervé Lemahieu, Director of the Power and Diplomacy Program at the Lowy Institute, published by The Brookings Institution

By Hervé Lemahieu

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Australia's Security and the Rules-Based Order: Tracking a Decade of Policy Evolution

In this feature, we identify ten recurring propositions about the rules-based order and show it's evolution through national debate and government policy. Explore how the rules-based order has developed over time and in meaning with experts offering inside commentary along the way

By Ben Scott, Madeleine Nyst, Sam Roggeveen

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A budget of skewed priorities

It’s been a few years since my once-regular annual budget analysis for the foreign affairs, defence and trade portfolio. But of course, this is not just any budget. This is a big-spending budget to address the most significant national and international crisis of a century. Before the

By Alex Oliver

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China and the Rules‑Based Order

Seven experts debate China’s approach to the rules‑based international order

By Ben Scott, Nadège Rolland, John Culver, David Kelly

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Submission to the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Inquiry into the Implications of the COVID-19 Pandemic for Australia's Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade

Joint submission by Lowy Institute researchers to the JSCFADT inquiry into the implications of the pandemic.

By Ben Bland, Alexandre Dayant, John Edwards, Michael Fullilove, Bonnie S Glaser, Stephen Grenville, Natasha Kassam, Lydia Khalil, Hervé Lemahieu , Richard McGregor, Shane McLeod, Annmaree O’Keeffe, Alex Oliver, Jonathan Pryke, Roland Rajah, Sam Roggeveen, Ben Scott

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Who’s afraid of China’s big bad wolf warriors?

Originally published in The Australian

By Alan Dupont

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Get behind Southeast Asia with clear policy against China bullies

Originally published in The Australian

By Malcolm Cook

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DFAT cuts show our foreign policy's khaki tinge

Underinvestment in diplomacy suggests Australia is more eager to defend against a disorderly world than to try to reshape it. Originally published in the Australian Financial Review

By Jonathan Pryke

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Devaluing DFAT

The launch of the 2020 Defence Strategic Outlook prompted some observers to argue that Australia should boost the firepower of its diplomacy as well as its defence force. They reminded us that DFAT’s budget for diplomacy had been shrinking for decades, a trend documented in other assessments. Then

By James Wise

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Emerging from COVID: Policy Responses to the Pandemic

Lowy Institute experts provide policy recommendations for Australia to address issues that are critical to our nation's — and the world's — successful emergence from the pandemic

By Ben Bland, Alexandre Dayant, John Edwards, Stephen Grenville, Natasha Kassam, Hervé Lemahieu , Richard McGregor, Shane McLeod, Alex Oliver, Jonathan Pryke, Roland Rajah, Sam Roggeveen, Ben Scott

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How is an advanced Australia faring in the Asian century?

China’s barley tariffs have thrust the challenges of trade into the headlines with a prominence rarely seen in the popular Australian media. Although a crucial basis of national prosperity, the “trade” side of Australia’s international engagement has seemingly always had a lower profile than

By Tim Harcourt

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Notes on representing Australia in Papua New Guinea

Jon Philp, who commenced as Australian High Commissioner to Papua New Guinea early this month, is the 16th to serve as Australia’s lead diplomatic representative in Port Moresby. I know from experience that the role is unlike any other in the Australian foreign service. The incumbent has the

By Ian Kemish

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The World After COVID

How will the COVID-19 pandemic change the world? Lowy Institute experts provide their analysis

By Ben Bland, Michael Fullilove, Bonnie S Glaser, Stephen Grenville, Natasha Kassam, Lydia Khalil, Hervé Lemahieu , Richard McGregor, Annmaree O’Keeffe, Alex Oliver, Jonathan Pryke, Roland Rajah

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Taiwan Flashpoint: What Australia Can Do to Stop the Coming Taiwan Crisis

Australian diplomacy could ease rising tensions across the Taiwan Strait, if Australian policymakers rediscovered an appetite for involvement in the flashpoint

By Brendan Taylor

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On China, principles vs pragmatism

The escalating protests in Hong Kong, the detention of Chinese-Australian writer Yang Hengjun on trumped-up charges, and the appalling treatment of ethnic Uighurs have resulted in renewed calls and pressure on Australia to act on human rights issues with China. While this is noble, human rights

By Kevin Robb

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From fill-in to full-time Foreign Minister

On Sunday Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced that Marise Payne will be Minister for Foreign Affairs in his post-election cabinet. Selected to take over the portfolio last year after Julie Bishop’s resignation (and reportedly at her recommendation), Marise Payne had just eight months in the

By Melissa Conley Tyler

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Australian energy diplomacy

Successive federal governments have declared Australia to be an “energy superpower”. The 2017 Foreign Policy White Paper is the most recent example, highlighting the size of Australia’s exports of coal and liquefied natural gas. Yet Australian foreign policy has often overlooked energy

By Christian Downie

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“Patrons” of the alliance and the missing mates

The Australian Embassy in Washington has been promoting “100 Years of Mateship” between Australia and the US in the lead-up to the centenary of the Battle of Hamel in the First World War, which has been commemorated this week. The Embassy has come up with a list of 15 eminent

By Jenny Hayward-Jones

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George Brandis, His Excellency, is still hostage to Malcolm Turnbull

George Brandis might be on the way out of parliament and bound for London, but his future is still very much hostage to the political fortunes of Malcolm Turnbull. In years gone by, the former attorney general could ordinarily have expected to be happy and secure for at least three years in his

By Daniel Flitton

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Is there a model Human Rights Council member?

