Australian aid has not been effective in helping the Pacific Islands region make significant progress in meeting the Millennium Development Goals. The focus of aid on improving public sector capacity and governance has not stimulated sufficient private sector participation to meet the development aspirations of Pacific Island populations.

In this Lowy Institute Policy Brief, The Myer Foundation Melanesia Program Director Jenny Hayward-Jones argues that Australian aid should be used to leverage growing corporate interest in reducing global poverty into investment in the Pacific - to create real income-earning opportunities for a burgeoning youth population and underscore a solid base for improved service delivery.




Nuclear Security: What Else Can Australia Do? September 2008
Rory Medcalf

Nuclear dangers are growing, yet so is a new 'realistic idealist' campaign for nuclear disarmament. In this Lowy Institute Policy Brief, International Security Program Director Rory Medcalf suggests ways Australia might contribute to nuclear security in Asia and globally, in addition to the new international Commission that Canberra is co-sponsoring with Tokyo. These include rebuilding Australia's diplomatic capacity in arms control, urging the new US Administration to reduce American reliance on nuclear weapons, and starting a leaders' dialogue in Asia. A separate Lowy Institute Analysis provides background and further detail.




So What? Matching Policy to Australian Interests in West Asia, July 2008
Anthony Bubalo

In a new Lowy institute Policy Brief, West Asia Program Director Anthony Bubalo argues that the evolution of Australian policy in West Asia (the Middle East and Southwest Asia) has lagged behind the maturation of Australian interests in this part of the world. 'So what? Matching policy to Australian interests in West Asia' discusses new elements to a reinvigorated policy framework, including an enhanced dialogue with key regional leaders, a strategic partnership with one or two key countries, the strengthening of non-military cooperation, the leveraging of the growing regional economic role of the Gulf to promote Australian trade, the greater use of multilateral and second-track diplomacy on issues such as energy security and Afghanistan, a greater on-the-ground development presence and an expanded national capacity to analyse and assess regional developments.




The Dragon In The Pacific: More Opportunity Than Threat, June 2008
Fergus Hanson

China runs an opaque aid program in the Pacific that has fuelled suspicions about its motives in the region and that undermines efforts to improve accountability, governance and stability. Despite concerns about China’s aid program, China and Australia share broadly similar interests in the region and Australia and other donors would gain from working with China to improve the quality of its aid and reduce its destabilising side effects. In a new Lowy Institute Policy Brief, Fergus Hanson suggests several new approaches to engaging China on its aid program.




Why the Gulf matters: crafting an Australian security policy for the Arabian Gulf, May 2008
Colonel Rodger Shanahan

The imminent withdrawal of Australian combat forces from Iraq does not mean that the Arabian Gulf is peripheral to Australia's strategic interests. Australian forces have been deployed there regularly over the past 20 years, and Australia's and its main trading partners' energy requirements will increasingly be met from that region. In this new Lowy Institute Policy Brief, Chief of Army Visiting Fellow Rodger Shanahan argues that Australia has permanent interests in the region and advocates the establishment of a strategic partnership with the United Arab Emirates.




Looking After Australians Overseas, October 2007
Professor Hugh White

More Australians are now travelling overseas than ever before, and more and more are finding themselves in trouble abroad as a result. The Federal Government has put a strong emphasis on helping those Australians whose travel plans go wrong for various reasons, but recently there have been signs that this may have gone too far. Today helping Australians in trouble abroad is perhaps the single most demanding and time-consuming responsibility of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Budgets are tight, and resources once devoted to wider national interests are now spent helping individuals who find themselves in trouble. This is starting to have implications for Australia's wider foreign policy.

In a new Lowy Institute Policy Brief, Visiting Fellow Hugh White asks if it is time to start drawing some lines.




Stopping a Nuclear Arms Race Between America and China, August 2007
Professor Hugh White

China and America may be at the start of a destabilising nuclear arms race, as China tries to preserve its ability to deter US nuclear attack in the light of US missile defences and nuclear system upgrades. That would undermine hopes that the US and China can build a stable cooperative relationship as China's power grows. So Australia has a big interest in trying to help head off the risk of an arms race. In a new Lowy Institute Policy Brief, Hugh White suggests that there is something simple we could try.




Design Faults: The Asia Pacific's Regional Architecture, July 2007
Allan Gyngell

In a new Policy Brief, Lowy Institute Executive Director Allan Gyngell argues that the Asia Pacific region has too many regional organisations, yet they are still unable to do all the things required of them. This matters at a time when the rising power of China and India presents new challenges. He suggests a new framework for regional institutions, including the establishment of a more effective security organisation and a heads of government meeting separate from APEC.




Uranium for India: Avoiding the Pitfalls, May 2007
Ron Walker

In a new Lowy Institute Policy Brief, Ron Walker, a former Australian Permanent Representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency, warns that selling uranium to India without the same legal obligations and non-proliferation standards that apply to our other customers could undermine our broader foreign policy interests and weaken the national consensus to continue uranium mining and exports.

The Brief argues that instead of making an exception for India, Australia should work to strengthen the international nuclear non-proliferation system and engage India in that process. The result could be a more effective non-proliferation regime and one that includes India and, potentially, one day, the other two NPT holdouts.

Ron Walker is a Visiting Fellow at the Asia-Pacific College of Diplomacy at the Australian National University. He was Chairman of the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency in 1993-1994.




