This poll rates major political parties on foreign policy issues in the lead-up to the 2013 election. Includes: comparative importance of China and the United States to Australia; support for the US alliance and US bases; attitudes towards China, the economy, boat arrivals and offshore processing; support climate change action, and views on the Afghanistan...

Australians are travelling more than ever. In 2012, they took more than eight million trips overseas, more than double the number a decade ago. Public expectations of the assistance government can provide when travellers encounter trouble are rapidly rising, fuelled by intense media and political attention given to high-profile cases. These rising demands on Australia’s...

A review of Australia's overseas diplomatic network and a comparison with the foreign services of other developed nations. Three years ago, the Lowy Institute brought together a panel of eminent Australians to review the instruments with which Australia seeks to engage the wider world and shape our international environment in ways favourable to our economic...

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 topics covered in this report range from a critical review of each government’s public diplomacy programs and its aims and objectives for international broadcasting, to developments in the international broadcasting arena – the major evolutions and trends witnessed over the last decades.