Shows
Australia in the WorldEp. 128: Sols vote; nests of spies? growing AUKUS? Palestinian statehood?Stephen Dziedzic of the ABC once again joins Darren to discuss a busy month of news, starting with the recent election in Solomon Islands, then a bombshell Washington Post story about the alleged involvement of the Indian government in targeted killings (with a strong Australian angle); next the recent 2+2 bilateral with South Korea and the possibility of others joining onto AUKUS Pillar 2, and finishing with FM Penny Wong’s statement that statehood for Palestine is required to break the cycle of violence.
This episode was recorded on Friday 3 May, exactly one year following the death of Allan Gy...
2024-05-0456 minAustralia in the WorldEp. 120: Where to from ”stabilisation” in Australia-China relations?PM Albanese’s visit to Beijing has ended. Are Australia-China relations “stabilised”? And if so, what’s next? To discuss these big questions Darren is joined by Ben Herscovitch, his colleague at the ANU and author of the indispensable Substack newsletter “Beijing to Canberra and Back”.
Relevant links
Ben Herscovitch, “The Prime Minister's visit, what really caused relationship repair, and a policy takeaway”, Beijing to Canberra and Back, 30 October to 7 November 2023: https://beijing2canberra.substack.com/p/the-prime-ministers-visit-what-really
Ben Herscovitch, “Australia should sanction Chinese officials abusing human rights”, Canberra Times, 7 November 2023: https://www.canberratimes.com.au...
2024-02-2457 minAustralia in the WorldEp. 114: And we’re back. Australia-China; US-ChinaIt’s time to resume, or start again. A lot has happened in the past four months, and Darren focuses on two big stories, or relationship trajectories: Australia-China, and US-China. Both might be trending in positive directions, but there have been bumps along the way.
May the same be said for this podcast into the future!
Australia in the World is written and produced by Darren Lim, with research, editing and co-hosting this episode by Walter Colnaghi, and theme music composed by Rory Stenning.
Relevant links
Penny Wong, “Meeting with China’s Dire...
2023-08-0727 minAustralia in the WorldAllan Gyngell and Australia in the worldAllan Gyngell passed away on 3 May 2023. Darren talks about the past few weeks, and reads a short piece he wrote for the AIIA about his friend, and the podcast they built together.
Relevant links
Darren Lim, “Allan Gyngell and ‘Australia in the World’”, 5 May 2023: https://www.internationalaffairs.org.au/australianoutlook/allan-gyngell-and-australia-in-the-world/
Penny Wong, “Passing of Allan Gyngell AO”, 3 May 2023: https://www.foreignminister.gov.au/minister/penny-wong/media-release/passing-allan-gyngell-ao
Daniel Flitton, “Remembering Allan Gyngell, ‘the finest mind in Australian foreign policy’”, Lowy Interpreter, 3 May 2023: https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/remembering-allan-gyngell-finest-mind-australian-foreign-policy
Andrew Tillett, “All...
2023-05-0610 minAustralia in the WorldEp. 83: Debating AUKUS—Deterrence, sovereignty and riskThe announcement of a new trilateral security partnership, AUKUS (Australia, UK and US), is a major event in the history of Australian foreign policy. Australia is planning to acquire nuclear-powered submarines, scrapping a contract with the French to build conventional subs in the process. AUKUS also plans to engage in new forms of security cooperation in other technology domains. This decision is both momentous and controversial.
In this episode, Allan and Darren debate the merits of AUKUS, with Darren attempting to lay out a (theoretical) case in favour, while Allan offers his critique. The conversation is the...
2021-09-2259 minAustralia in the WorldEp. 58: Mailbag! US failures; fearing abandonment; the Quad & democracy; grading China policy; DFAT in 2050Thrilled that the podcast is about to cross the 100,000 lifetime download threshold (thank you all!), Allan and Darren try something new this week – answering mailbag questions. Is the US a ‘failed state’, and would ‘strategic autonomy’ be realistic for Australia? Will the title of Allan’s book on Australian foreign policy, “Fear of abandonment”, be appropriate for the next 70 years of Australian foreign policy? Are there any lessons for Australia and the Indo-Pacific from the recent ‘Abraham Accords’ between Israel and the UAE/Bahrain? Is the Quad viable as an ‘Arc of Democracy’, and are there any major takeaways from the ministerial in...
2020-10-1150 minAustralia in the WorldEp. 47: Heather Smith on fixing the G20, industrial policy, tech competition, and what economists get wrongAllan and Darren welcome Dr Heather Smith PSM to the podcast. Until January 2020, Heather was Secretary of the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science, which followed serving as Secretary of the Department of Communications and the Arts. Before that she was a Deputy Secretary in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet (including serving as G20 Sherpa in 2014 when Australia held the G20 Presidency) and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, as well as a Deputy Director General in the Office of National Assessments. She has also held senior jobs in Treasury, the Reserve Bank of Australia, and...
2020-05-1349 minAustralia in the WorldEp. 45: The WHO; “mask diplomacy”; DFAT & Covid-19Covid-19 remains central to the news this week. Allan and Darren begin with President Trump’s decision to freeze U.S. funding to the World Health Organization, and assess the validity his criticisms. Australia’s Foreign Minister Marise Payne has proposed an inquiry, but is there even an alternative? And does this case tell us anything new about great power rivalry and the future of the international order?
Darren is curious to explore the concept of “mask diplomacy”, a term used to describe deliveries of equipment and supplies by China to other countries stricken by the coronavirus. How shou...
