『Australia in the World』のカバーアート

Australia in the World

Australia in the World

著者： Darren Lim
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A discussion of the most important news and issues in international affairs through a uniquely Australian lens. Hosted by Darren Lim, in memory of Allan Gyngell.Copyright 2019 All rights reserved. 政治・政府 政治学
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  • Ep. 191: Tim Watts MP on AI sovereignty, safety and Australia’s choices

    Ep. 191: Tim Watts MP on AI sovereignty, safety and Australia’s choices
    2026/09/12
    In a somewhat different episode of the podcast, Darren speaks with Tim Watts MP, a member of the parliament’s new Joint Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence, about how Australia should think about AI at a moment when both the technology and the politics surrounding it are moving extraordinarily quickly. The conversation (recorded on 11 Sep) begins with the remarkable run of AI news over the past fortnight: the investigation into OpenAI agents coordinating to hack Hugging Face, increasingly stark warnings from researchers inside frontier AI companies about loss-of-control risks, evidence of attempts to use advanced models for dangerous biological research, and extraordinary new claims about AI capabilities in mathematics. Darren and Tim discuss how non-specialists—and governments—should think about risks that are deeply contested, difficult to quantify and potentially very large. They then turn to Australia. What does “sovereignty” actually mean in AI when Australia cannot realistically control the entire technology stack? Tim distinguishes between hosting compute in Australia, controlling infrastructure, and securing access to frontier models. He discusses the different value of frontier capability, cost and optionality; open-weight models; the distinction between training and inference; and why hosting significant training compute could give Australia a more consequential place in the emerging AI ecosystem. The discussion also explores the limits of Australian leverage. A relationship with an AI company is not the same thing as leverage over the government that regulates it. Darren and Tim draw parallels with the management of Australia’s alliance relationships and Allan Gyngell’s argument that Australian statecraft should seek to expand the country’s options and room for manoeuvre. They also consider what Australia should demand in return for hosting very large AI investments: access to compute, research partnerships, safety evaluation, domestic skills and capability, alongside the local questions of energy, water, infrastructure and social licence. Finally, they look beyond Australian sovereignty to what Australia might contribute internationally—through AI safety research, cybersecurity, cooperation among middle powers and potentially the Australia Group’s work on biological and chemical weapons. Tim closes with advice for people who are not technologists but want to understand AI: use the tools, learn by doing, and read some science fiction. Australia in the World is written, hosted and produced by Darren Lim, with research and audio editing by Hannah Nelson and theme music composed by Rory Stenning. Relevant links The parliamentary inquiry and Australian policy Joint Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence: https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Joint/Artificial_Intelligence Australian Government, National AI Plan: https://www.industry.gov.au/publications/national-ai-plan Australian Government, Expectations of data centres and AI infrastructure developers, including “Expectation 5” on research, innovation and local capability: https://www.industry.gov.au/publications/expectations-data-centres-and-ai-infrastructure-developers Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, “AI in Australia’s interests”, 15 July 2026: https://www.pm.gov.au/media/ai-australias-interests-0 Australian Government–Anthropic MOU on AI safety and research: https://www.anthropic.com/news/australia-MOU Australia–UK cooperation between their AI safety/security institutes: https://www.minister.industry.gov.au/t-ayres/media/australia-and-uk-partner-strengthen-ai-safety-and-security Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles on AI training, investment and sovereignty following meetings with US frontier labs: https://www.minister.defence.gov.au/transcripts/2026-09-02/doorstop-washington-dc Pax Silica Declaration: https://www.industry.gov.au/publications/pax-silica-declaration-countries-attending-pax-silica-summit-12-december-2025 Penny Wong, Allan Gyngell Lecture, 14 August 2026—the source of the discussion about expanding Australia’s options and maximising its choices: https://www.foreignminister.gov.au/minister/penny-wong/speech/allan-gyngell-lecture Recent AI safety and capability developments METR, independent investigation of the OpenAI/Hugging Face incident: https://metr.org/blog/2026-08-26-openai-hugging-face-incident-investigation/ OpenAI’s account and post-mortem of the Hugging Face incident: https://openai.com/index/hugging-face-incident-and-the-road-ahead/ Anthropic, Countering misuse of AI: September 2026, including biological and cyber misuse cases, September 2026: https://www.anthropic.com/threat-intelligence-report-september-2026 Jacob Coxon on leaving Anthropic over AI safety concerns, 9 September: https://www.axios.com/2026/09/09/anthropic-researcher-ai-warning-interview New York Times, “A.I. Could Possibly End Humanity. How Are ...
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  • Ep. 190: Graham Fletcher on managing China

    Ep. 190: Graham Fletcher on managing China
    2026/09/09

    In this episode, Darren speaks with Graham Fletcher, who recently retired after almost four decades in the Australian public service, much of it spent working on China. Fletcher served four postings in Beijing, culminating in his term as Australian Ambassador to China from 2019 to 2023 — covering COVID-19, the deepest downturn in bilateral relations for decades, China’s campaign of economic coercion, and the beginnings of stabilisation.

    The conversation builds from Fletcher’s new Lowy Institute Analysis, Australia and China: Embracing while sparring, which describes the current bilateral relationship as essentially “good enough”: functional and mutually beneficial, but bounded by enduring differences in strategic interests and values.

    Darren asks what “good enough” means as a long-term objective, and what a functioning relationship actually enables Australia to achieve. They revisit the breakdown in relations after 2017, including what diplomacy looked like during the deep freeze, the much-discussed “14 grievances”, and whether the 2022 election was truly the circuit-breaker that allowed both sides to move on.