Australia was not the only country to waltz onto the UN Human Rights Council last week with only cursory scrutiny of its human rights record. In fact, most of the Council’s current and incoming members have failed in some way to live up to the 'highest standards in the promotion and protection

By Lyndal Rowlands

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Using economic diplomacy to reduce financial risks in Asia

If Australia’s economic future lies in Asia, then managing the risk of financial crises in the region should be a top concern. Especially as any crisis could also have significant geopolitical consequences. In an analysis for the Lowy Institute, Barry Sterland looks at what Australia can do

By Roland Rajah

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Digital diplomacy’s downsides

It was only a few years ago that e-diplomacy was being heralded as an unalloyed force for good. This 21st Century form of statecraft would bring transparency and openness to the closeted world of international affairs. Governments that colonised the internet would come to enjoy a strategic edge,

By Nick Bryant

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The shape of Australia’s future engagement with the United Nations

Australia should strengthen its engagement with the United Nations to ensure it has a greater voice on global issues that matter to its national interests. Photo:Flickr/United Nations

By Peter Nadin

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Can economic and security analysts find a lingua franca?

This post is part of a debate on Australia’s foreign policy White paper 2017. Click here for other debate posts. When Foreign Minister Julie Bishop put economic diplomacy at the centre of Australian international relations in 2014, I suggested this might just be a canny way for a globe-trotting

By Greg Earl

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We spend so little on ambassadors but they're more important than ever

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop should not be harangued for bringing together all of Australia's heads of mission for the first time, writes Alex Oliver for the Sydney Morning Herald on 2 March

By Alex Oliver

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Networks and narratives: Public diplomacy in the DFAT White Paper

This post is part of a debate on Australia’s foreign policy White paper 2017. Click here for other debate posts. Australia has a great story to tell the world, a powerful 'strategic narrative' that is a potent source of soft power. But it's increasingly difficult for this story to be heard,

By Damien Spry

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Seeking clarity in Australian foreign policy

In August, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop announced that the Turnbull Government would produce a new foreign policy white paper. The Minister described it as a 'philosophical framework to guide Australia's engagement, regardless of international events'. The world is changing so fast it is

By Michael Fullilove

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Including the first Australians in Australian diplomacy

This time last year, when former Chief of Army Lt Gen David Morrison AM (Rtd) was announced as Australian on the Year he described the benefits of embracing diversity in simple and powerful terms: when people have the chance to reach their potential, we all benefit. This applies as much to diplomacy

By Melissa Conley Tyler

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Digital diplomacy @DFAT

A week ago Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade launched its first digital media strategy and accompanying blog. It's about time. Digital diplomacy is expanding, the pace of change is picking up, and DFAT - which spent two years developing this strategy - is late to the party. The

By Damien Spry

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A diplomatic necessity: Why embassies persist in the digital age

In conjunction with the launch of the Lowy Institute's Global Diplomacy Index, we present a series of pieces on the role and continued relevance of embassies. Do countries still need to maintain expensive, permanent official establishments in foreign capitals? Or have advances in

By Kishan Rana

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Embassies can shape policy

In conjunction with this week's launch of the Lowy Institute's Global Diplomacy Index, we present a series of pieces on the role and continued relevance of embassies. Embassies — and their derivatives, high commissions and consulates — are significant instruments of government, and as for

By Ric Smith

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The Lowy Institute Global Diplomacy Index

The Global Diplomacy Index is an interactive web tool which maps and ranks the diplomatic networks of all G20 and OECD nations: 42 countries in total

By Alex Oliver

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Plenty of challenges await Joe Hockey as Australia's new ambassador to the US

So Mr Hockey goes to Washington. The former treasurer will take up his post at the Australian chancery on Massachusetts Avenue early in the new year. Hockey's appointment, percolating through Canberra circles for months now, has drawn fire from several quarters. Conservative columnist Janet

By James Curran

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Much at stake for Turnbull and the region at East Asia Summit

The 10th East Asia Summit this weekend promises to be one of the most interesting bits of summitry in some time. This, the last stop on Malcolm Turnbull’s five-nation tour which has included one-on-one meetings with the top three on Forbes' Most Powerful List, is also likely to prove the most

By Elliot Brennan

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All change: Election result may see another round of the Burma/Myanmar name game

Shortly after the Abbott Government took office in September 2013, it overturned the decision by Labor Foreign Minister Bob Carr in 2012 to recognise Burma’s new official name, Myanmar. This had long been the country’s traditional name but it was only adopted as the official name in English by

By Andrew Selth

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Turnbull in Jakarta: Relationship reheat

Malcolm Turnbull's visit to Jakarta this week did not signal any drastic changes for the direction of the Australia-Indonesia relationship, but it did leave relations considerably warmer than before. So warm, in fact, that both the prime minister and his Indonesian counterpart were forced to remove

By Catriona Croft-Cusworth

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