Lowy Institute

• 1. Introduction

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  The Lowy Institute sits at 31 Bligh Street in Sydney's Central Business District, inside a heritage-listed building that once housed the New South Wales Club. From that address, a team of researchers and analysts has grown into the most cited think tank based outside the United States and United Kingdom anywhere in the world. How does a privately founded policy institute, seeded by a single donation in 2003, end up shaping the foreign policy conversation of an entire continent? That question runs through everything the Lowy Institute does.

• 2. Frank Lowy's Vision

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  Frank Lowy was born in Slovakia and served in the 1947-1949 Palestine war before emigrating to Australia. He went on to co-found Westfield Corporation, the global shopping centre company, and accumulated close ties with two former Israeli prime ministers. Knighted for his contributions, he founded the institute in April 2003, endowing it with a donation large enough to fund the first eight years of its operation. His family has remained central to its governance, with at least four people bearing the Lowy name on the Board of Directors, including Peter Lowy and Steven Lowy, both listed as Group managing director of the Westfield Group.

• 3. Funding and Independence

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  By 2019, the institute was reporting revenues of over twelve million dollars, including over two million dollars from government sources. Australian government funding flows through three departments: Foreign Affairs and Trade, Defence, and Home Affairs. Corporate donors have included BHP, Rio Tinto, Capital Group, and Rothschild and Co. The investment management firm Manikay Partners, the professional services firm Ernst and Young, and former Australian diplomat and cabinet secretary Michael Thawley and his wife Deborah have also contributed. The institute registered with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission in 2012 under the name "Lowy Institute For International Policy", a registration that formalized its non-profit status.

• 4. Research and Influence

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  Every Australian prime minister since 2003 has delivered a presentation at the institute. The guest list has also included NATO's Secretary General, U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden, and United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson. The annual Lowy Lecture is described as the institute's signature event, convening a prominent individual to comment on Australia's global role and on global influences shaping the country. Researchers work across programs covering East Asia, International Security, Pacific Islands, West Asia, the International Economy, and Diplomacy and Public Opinion. In 2019, Richard McGregor published a Lowy report titled "Xi Jinping: The Backlash", examining how the world was responding to China's rising global power.

• 5. Cyber Attacks and Diplomacy

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  The institute's regular contact with Australian officials and visiting international leaders made it a target. Information-harvesting cyber attacks occurred during and before 2012, attributed generally to China, and were compared to similar attacks against think tanks in the United States. The institute's internal and external digital activity, including email traffic, was identified as the likely draw for those intrusions. The institute's name also appeared in a U.S. diplomatic cable dated the 17th of December 2010, released to Italian investigative journalist Stefania Maurizi in December 2023 under freedom of information. That cable described the institute's Michael Fullilove as a "moderating voice" during the period following the United States diplomatic cables leak, noting that Fullilove had called the leaks "fascinating" while also labelling WikiLeaks' conduct reckless.

• 6. The Lowy Poll

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  The annual Lowy Poll surveys a nationally representative sample of adult Australians on foreign policy questions and is the institute's flagship publication. The first Lowy Poll ran in 2005. Wholly funded by the institute itself, its results have been widely cited in both Australian and international media. The institute has also conducted opinion polling in Indonesia, New Zealand, and China. An April 2023 poll found that one in five Chinese-Australians reported being called offensive names in 2022, a figure down ten percentage points from 31 percent recorded in 2020 at the height of diplomatic tensions with Beijing.

• 7. Tools, Criticism, and Legacy

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  The institute launched its blog, The Interpreter, in November 2007. Former Executive Director Allan Gyngell described its aim as providing fresh insights into international events and a new way to engage with the institute. The Asia Power Index, an analytical tool developed by the institute, allows users to compare countries across eight types of power: military capability, defence networks, economic resources, economic relationships, diplomatic influence, cultural influence, resilience, and future resources. The institute has not been without critics. In 2012, Jim Green, national nuclear campaigner of Friends of the Earth Australia, alleged that it ran what he called "a disgraceful propaganda campaign" to advocate for Australian uranium sales to India, a policy position he said contradicted Australia's longstanding refusal to sell uranium to nations outside the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The 2011 Lowy Poll format was separately criticised as inadequate for policy use when measured against studies from institutions including CSIRO, Stanford University, and Yale University.