Diplomacy, Disasters and Deals: Foreign Policy 2014

Anthony Bubalo is the Research Director at the Lowy Institute for International Policy. He is also the Director of the West Asia Program covering the Middle East, Central and Southwest Asia. His research focuses on Australian policy towards West Asia and the linkages between West Asia and East Asia.

He has produced research on Islamism, democratisation and energy security, with a particular focus on Egypt, Israel and the countries of the Gulf. He comments regularly on Middle Eastern politics for Australian and international media outlets.

He has written for the Australian, the Age, Sydney Morning Herald, Financial Times, Ha'aretz and Asahi Shimbun newspapers as well as The American Interest and ForeignPolicy.com. He is the co-editor, with Michael Fullilove, of Reports from a Turbulent Decade (Viking), an anthology of the Lowy Institute’s best work.

Before joining the Lowy Institute Anthony was an officer in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade for thirteen years. He served in Australian diplomatic missions in Saudi Arabia and Israel and was Senior Middle East Analyst with the Office of National Assessments from 1996 to 1998. From 2002-2003 he was director of the Policy and Coordination Unit of the Australian government’s Iraq Task Force, and immediately prior to joining the Lowy Institute Anthony was DFAT’s Senior Speechwriter.

Jenny Hayward-Jones is Director of The Myer Foundation Melanesia Program at the Lowy Institute. Prior to joining the Lowy Institute Jenny was an officer in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade for thirteen years, serving in the Australian missions in Vanuatu and Turkey. She worked as Policy Adviser to the Special Coordinator of the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands from its inception in July 2003 and in 2004.

Jenny holds a BA (Hons) in political science from Macquarie University; her Masters thesis for Monash University focused on governance and political change in Vanuatu. Jenny’s interests focus on Australian policy in the Pacific Islands region, political and social change in Melanesia, and the strategic and economic challenges facing Pacific Islands in the Asian century.

She is the author of two Policy Briefs on Fiji and several reports from major conferences on regional issues, on PNG and on Solomon Islands that she has convened in Australia, New Zealand and Solomon Islands.

Rory Medcalf is Director of the International Security Program at the Lowy Institute. His professional background spans diplomacy, journalism and intelligence analysis.

He has worked as a senior strategic analyst with the Office of National Assessments, Canberra’s peak intelligence agency. His experience as an Australian diplomat included a posting to New Delhi, a secondment to Japan’s foreign ministry, and truce monitoring after the civil conflict in Bougainville.

He has contributed to three landmark reports on nuclear arms control: the Canberra Commission, Tokyo Forum, and International Commission on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament. His earlier work in journalism was commended in Australia’s leading media awards, the Walkleys.

He is Senior Research Fellow in Indian strategic affairs at the University of New South Wales, a Fellow at the Australia-India Institute and a Nonresident Senior Fellow with the Brookings Institution in Washington DC. He closely follows Australia’s relations with India and convenes the Australia-India Roundtable, the leading informal dialogue between the two countries.

Sally Warhaft is a Melbourne broadcaster, anthropologist and writer. She is the host of The Fifth Estate, the Wheeler Centre’s live series focusing on journalism, politics, media, and international relations, and The Leap Year ...