Lowy Institute

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Protest City: The battle for Hong Kong with Ben Bland and Primrose Riordan Aug 12, 2019

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Lowy Institute Research Fellow Ben Bland and Financial Times journalist Primrose Riordan talk about the roots of the ongoing political unrest in Hong Kong, and where it might end.
The semi-autonomous Chinese territory is being squeezed by an increasingly authoritarian Beijing, putting pressure on its autonomy and rule of law. The city has been convulsed for over two months by mass protests, including violent clashes between police and demonstrators and indiscriminate beatings by organised pro-Beijing mobs.
After the peaceful Umbrella movement of 2014 ended without concession from the government, its leaders barred from political office and jailed, where does the cycle of repression and resistance end, and will Beijing step in?
Ben Bland is the Director of the Southeast Asia program at the Lowy Institute, and the author of the 2017 book Generation HK: Seeking Identity in China’s Shadow. Primrose Riordan is a Hong Kong based journalist for the Financial Times.

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Xi Jinping: The Backlash (Sydney) Aug 12, 2019

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On August 8, the Lowy Institute held the Sydney launch of the latest Lowy Institute Paper published by Penguin Random House Australia, Xi Jinping: The Backlash by Richard McGregor.
China’s president Xi Jinping has transformed China at home and abroad with a speed and assertiveness that few foresaw when he came to power in 2012. Finally, he is meeting resistance, both at home among disgruntled officials and disillusioned technocrats, and abroad from an emerging group of nations that are pushing back against China’s geopolitical and high-tech expansion. With the United States and China at loggerheads, Richard McGregor outlined Xi’s rise, and the backlash.
Richard McGregor, Lowy Institute Senior Fellow, is a leading expert on China’s political system and Asian geopolitics. He is the award-winning author of The Party: The Secret World of China’s Communist Rulers and Asia’s Reckoning: China, Japan and the Fate of US Power in the Pacific Century.
The Lowy Institute Paper launch and in-conversation was with Richard McGregor and Dr Michael Fullilove, Executive Director of the Lowy Institute, followed by a Q&A.

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HE Mr Jens Stoltenberg: An address by the Secretary General of NATO Aug 08, 2019

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Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg gave a public address at the Lowy Institute on 7 August 2019.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is the world’s most important military alliance. Now in its 70th year NATO remains a lynchpin of the liberal world order.
Jens Stoltenberg is NATO’s Secretary General, the alliance’s chief civil servant, responsible for coordinating the work of the organisation.
He served as Prime Minister of Norway from 2000 to 2001 and from 2005 to 2013. He was appointed NATO’s 13th Secretary General in 2014 and his term has been extended until 2022.

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Xi Jinping: The Backlash - Lowy Institute at NGV (Melbourne) Aug 07, 2019

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On August 5, the Lowy Institute held the Melbourne launch of the latest Lowy Institute Paper published by Penguin Random House Australia, Xi Jinping: The Backlash by Richard McGregor.
China’s president Xi Jinping has transformed China at home and abroad with a speed and assertiveness that few foresaw when he came to power in 2012. Finally, he is meeting resistance, both at home among disgruntled officials and disillusioned technocrats, and abroad from an emerging group of nations that are pushing back against China’s geopolitical and high-tech expansion. With the United States and China at loggerheads, Richard McGregor outlined Xi’s rise, and the backlash.
Richard McGregor, Lowy Institute Senior Fellow, is a leading expert on China’s political system and Asian geopolitics. He is the award-winning author of The Party: The Secret World of China’s Communist Rulers and Asia’s Reckoning: China, Japan and the Fate of US Power in the Pacific Century.
The Lowy Institute Paper launch and in-conversation was with Richard McGregor and Research Fellow Lydia Khalil and was followed by a Q&A.
This event was presented by Lowy Institute at the NGV.
All Lowy Institute public events are on the record and open for media attendance.

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Australia's great and powerful friends with Michael Fullilove Jul 29, 2019

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With a Brexit-obsessed new Prime Minister in the UK and an unpredictable President in the White House, are Australia's "great and powerful friends", in Menzies' famous phrase, looking quite as close or reliable as they once did? Lowy Institute Executive Director Dr Michael Fullilove analyses the state of play in Canberra, Washington and London.

