After barely a month, the year 2026 is already setting a bewildering geo-political pace. A presidential snatch-and-grab raid in Venezuela, anti-government riots in Iran, a fight over Greenland and a military upheaval in China have all buttressed Canadian Prime Minister, Mark Carney’s claim that the emerging new global order is a rupture, not a transition.

Join us to hear from a panel of Lowy Institute experts as they examine what these diverse, dispersed events mean, both in and of themselves and for middle powers like Australia.

The panel will be chaired by Richard McGregor, Senior Fellow for East Asia; and feature Susannah Patton, Director of the Southeast Asia Program and Project Lead for the Asia Power Index; James M. Zimmerman, a Beijing-based lawyer, author, and Chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in Beijing, China; and Andreas Radtke, a former German diplomat, and head of the Friedrich-Ebert Foundation in Australia.

Refreshments will be served.