The Lowy Institute

Aviation is one of the world’s more challenging industries. On 22 September, as part of the Lowy Institute's Distinguished Speaker Series, Alan Joyce discussed the Qantas approach to managing short- and long-term risks and seizing commercial opportunities within a complex and rapidly changing operating environment. Alan Joyce was appointed Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Qantas on 28 November 2008.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

At the Wednesday Lunch at Lowy on 15 September, Professor Hugh White spoke about Australia's choices as China grows. Hugh White is a Visiting Fellow at the Lowy Institute for International Policy and Professor of Strategic Studies at the Australian National University.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What sort of world will a new Australian government be dealing with, and how is it likely to approach it? Deputy Director Martine Letts, Director of Studies Andrew Shearer, International Security Program Director Rory Medcalf and Myer Foundation Melanesia Program Director Jenny Hayward-Jones briefed guests on the big strategic issues shaping Australia's future in the world as well as the foreign policy challenges closer to home for this special post-election Food for Thought session.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Cyber attacks in Estonia and Georgia are one recent prominent example of cyber space being challenged by growth in crime, espionage and disruptive activity. Disruptive activity targeting governments, cyber infrastructure providers and commercial enterprise is growing significantly around the world. For Australia, where over 90 per cent of the networks that now underpin our economy are in private-sector control and increasingly interconnected to global sources of vulnerability, this an important national issue. Paul Twomey discussed this growing global phenomenon and suggested some policy responses for managing this growing threat.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The 2010 Dr John Gee Memorial Lecture, 'Can we eliminate nuclear weapons?', was presented by Joseph Cirincione, who has devoted a long career to the study of nuclear non-proliferation and nuclear disarmament. He is currently the President of Ploughshares Fund.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As China emerges fully on the global stage, its impact is being felt in various dimensions -diplomatic, commercial, cultural, energy and environment, military-strategic, global governance, and other domains. Yet the international community remains very uncertain of China’s intentions, goals, strategies, and tactics. One way to begin to understand how China may behave on the global stage is to delve into domestic debates about China’s international identity and roles in the world. Professor Shambaugh’s lecture at the Wednesday Lunch on 1 September illuminated China’s domestic discourse about its international position.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On Friday, 27 August 2010, the Executive Director of UNAIDS, Mr Michel Sidibé, addressed the Lowy Institute for International Policy as part of our Distinguished Speaker Series. In 1996, UNAIDS was established as a specialised agency of the United Nations to give policy guidance and advice on all aspects of the global struggle against the HIV/AIDS pandemic.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Success in the development and adoption of 'infotronic' technologies is going to be critical to the future of Australia's economic competitiveness and our standard of living. In this Wednesday Lowy Lunch presentation, Hugh Bradlow, Chief Technology Officer for Telstra, looked at the changes in ICT technologies over the next 10 years and the impact that they are likely to have on human behaviour and economic outcomes. He then addressed the perspective of Australia's competitive position in this new world.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The debate about overseas aid’s effectiveness has until recently been largely confined to policy-makers but, over the past few weeks, the issue has featured prominently in the Australian media. In the Wednesday Lowy Lunch on 4 August, Joel Negin examined the increasingly complex arena of international development assistance, putting the challenges of development assistance into a global context and aiming to widen the scope of the aid debate to a broader audience.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The 41st Pacific Island Forum leaders meeting will be held in Port Vila from 4 August 2010. Australia is the outgoing chair of the Forum. In the lead up to the meeting the Lowy Institute convened a panel of diverse Pacific commentators and experts from government and non-government sectors to discuss key issues of importance for the Pacific at the Wednesday Lunch at Lowy on 28 July.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Over the last thirty years, China has emerged as a major political and economic power on the international stage, and the pace of this growth has been astonishing. Though China's presence in the global arena continues to grow rapidly, the most remarkable part of this country's transformation has been largely left untold – the central role of the Chinese Communist Party. In THE PARTY: The Secret World of China's Communist Rulers former Financial Times China bureau chief Richard McGregor delves into the hidden world of the Communist Party, revealing how this ruling organisation works and how it has contributed to China's rise as a global superpower and rival to the United States.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Yemen's growing internal crises and linkages to international terrorism have captured the attention of the international community. Yemen's position at the crossroads of international trade and in a region already bedevilled by piracy and instability are further reasons to be interested in that country's future trajectory. On 14 July the Wednesday Lowy Lunch Club heard Philip Eliason speak about Yemen's internal developments and its role as a fulcrum in a regional arc of crisis.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

After an extraordinary build-up, the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference spectacularly failed to produce an international response commensurate with the scale of the climate change issue - and there seems little prospect of an agreement in the near term. This Wednesday Lowy Lunch launched a new Lowy Policy Brief that charts an alternative course for delivering an international agreement on climate change that will commence genuine reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On Friday 16 July, Australia's Defence Minister, Senator John Faulkner, spoke at the Lowy Institute to discuss Australia's commitment and contribution to the ISAF effort in Afghanistan, in the context of Australian strategic objectives, operational developments and the challenge of capacity building.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

At the Lowy Institute on Tuesday 6 July, the Prime Minister of Australia, the Hon. Julia Gillard, gave her first major policy speech as prime minister.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Lowy Lecture Series - Dr Emanuele Ottolenghi presentation The Wednesday Lowy Lecture on 14 March 2012 explored the policy challenges posed by Iran's nuclear program with Dr Emanuele Ottolenghi. Dr Ottolenghi is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington. He has done extensive research on the connections between Iran’s energy companies and its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and he has advised several foreign ministries in Europe on this issue, and testified before the Canadian and European parliaments.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In an address at the Lowy Institute on 7 February, Professor Ross Garnaut launched his second Update Paper, 'Progress towards effective global action on climate change', which examines international developments in action on climate change since 2008, including the outcomes from Copenhagen and Cancun.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Poll was launched by Lowy Institute Executive Director, Dr Michael Wesley, and was followed by an interactive discussion with panelists, including a Q&A. The discussants were: The Hon. Bob Carr, Laura Tingle and Senator Russell Trood.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Asia's security tensions at sea are back on top of the global strategic agenda with the July 2011 visit to China by US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen. The Lowy Institute recently launched a major new publication on this subject. During the launch event in Canberra on 28 June, a presentation by principal author Rory Medcalf was followed by a panel discussion involving the authors and Director of Studies Andrew Shearer.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On 29 July in Canberra, in the latest in our Food for Thought series, Mark Thirlwell, Director of the Lowy Institute’s International Economy program, looked at our post-GFC world and tried to answer the question, 'Just how much has changed as a result of the global financial crisis?'See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.