2020-04-2331 minAustralia in the WorldEp. 44: The United States, and the allianceThis week Allan and Darren try to step back from Covid-19, and have a long-planned conversation about the United States: its domestic politics, its role in the world, and the state of the alliance relationship with Australia. Allan begins by asking Darren for his assessment of what’s happening inside the US right now, amid an upcoming presidential election, the challenge of the coronavirus, and of course the non-stop news cycle that is the Trump presidency. How much will Covid-19 affect the presidential campaign? The two discuss the bipartisan hardening of attitudes towards China, the near-complete absence of US le...
2020-04-0945 minAustralia in the WorldEp. 33: US leadership: vision vs reality; RCEP; human rights in China; Syria, the Kurds and US credibilityAllan and Darren kick off this week’s episode by covering a bad week for the United States’ Indo-Pacific strategy at the ASEAN and East Asia Summit meetings in Bangkok. Meanwhile Australia’s Defence Minister Linda Reynolds delivered a constructive speech in Washington DC setting out a vision for precisely what the United States ought to be doing. The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) trade agreement appears set to become a reality, albeit without the participation of India. Staying with India, it is reported that former NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell will become Australia’s next High Commissioner.
In a spe...
2019-11-0740 minAustralia in the WorldEp. 32: The Australia-China RelationshipOn this week’s episode, Allan and Darren look to have a broader discussion about China, anchoring the conversation around Allan’s recent article in Australian Foreign Affairs, “History hasn’t ended: How to handle China”. On the larger and longer term questions surrounding the Australia-China relationship, Allan argues that Australia indeed has an effective but under-appreciated way of approaching China, to weigh up interests and values and use those interests and values as stakes in our relationship with the PRC: foreign policy. Attempting to avoid the risk of engaging in what Prime Minister Morrison would term “over-analysis”, Allan and Darren dis...
2019-10-2234 minAustralia in the WorldEp. 31: Debating PM Morrison’s Lowy LectureAllan and Darren attempt their first “emergency” episode, recorded on Friday 4 October, the day after Prime Minister Morrison delivered the 2019 Lowy Lecture at the Sydney Town Hall. The conversation is structured around a commentary Allan wrote for the Lowy Interpreter that same day, in which he argues that the speech “marked a clear step away from the sort of Australian foreign policy articulated in the government’s 2017 Foreign Policy White Paper and towards the worldview of Trumpism and Brexit”. Darren, in contrast, found a lot more than Allan to like in the speech, and explains why he saw evidence of a clear...
2019-10-0426 minAustralia in the WorldEp. 20: Huawei and decoupling; PNG; four elections; new ambassadors; Bob HawkeIt’s been a busy few weeks in Australia and the world, and in a full episode Allan and Darren begin with the restrictions announced by the Trump Administration on the sale of technology to Huawei, and what this means for US-China competition. They pivot closer to home to Papua New Guinea and the resignation of its Prime Minister. Next, they reflect upon four election results: Australia, India, Indonesia and the European Union, and then turn to the announcement of two new Australian Ambassadors to the United States and the United Nations, both ex-politicians. Finally, Allan remembers Prime Minister Bo...
2019-05-3042 minAustralia in the WorldEp. 12: What we learned from 2018, looking ahead to 2019In this first podcast recording of 2019, Allan Gyngell and Darren Lim use the opportunity provided by the new year to look back at 2018 and ask how the events of the past 12 months have shaped their worldviews. Allan focuses on the speed in which the international system is changing, while Darren wonders at the extent to which political institutions are able to moderate some of the wilder swings in politics and policy within democracies across the globe.
On the topic of Australia’s performance in 2018, while there is no doubt that the government was focused very much on it...
2019-02-1933 minAustralia in the WorldEp. 3: Turnbull’s “China reset” speech, Australia’s soft power review, and interview with Miles KupaIn the third episode of the Australia in the World podcast, AIIA National President Allan Gyngell and ANU academic Darren Lim discuss the efforts of Prime Minister (at the time of recording) Malcolm Turnbull to “reset” bilateral relations with China in a recent speech, and the topic of Australia’s soft power, in light of a review announced by Foreign Minister Julie Bishop. Allan and Darren then welcome the podcast’s first ever guest, Miles Kupa, to discuss Malaysia and Indonesia.
Miles Kupa has been Australia’s Ambassador / High Commissioner in Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines, as well as...
2018-08-2347 minAustralia in the WorldEpisode 1: The rules-based international order with Allan Gyngell and Darren LimIn the pilot episode of the “Australia in the world” podcast, the Australian Institute of International Affairs (AIIA) National President Allan Gyngell and the ANU's Dr Darren Lim discuss the rules-based international order and the priorities and challenges facing Australia as it seeks to shore up this key pillar of its foreign policy. The rules-based order was the subject of conference on Australia and the Rules-Based International Order held on 18-19 July organised by the Australian Institute of International Affairs, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and ANU Coral Bell School with the support of the Attorney-General’s Department. The con...
2018-08-1732 minAustralia in the WorldEpisode 2: Elections in Pakistan and Cambodia, the new trilateral infrastructure investment fund, and how worried should Australia be about the United States?In the second episode of the new Australia in the World podcast, AIIA National President Allan Gyngell and ANU academic Darren Lim discuss recent elections in Pakistan and Cambodia, a new trilateral investment fund announced by the United States, Japan and Australia, and the recent AUSMIN talks. The discussion finishes with a deeper dive into the topic of how worried Australia should be about the decline of the United States.
Allan’s bio: https://www.internationalaffairs.org.au/about-us/our-people/allan-gyngell/
Darren’s bio: https://researchers.anu.edu.au/researchers/lim-dj
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2018-08-0949 min