The Lowy Institute Indonesia Poll reports the results of the Institute’s second opinion poll in Indonesia. The findings challenge many assumptions about Indonesia on issues like attitudes towards Australia and the United States, openness to foreign investment, democracy, trust in other countries, and China’s rise. The 2012 Poll found that Indonesians have dramatically warmed towards...

New questions this year cover attitudes towards the US alliance and the war in Afghanistan, opinions on basing US forces in Australia, WikiLeaks, foreign aid and the intervention in Libya. The Poll also repeated questions asked in previous years, revealing trends in public opinion on topics such as climate change, asylum seekers, and attitudes towards...

In light of the continued diplomatic truce with Taiwan, this paper reassesses the drivers of China’s engagement in the Pacific, examines trends in China’s aid giving and associated concerns, as well as survey results of China’s follow-through on aid delivery since 2005. This is the fourth in a series of Lowy Institute reports on China’s...

Does Australia understand the leaders of our region? This paper presents the results of a major empirical study of nearly 100 senior leaders in Timor-Leste and Samoa, from the President and Prime Minister down. There is good reason to believe that leaders matter, and that they are particularly important in developing countries. This study yielded...

The sixth annual Lowy Institute poll surveys Australian public opinion on a range of foreign policy issues. New questions this year cover the Rudd Government’s handling of foreign policy issues during its first term in office, whether Australia should develop nuclear weapons, attitudes towards Indonesia and US power, sanctions against Fiji and the morality of...