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The Lowy Institute was established by Sir Frank Lowy in 2003 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of his arrival in Australia by giving back to the country that had embraced him and his family. A keen student of history and international affairs, he wanted to deepen the Australian debate about the world and give Australia a greater voice in the world.
The goal of the Lowy Institute wasto give Australia a bigger voice onthe issues that matter in global affairs
The feasibility study completed in 2002 by the Institute’s current Executive Director, Dr Michael Fullilove, and the early, formative years of the Institute under its first Executive Director Allan Gyngell, provided a set of principles that have guided the Institute’s work to this day: to be independent, non-partisan and evidence-driven; to influence policy and to inform the public; and to be host of the widest range of opinions but the advocate of none.
Over the past 20 years, the Institute has published influential research with an eye to the topics that matter to Australia. The Institute’s interests are as broad as Australia’s interests. Institute scholars have examined Australia’s place in the world. They have explored the global role of the United States, highlighted the emergence of India and analysed the rising power of China. They have re-thought Australian policy in the Pacific and mapped global aid flows in the region. Researchers have published cutting-edge research on climate change, global diasporas and Asia’s changing power dynamics.
The Institute has created a suite of interactives that are eagerly anticipated and parsed around the world: the Lowy Institute Poll, the most authoritative survey of Australian attitudes to the world; the Global Diplomacy Index, mapping the world’s most significant diplomatic networks; the Asia Power Index, the world’s most comprehensive effort to measure power in the world’s most consequential region; and the Pacific Aid Map and Southeast Asia Aid Map, both first-of-their-kind comprehensive accounts of regional aid flows.
Our online magazine has published daily commentary and analysis on international issues since 2007.
The Lowy Institute has become known around the world for its convening power. Each year our beautiful headquarters in the heart of Sydney hosts dozens of speeches, conferences, and roundtables where the most important issues of our time are debated. Institute audiences have heard from presidents and prime ministers; foreign and defence ministers; spies and soldiers; international envoys and global experts.
At the heart of the events program is the annual Lowy Lecture, at which a prominent individual reflects on Australia’s role in the world and the world’s influence on Australia. Lowy Lecturers include German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Lowy Institute Chairman Sir Frank Lowy, UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, World Trade Organization Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala; and Australian prime ministers John Howard, Malcolm Turnbull, Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese.
The Institute’s roster of speakers has also included then US Vice President Joe Biden; Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy; Prime Minister Sanna Marin of Finland; Prime Minister James Marape of Papua New Guinea; Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong of Singapore; President José Ramos-Horta of Timor-Leste; Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi; Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates; NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg; and every Australian prime minister of the past 20 years.
The Lowy Institute representsan investment in ideas
More than twenty years since its establishment, it is impossible to imagine Australia’s international policy landscape without the Lowy Institute.
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