Lowy Institute x Carnegie Endowment: The future of the Australia–US alliance

The alliance with the United States is the bedrock of Australia’s strategic policy. But has alliance coordination kept pace with the evolving security environment? How can the United States and Australia fortify their strategic partnership to confront evolving regional challenges, align defence priorities, and drive deterrence in the Indo-Pacific? And can alliance coordination help mitigate the turbulence of the second Trump administration?

Some of the authors of a recent Carnegie Asia Program report — Evan A. Feigenbaum, Vice President for Studies at the Carnegie Endowment; Courtney Stewart, Senior Managing Consultant at OCRT; and Matthew Sussex, Associate Professor (Adjunct) at Griffith University — discuss these and other questions with Sam Roggeveen, Director of the Lowy Institute’s International Security Program, in an event moderated by Susannah Patton, Director of the Southeast Asia Program at the Lowy Institute.

This promises to be an insightful exchange on the future of this vital partnership.

Susannah Patton (Chair) is Director of the Southeast Asia Program at the Lowy Institute and the Project Lead for the Asia Power Index, the Institute’s annual data-driven assessment that maps the changing distribution of power in the region.

Sam Roggeveen is Director of the Lowy Institute’s International Security Program. He is the author of The Echidna Strategy: Australia’s Search for Power and Peace, published by La Trobe University Press in 2023.

Evan A. Feigenbaum is Vice President for Studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where he oversees its work in Washington, Beijing, New Delhi, and Singapore on a dynamic region encompassing both East Asia and South Asia.

Courtney Stewart is a Senior Managing Consultant at OCRT in Canberra, Australia. She has over 20 years of experience in government, industry, and think tanks in the areas of national security and deterrence in the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom.

Matthew Sussex is an Associate Professor (Adjunct) at the Griffith Asia Institute, Griffith University. He is also a Fellow at the Institute for Regional Security (IFRS), a Visiting Fellow at the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University (ANU), and a Visiting Fellow at the Centre for European Studies, ANU.

Light refreshments will be served.