18 Dec 2024
What I’ll be watching for in 2025
Lowy researchers gaze at their crystal balls – with questions, more than answers, for the year ahead.
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16 Dec 2024
Southeast Asia’s death penalty laws: The ultimate political game
The region’s diverse policies on executions are about more than the war on crime. -
13 Dec 2024
Two steps up in Australia’s Southeast Asia engagement
The detail is starting to emerge for the government’s big ticket spending initiatives in the region. -
15 Nov 2024
Is Southeast Asia ready for a regional power grid?
Australia is in pole position to partner with the region on cross-border electricity supply. -
11 Oct 2024
Thailand’s path to climate resilience
While the government has taken steps to address the effects of climate change, efforts must be scaled up. -
3 Oct 2024
Kamala Harris and the Indo-Pacific: Correcting the attention deficit
Many Southeast Asian countries already see the United States as a more distant and less reliable partner. -
20 Sep 2024
Why US-China bipolarity is good for Asia
Restoring US primacy is not in Asia’s interests but preserving a power balance with China is. -
9 Sep 2024
China’s rise in Southeast Asia is bringing in a golden age for Australia
Disquiet about Beijing’s growing presence is motivating countries across the region to seek deeper cooperation with Canberra. -
5 Sep 2024
Economic diplomacy: Taking sides for an election
From ANZUS, Indonesia, regional business and media reporting, Penny Wong seems to have legacy in mind. -
23 Aug 2024
Key questions for reform of the New Colombo Plan
A boost to the ties that bind Australia and the Indo-Pacific is essential to humanising public diplomacy and building life-long connections. -
23 Aug 2024
A glimpse into Indonesia's nickel policy
China has become a key partner, but locals pay the price and need more support to realise the benefits. -
16 Aug 2024
Interoperability: The missing link in Indo-Pacific security
Settling on a definition of an overused buzzword is the first step for Australia to ensure successful military partnerships in Southeast Asia. -
9 Aug 2024
Is Australia too late to claim its green economy share?
Playing a role in Southeast Asia’s green energy transition is an opportunity Australia must not let pass. -
9 Aug 2024
Without money, the global biodiversity target is just an empty promise
Beyond social responsibility, funding conservation in developing nations is critical to the global economy. -
25 Jul 2024
Economic diplomacy: Looking beyond a 30-year anomaly
Divining economic statecraft is animating international relations roundtables but unnerving the money managers. -
25 Jul 2024
Child marriage in Southeast Asia: When a harmful practice becomes an international crime
ASEAN can lead the way in tackling a practice that regularly results in the trafficking of persons. -
19 Jul 2024
The uncertain future for Southeast Asia’s great sea nomads
The seafaring tribes that crisscross the region’s waters are vital to ocean conservation but climate change is taking a toll. -
17 Jun 2024
2024 Southeast Asia Aid Map: Warning signs for the region
Declining levels of international financial support, especially for the clean energy transition, are cause for alarm. -
31 May 2024
Southeast Asia after the shocks: Economic growth, but not as we know it
New Lowy Institute research shows the pandemic and Ukraine war have taken a toll, while the benefits from supply chains shifting out of China have so far been limited. -
30 May 2024
Does India’s Act East Policy matter to Southeast Asia?
Ties with Malaysia make a powerful case study to assess regional ties with the South Asian giant. But others are doing better. -
16 May 2024
Economic diplomacy: Budgeting for deglobalisation
Keeping up with the worldwide shift to industry policy is stretching boundaries of both economics and diplomacy. -
29 Apr 2024
Why India’s Global South ambitions must turn to Southeast Asia
An important part of seamless communication is still missing – and this carries a regional cost. -
26 Apr 2024
Australia’s comparative advantage in climate transition
Already world leaders in rooftop solar, Australians should take the opportunity with supporting rollouts in Southeast Asia. -
17 Apr 2024
Invisible victims: How counter-trafficking efforts leave people with disability behind
It is often those who should be responsible for protecting people with disabilities who exploit them. -
2 Apr 2024
Australia’s Southeast Asia trade stumbling block
Canberra must move fast on a formal information-sharing facility to reach its regional economic and foreign policy goals. -
28 Mar 2024
Mind the gap: China’s megaproject promises fall short of reality in Southeast Asia
Debt, delay and deteriorating ties between China and its infrastructure partners have led some to go it alone. -
14 Mar 2024
A multilateral bank for the Indo-Pacific?