A Long Hot Summer: Crisis and Opportunity in Afghanistan, March 2007
Professor William Maley Daoud Yaqub

In a new Lowy Institute Policy Brief, William Maley and Daoud Yaqub explore the implications of the looming Taliban Spring offensive on the international reconstruction and security effort in Afghanistan. Maley and Yaqub argue that a more aggressive posture by Coalition forces toward the Taliban and more concerted international pressure on Pakistan is needed to ensure that Afghanistan does not once again become a safe haven for international terrorist organisations.




HIV/AIDS: The Looming Asia Pacific Pandemic, March 2007
Bill Bowtell

In a new Policy Brief on HIV/AIDS in the Asia Pacific, Bill Bowtell calls for both a doubling of global funding for the response to the HIV pandemic, and a radical overhaul of strategies that have not brought the global pandemic under control. He proposes that the international community must commit itself to the eradication of HIV/AIDS by the end of the 21st century. Australia is well placed to increase its already significant contribution to the fight against HIV/AIDS in the region, and especially in the south Pacific and Melanesia.




Reinventing 'West Asia': How the 'Middle East' and 'South Asia' fit into Australia's strategic picture, February 2007
Anthony Bubalo

In conjunction with the launch of the Lowy Institute's West Asia program, Anthony Bubalo, Director of the new program, argues why the Middle East and South Asia increasingly comprise one strategically coherent region, 'West Asia', and explores the policy significance of this for Australia.




China and Taiwan in the South Pacific: Diplomatic Chess Versus Pacific Political Rugby, January 2007
Graeme Dobell

In the latest Lowy Institute Policy Brief, entitled China and Taiwan in the South Pacific: diplomatic chess versus Pacific political rugby, Graeme Dobell looks at how the competition for diplomatic recognition between China and Taiwan is destabilising Island states and undermining Australia's interests in the region. Graeme Dobell is one of the ABC's most experienced reporters of Asia Pacific affairs. He is now the Foreign Affairs & Defence Correspondent for Radio Australia.




New Rules for a New 'Great Game': Northeast Asian Energy Insecurity and the G-20, November 2006
Anthony Bubalo, Mark Thirlwell

Energy insecurity, driven by high demand and uncertainty over supply, is fuelling a surging interest in equity in Middle East oil fields among major energy consumers, particularly in Northeast Asia. There is a risk that the resultant competition for oil and other energy resources in the Middle East will aggravate existing tensions or even create new conflicts. In a new Policy Brief, Anthony Bubalo and Mark Thirlwell argue that the G-20, meeting in Melbourne this weekend, should take a leading role in ensuring that energy insecurity does not become a global strategic problem.




Capital Punishment and Australian Foreign Policy, August 2006
Dr Michael Fullilove

In this new Policy Brief, Dr Michael Fullilove examines how the Australian Government implements its stated opposition to the death penalty. He finds that while Australia is an effective advocate for Australian nationals on death row, we do less than we could in relation to universal abolition. Dr Fullilove argues Canberra should accelerate its efforts on comprehensive abolition, in two ways.

First, our political leaders should bring some consistency to their rhetoric on the death penalty. It is difficult to discern such consistency at the moment, which makes us look hypocritical when we ask for our own people to be spared.

Second, Australia should initiate a regional coalition against the death penalty, building on the momentum created by its abolition in five Asian countries in the past decade. Megaphone diplomacy need not be employed. Instead, the regional coalition should look for creative ways to nudge regional countries toward abolition.




Football Diplomacy, Republished in June 2006
Anthony Bubalo

Australia's loss to Italy ended a remarkable run in the World Cup, but Australian football's global adventure is far from over. In coming months the broader significance of Australia's membership of the Asian Football Confederation will become apparent as the Socceroos seek a place in next year's Asian Cup Finals. And with Australia's footballing currency greatly enhanced by the perfomances in Germany, the opportunities for Australian business and government to leverage this new sporting relationship with Asia have only improved - opportunities explored in the Lowy Institute Policy Brief, Football Diplomacy: Engaging Asia through Sport.




Geeing up the G-20, April 2006
Dr Malcolm Cook Mark Thirlwell

On 18-19 November this year, Melbourne will host one of the most important international policy meetings ever held in Australia, the annual G-20 Summit of finance ministers and central bank governors. The G-20 is increasingly well placed to replace the G7 as an effective steering committee for the world economy, and is a key player in discussions to reform the IMF and World Bank.

In a new Policy Brief entitled Geeing up the G-20, Mark Thirlwell and Malcolm Cook explain the potential of the G-20 and its international policy benefits for Australia.




Football Diplomacy, November 2005
Anthony Bubalo

While Australian governments have successfully built pragmatic ties with Asian leaders, a popular dimension to our engagement with Asia has in many respects been missing. This didn't matter greatly in the past, but today public opinion is increasingly a factor in foreign policy. A new opportunity to deepen people-to-people links with Asia has arrived in the form of Australia's recent admission into the Asian Football Confederation.

Drawing on ideas that emerged from the Lowy Institute's Football Diplomacy seminar last October, this Policy Brief examines how Australia can best use this new sporting relationship with Asia to enhance its regional image and engagement.




How to Save APEC, October 2005
Dr Malcolm Cook Allan Gyngell

In 2007, Sydney will host the most important and expensive diplomatic meeting ever held in Australia, the APEC leaders' meeting. In How to Save APEC, the first of a new series of Lowy Institute Policy Briefs, Allan Gyngell and Malcolm Cook analyse APEC's problems and the competitive threats it faces.

The brief offers recommendations for necessary and achievable reforms that can help ensure that APEC does not sink into costly irrelevance. Allan Gyngell is the Institute's Executive Director and Malcolm Cook is the Program Director for Asia and the Pacific.

 

Source: Lowy Institute