The New Biden Administration: A Lowy Institute Collection
On this page, we have curated the best publications, conversations and event recordings to help you understand the foreign policy implications of Joe Biden's presidency.
Introduction
On this page, we have curated the best publications, conversations and event recordings to help you understand the foreign policy implications of Joe Biden's presidency. Below, you will find research by world-leading authorities on US foreign policy, as well as opinion pieces and media commentary by Lowy Institute experts. And you will hear from the senior advisers who are likely to make up Joe Biden’s foreign policy team, many of whom have either visited Australia as Lowy Institute Distinguished International Fellows or have featured as guests on Lowy Institute podcasts and webcasts.
Watch
2016
An address from Joe Biden, Vice President of the United States
At Paddington Town Hall, United States Vice President Joe Biden addressed the Lowy Institute and the United States Studies Centre on the Australia-US relationship.
2020
Ambassador Samantha Power on US foreign policy
On Friday 28 August, 2020, the Lowy Institute’s Executive Director Dr Michael Fullilove hosted an in conversation event via live video stream with Ambassador Samantha Power, one of America’s leading foreign-policy voices, both as a scholar and a Cabinet member in the Obama administration. Lowy Institute Executive Director Dr Michael Fullilove spoke with Power about US foreign policy under President Donald Trump, Vice President Joe Biden’s worldview, the global implications of the coronavirus pandemic and the future of the US-China relationship.
11 June 2020
In conversation with Kurt Campbell and Michèle Flournoy
Michèle Flournoy served as Under Secretary of Defense for Policy in the Obama administration, and is considered a likely Biden Administration nominee for the position of Defense Secretary. Kurt Campbell served as Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs in the Obama administration, where he is widely credited as a key architect of the “pivot to Asia”.
13 June 2017
Jake Sullivan on US strategy in the Asia Pacific
An address from Vice President Joe Biden's National Security Adviser, Jake Sullivan, about a rising China, a belligerent North Korea, an unruly ASEAN, and many other challenges facing the US in the Asia-Pacific. Sullivan is considered likely to fill a senior national security position in the Biden Administration.
Listen
From September 2020
Joe Biden's senior policy adviser Jake Sullivan on Russia, China, climate diplomacy and Australia
In this episode of The Director’s Chair, Michael Fullilove speaks with Jake Sullivan, the senior policy adviser to Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Joe Biden. Jake Sullivan has held positions of trust for many of America’s leaders in the past two decades, as senior policy adviser to the last two Democratic presidential candidates, Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden; deputy chief of staff to Hillary Clinton when she was Secretary of State; and national security adviser to Vice President Joe Biden.
From October 2019
Ambassador Nicholas Burns on the China challenge. Burns is considered likely to serve in a senior diplomatic role in the Biden administration.
How should the US and Australia plan for a future of both strategic competition and cooperation with China? How do we get the balance between them right? The distinguished American diplomat Nicholas Burns, the Lowy Institute’s 2019 Rothschild & Co Distinguished International Fellow, addressed these questions in the 2019 Owen Harries Lecture.
From October 2019
Ambassador Nicholas Burns on restoring American leadership
What made America a great power? What is Trump doing to weaken America on the global stage, and what must the US do to revive its global leadership after the Trump presidency? Distinguished American diplomat Nicholas Burns, the Lowy Institute’s 2019 Rothschild & Co Distinguished International Fellow, gave a speech at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne
From November 2013
Dr Kurt Campbell on the future of US foreign policy in the Asia-Pacific region
On 21 November 2013 former Assistant Secretary of State and the Lowy Institute’s Distinguished International Fellow Kurt Campbell delivered the inaugural Owen Harries Lecture. Dr Campbell spoke about the future of US foreign policy in the Asia-Pacific region.
From October 2020
Ambassador Nicholas Burns on diplomacy, presidents and American power
In this episode of The Director’s Chair, Michael Fullilove speaks with Ambassador Nicholas Burns, Professor at Harvard University, Executive Director of the Aspen Strategy Group, and one of the leading American diplomats of his generation about ‘the unipolar moment’ after the end of the Cold War, America’s relations with Russia and China, and the Australia-US alliance.
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THOMAS WRIGHT, LOWY INSTITUTE ANALYSIS
The Point of No Return: The 2020 Election and the Crisis of American Foreign Policy
The definitive analysis of the competing foreign policy visions of Donald Trump and Joe Biden, by the Brookings Institution’s Thomas Wright.
MICHAEL FULLILOVE, SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
Australia Will Benefit If American Craziness Subsides
In most US presidential election years – say, for the Clinton-Bush race in 1992, Bush-Gore in 2000, or Obama-Romney in 2012 – a respectable debate can be had as to which candidate tracks more closely with Australia’s interests. 2020 is not such a year.
DANIEL FLITTON, THE INTERPRETER
Joe Biden: Big questions and great expectations
Will the world be receptive to a US attempt to reassert global leadership after the crassness of Trump’s America First?
IONA MAIN, THE INTERPRETER
Kamala Harris: Where does Australia feature in her worldview?
What we know about Joe Biden’s running mate is she presents as a centrist internationalist. And she could be president.
JOHN KEHOE, AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW
Australia has friends in Biden’s inner sanctum
Scott Morrison does not personally know Joe Biden, but Australia will have close friends in the 46th president’s inner sanctum. Article includes comments from Lowy Institute Executive Director Michael Fullilove.
ANTHONY GALLOWAY, SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
Morrison has links into Biden inner circle, but wants to wait for result
Senior Australian officials will look to pick up where they left off with key advisers of the expected next president of the United States, Joe Biden. Article includes comments from Lowy Institute Executive Director Michael Fullilove.
JOHN KEHOE, AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW
Biden adviser calls on Australia to “blunt” China
US presidential candidate Joe Biden’s foreign policy adviser has backed Australia blocking Chinese business acquisitions and called on the Morrison government to increase defence spending to help limit China's rise. Article includes comments from Lowy Institute China expert Richard McGregor.
Cover Photo: Adam Schultz / Biden for President / Flickr