    The discussion also explores how Australia should decide when to criticise China publicly; whether managing Beijing successfully enhances Australia’s credibility elsewhere in the region; why China so often interprets Australian policy through the prism of the United States; and how worsening US–China rivalry could eventually force Canberra to resist demands from either side.

    Finally, Fletcher reflects on Kevin Rudd’s argument that ideology is upstream of Chinese policy, the importance of non-government links in giving the relationship substance and resilience, and what Australia needs to maintain deep China capability for the future.

    Australia in the World is written, hosted and produced by Darren Lim, with research and audio editing by Hannah Nelson and theme music composed by Rory Stenning.

    Relevant links

    Graham Fletcher, Australia and China: Embracing while sparring, Lowy Institute, August 2026. Lowy Institute Analysis

    Kevin Rudd, The Evolution of Chinese Economic Strategy Under Xi Jinping, 2026 China in the World Annual Lecture, ANU, August: https://mrkrudd.substack.com/p/the-evolution-of-chinese-economic
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  • Ep. 189: Contesting Australian grand strategy (and doing your homework)

    Ep. 189: Contesting Australian grand strategy (and doing your homework)
    2026/08/27
    This episode Darren goes full academic, using Foreign Minister Penny Wong’s recent Allan Gyngell Lecture as the starting point for a broader discussion of Australian grand strategy. Wong takes up Allan’s conception of foreign policy as a means of expanding Australia’s international space, increasing its options and maximising its choices, and sets out her “Four Rs” framework of region, relationships, rules and resilience. Darren asks the next question: once Australia has created choices, how should it actually decide among them? Darren posits four questions for interrogating any proposed Australian strategy: (i) What do you believe to be true about the world, and how confident are you? (ii) What is the causal theory connecting your proposed policy to the outcome you want? (iii) Compared with what realistic alternative? (iv) And what are you actually trying to secure, including what you are prepared to pay, risk or give up to secure it? Darren applies this framework to Australia’s changing relationship with the United States under Donald Trump, competing conceptions of sovereignty and the debate over AUKUS, assessments of the challenge posed by China, Michael Wesley’s argument that Southeast Asia should sit at the centre of Australian strategy, and Wong’s approach to finding overlapping areas of alignment with individual regional states. The final substantive example is artificial intelligence and resilience. The abrupt loss of Australian access to Anthropic’s Fable and Mythos models demonstrated an American technological “off-switch”, while the subsequent Hugging Face security incident provided a striking counter-example in which a Chinese open-weight model became an emergency fallback. What would genuine Australian resilience therefore require: sovereign models, sovereign compute, deeper integration with the US technology ecosystem, selective use of Chinese technology, or some combination? And what happens when such strategies encounter domestic political constraints, including growing opposition to the data centres on which AI capability depends? The episode concludes by returning to Allan, epistemic humility and the value of making our assumptions explicit. Doing the homework will not eliminate disagreement or guarantee good decisions. But it should allow Australians to understand what their strategic disagreements are actually about. Australia in the World is written, hosted and produced by Darren Lim, with research and audio editing by Hannah Nelson and theme music composed by Rory Stenning. Relevant links Penny Wong, “Allan Gyngell Lecture”, Lowy Institute, 14 August 2026: https://www.foreignminister.gov.au/minister/penny-wong/speech/allan-gyngell-lecture Penny Wong, “Q&A Lowy Institute – Allan Gyngell lecture”, 14 August 2026, including Darren’s question on persuasion and regional alignment: https://www.foreignminister.gov.au/minister/penny-wong/transcript/qa-lowy-institute-allan-gyngell-lecture Darren Lim and Hannah Nelson, “From Three Strands to Four Rs: The Evolution of Australian Foreign Policy”, Australian Outlook, 21 November 2025: https://www.internationalaffairs.org.au/australianoutlook/from-three-strands-to-four-rs-the-evolution-of-australian-foreign-policy/ Allan Gyngell, Fear of Abandonment: Australia in the World since 1942, updated edition, La Trobe University Press: https://www.blackincbooks.com.au/books/fear-abandonment Australia in the World, Ep. 101: Taiwan, 2 September 2022: https://australiaintheworld.podbean.com/e/ep-101-taiwan/ Australia in the World, Ep. 102: A formal statement on China? Australia’s head of state, 18 September 2022 — Darren and Allan’s debate over whether an Australian leader should deliver a major speech on China: https://australiaintheworld.podbean.com/e/ep-102-a-formal-statement-on-china-australia-s-head-of-state Lowy Institute, 2026 Lowy Institute Poll, including the sharp decline in Australian trust in the United States and confidence in Donald Trump, alongside continuing majority support for the alliance: https://www.lowyinstitute.org/publications/2026-lowy-institute-poll/executive-summary AUKUS Public Inquiry, including hearings and evidence from Malcolm Turnbull, Bob Carr and other witnesses: https://aukuspublicinquiry.com/ Australia in the World, Ep. 111: AUKUS plans; India; red alerts, 19 March 2023 — including Darren and Allan’s original discussion of the AUKUS pathway and the Red Alert series: https://australiaintheworld.podbean.com/e/ep-111-aukus-plans-india-red-alerts Hugh White, Hard New World: Our Post-American Future, Quarterly Essay 98, June 2025: https://www.quarterlyessay.com.au/essay/2025/06/hard-new-world Peter Hartcher and Matthew Knott, “Red Alert”, Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, March 2023: https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/red-alert-20230306-p5cpt8.html ABC Media Watch, “War with China?”, 13 March 2023, reproducing and ...
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