The region needs a dedicated bank that enhances economic security in the pursuit of climate and development goals. -
8 Mar 2024
Gender equality financing: Spotlight on Southeast Asia
A discrepancy in data collection for gender-led funding is skewing the stats on development support in the region. -
1 Mar 2024
The parts within the whole: Understanding Southeast Asia’s economies
The diversity within the region is as important to understand as the ways ASEAN seeks to build consensus. -
26 Feb 2024
Israel-Hamas: A globalised conflict
The Palestinian issue has never lost its resonance beyond the Middle East, especially in the Global South. -
15 Feb 2024
Go big or go home: Australia should invest at scale in Southeast Asia’s energy transition
The Paris Agreement will not succeed if the bid for net zero in Southeast Asia fails. -
4 Dec 2023
How to stop any repeat of the Australia-China sonar incident
A regional deal to close a loophole relating to the use of sonar in international law could be a good place to start. -
29 Nov 2023
Southeast Asia's minerals: Opportunity knocks
Australia should make better use of its regional leadership in minerals technology, skills and governance. -
22 Nov 2023
Why is Myanmar’s new deep-sea port such hot property?
An alternative route to the Strait of Malacca offers China, and others, a safer, faster and more efficient trade route. -
17 Nov 2023
Australian development cooperation: Urgent and important, but “not a priority”
Development policy contradictions reveal the failure of the DFAT-AusAID integration. -
26 Oct 2023
Not only the dragon: Understanding Southeast Asia’s complex security landscape
Yes, US-China rivalry creates unease. But so do more pressing threats closer to home. -
19 Oct 2023
Owning the Indo-Pacific term: Time for a new ASEAN strategic narrative
With its diverse membership that includes democracies, monarchies, and single-party states, the grouping is well positioned for an inclusive approach. -
10 Oct 2023
Online scams in Southeast Asia create double victims: those targeted and those forced to carry them out
There are those deceived by scams, and those coerced into crime. -
29 Sep 2023
Great expectations: Australia’s elusive Southeast Asia vision
Diplomacy, economic partnerships, copper mines and instant noodles - the Moore Report has much to reflect on. -
12 Sep 2023
ASEAN, China and the trust deficit
The gap between rhetoric and action is Beijing’s biggest problem – and the region showed it isn’t afraid to call this out. -
11 Sep 2023
In Australia’s big play in Southeast Asia, mobilising the private sector is critical
A stand-off over perceived risks and rewards has long hampered Australia’s economic engagement in the region but a new strategy marks a strong step forward. -
28 Aug 2023
Indo-Pacific strategy: Uniting all the players on the board
Trouble in the Pacific shows that an aligned approach across the sub-regions is essential in the contest with China. -
24 Aug 2023
Cash is king, no more
Digital payments have transformed Australia, but global financial infrastructure for a cashless society still has some catching up to do. -
11 Aug 2023
The constrained ambition of Australia’s new development policy
Aid “rebuild” focuses on quality and smarter geopolitics, but not dollars. -
21 Jul 2023
Who leads the world as longest in charge of their country?
Put together a list and you can start to see a pattern. -
14 Jul 2023
Australia and Southeast Asia: Driving EV collaboration across borders
A regional value chain for battery production – with Australia to process critical minerals and export these products – is too good a chance to ignore. -
5 May 2023
Indonesia’s dilemma as China pushes a “Global Security Initiative”
Existing regional mechanisms can accommodate diverse interests in Southeast Asia without the need for a new forum. -
14 Apr 2023
Mekong River: Turning declaration into actions
Millions rely on Southeast Asia’s biggest river and promises made in Vientiane last week must be kept. -
21 Mar 2023
Japan seeks an improved climate in relations with ASEAN
A new blueprint for economic ties between Tokyo and Southeast Asian nations has a focus on sustainable development. -
3 Feb 2023
Global energy scarcity and the South China Sea
A new source of natural gas within the controversial “nine-dash line” should revive questions about sharing access.