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Prime Minister James Marape on a new chapter for Papua New Guinea Jul 25, 2019

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On 30 May 2019, James Marape was sworn in as the eighth Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea. Securing the votes of almost 90 per cent of PNG’s Parliament, Mr Marape has a broad mandate for change following eight years of a Peter O’Neill-led government.
The challenges facing the Marape government remain the same. The economy is struggling, and expectations are high for curbing corruption and improving service delivery. With 16 months until a vote of no confidence motion can resume, and three years until a new election, Mr Marape has limited time to deliver on the expectations of his people.
The Hon James Marape, Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, gave an address on his vision for the new PNG government, and where the PNG–Australia relationship fits within it.
James Marape has served as a Member of Parliament representing the electorate of Tari-Pori Open in Hela Province since 2007. He served as Education Minister from 2008 to 2011 and Finance Minister from 2012 to 2019.

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Panel discussion: Hervé Lemahieu and Bonnie Bley on mapping power in Asia(Canberra) Jul 24, 2019

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Global wealth and power are shifting eastwards, changing the way the region – and indeed the world – works politically and strategically. Lowy Institute Program Director Hervé Lemahieu, the principal researcher behind the Asia Power Index, and Bonnie Bley, Research Fellow, gave a visual and analytical presentation of the changing distribution of power in Asia. The event marked the Australian launch of the 2019 Lowy Institute Asia Power Index, the largest study of power in the region ever undertaken. Find out how countries in the region perform in terms of what they have, and what they do with what they have. This was followed by a discussion of the Index’s findings and their implications for the changing political economy, military balance, and diplomatic networks of Asia.
About the 2019 Asia Power Index: The annual Lowy Institute Asia Power Index evaluates 25 countries and territories across 126 indicators divided into eight thematic measures of power: military capability and defence networks, economic resources and relationships, diplomatic and cultural influence, as well as resilience and future resources. The Index is made available through a specially designed digital platform, at power.lowyinstitute.org.
Hervé Lemahieu is Director of the Asian Power and Diplomacy Program at the Lowy Institute. Hervé leads the research for the annual Asia Power Index – launched by the Institute in 2018 – and developed the project methodology to map the changing distribution of power in the region. Hervé joined Lowy from the International Institute for Strategic Studies and was previously a consultant at Oxford Analytica. Hervé has an MSc in Global Governance and Diplomacy from the University of Oxford, and an MA with first-class honours in International Relations and Modern History from the University of St Andrews.
Bonnie Bley is a Research Fellow for the Asian Power and Diplomacy Program at the Lowy Institute and one of the principal researchers behind the Asia Power Index. Bonnie also leads the research on the Global Diplomacy Index, a digital project which maps the diplomatic networks of 60 countries. Bonnie joined the Institute from the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), and studied at University College London (UCL) and the University of Bologna.

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In conversation: Hugh White on how to defend Australia Jul 16, 2019

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The Lowy Institute hosted one of Australia’s most provocative public commentators, Professor Hugh White. Lowy Institute Senior Fellow Richard McGregor chaired a discussion on Professor White’s new book, How to Defend Australia. Over the past decade, Professor White has set the agenda of Australia’s China debate. This book will do the same for defence policy.
Hugh White AO is Professor of Strategic Studies at the Australian National University and author of The China Choice and the Quarterly Essay 39, Power Shift. He has served as an intelligence analyst with the Office of National Assessments, as a senior adviser to Defence Minister Kim Beazley and to Prime Minister Bob Hawke, and as a senior official in the Department of Defence, where from 1995 to 2000 he was Deputy Secretary for Strategy and Intelligence.
Richard McGregor, Lowy Institute Senior Fellow, is a leading expert on China’s political system and Australia’s relations with Asia. He is the author of The Party: The Secret World of China’s Communist Rulers and Asia’s Reckoning: China, Japan and the Fate of US Power in the Pacific Century. His Lowy Institute Paper, Xi Jinping: The Backlash, will be published in late July.

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Xi Jinping - the Backlash, with Richard McGregor Jul 15, 2019

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Lowy Senior Fellow Richard McGregor discusses the domestic and international reaction to Xi’s centralisation of political control and assertion of Chinese power on the world stage. Xi has removed his own term limits, cracked down on dissidents and purged the party with a popular, ruthless and politically convenient anti-corruption campaign. But with a slowing economy, demographic pressures, and increasing pushback from adversaries without and within, how long can Xi’s grip on China last? Award winning journalist and author, now Lowy Senior Fellow Richard McGregor is a globally recognised authority on the Chinese Communist Party.

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The Octagon of Power - Unpacking the Asia Power Index Jul 01, 2019

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We're talking power in the Asia Pacific. Who's got it, who's losing it, and who's using what they've got in the smartest way? Kelsey Munro talks to the lead researchers on the Lowy Institute's Asia Power Index, Herve Lemahieu and Bonnie Bley, about the implications of their findings about power in Asia.

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