Episodes

4 days ago
4 days ago
With four episodes on tariffs this month, the podcast has already broken its monthly episode record. Nevertheless, news is also happening elsewhere, and for the past few months a number of interesting stories emerged in Southeast Asia. Then, given that Southeast Asian economies are some of the most directly affected by Trump’s tariff policies, the need for a conversation centred on Southeast Asia only increased, starting with how the US is perceived and the assessments being made regarding the region’s strategic trajectory.
To discuss all this and more, Aaron Connolly returns to the podcast. Aaron is Asia Diplomatic Editor and Singapore Bureau Chief at The Economist, having joined the newspaper from the International Institute of Strategic Studies where he was working the last time he appeared on the podcast. Aaron offers both a big picture strategic landscape of the region, and broad and deep knowledge of details, both political and economic. In addition to Trump and tariffs, Darren and Aaron discuss Indonesia’s recent military reforms and other policies of the Prabowo administration, Thailand’s deportation of Uighurs to China, and the arrest of former Philippines president Duterte.
Australia in the World is written, hosted, and produced by Darren Lim, with research and editing this episode by Hannah Nelson and theme music composed by Rory Stenning.
Relevant links
Aaron Connelly (bio): https://mediadirectory.economist.com/people/aaron-connelly/
The Economist, “Prabowo Subianto takes a chainsaw to Indonesia’s budget”, 27 February 2025: https://www.economist.com/leaders/2025/02/27/prabowo-subianto-takes-a-chainsaw-to-indonesias-budget
Scam Inc (podcast), The Economist: https://www.economist.com/audio/podcasts/scam-inc
Money Talks (podcast), The Economist: https://www.economist.com/audio/podcasts/money-talks
Odd Lots (podcast), “What a us stove maker thinks about tariffs” 14 April 2025: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/audio/2025-04-14/odd-lots-what-a-us-stove-maker-thinks-about-tariffs-podcast

Sunday Apr 13, 2025
Ep 156: Tariffs - exemptions and the state of play
Sunday Apr 13, 2025
Sunday Apr 13, 2025
The Trump administration has announced exemptions to the massive reciprocal tariffs on China for smartphones, computers and other electronics. In his latest rapid reaction podcast, Darren assesses the exemptions and comments on the the larger tariff picture, barely 10 days after "Liberation Day".
Australia in the World is written, hosted, and produced by Darren Lim, with research and editing this episode by Hannah Nelson and theme music composed by Rory Stenning.
Relevant links
Tanner Greer, "Obscurity by design: Competing priorities for America's China Policy", Foreign Policy Research Institute, March 2025: https://www.fpri.org/article/2025/03/obscurity-by-design/
Adam Tooze, Chartbook 374: As Trump triggers "sell America", will the result be "stage 4", the politicization of financial markets?, 12 April 2025: https://adamtooze.substack.com/p/chartbook-374-as-trump-triggers-sell

Thursday Apr 10, 2025
Ep. 155: Tariff 'pause' - rapid reactions
Thursday Apr 10, 2025
Thursday Apr 10, 2025
President Trump has paused the so-called 'reciprocal' element of his tariffs for everyone but China, meaning a baseline rate of 10% is in place, while PRC imports face tariffs of over 100%. In this episode, Darren offers some initial reactions to this breaking news.
Australia in the World is written, hosted, and produced by Darren Lim, with research and editing this episode by Hannah Nelson and theme music composed by Rory Stenning.
Relevant links
Jay Cost (tweet): https://x.com/Jay__Cost/status/1910099320768209058
Mr Beast (tweet): https://x.com/MrBeast/status/1909621956258775458
Brad Setser (tweet): https://x.com/Brad_Setser/status/1909309353393635551
Jesse Singal (tweet): https://x.com/jessesingal/status/1910039965536559350?s=46
James Palmer (BlueSky): https://bsky.app/profile/beijingpalmer.bsky.social/post/3lme7pnzzw22v

Sunday Apr 06, 2025
Ep. 154: Linking markets to geopolitics in tariff responses
Sunday Apr 06, 2025
Sunday Apr 06, 2025
Last episode having offered his rapid reactions in the hours after President Trump’s tariff announcement, on Friday 4 April Darren was joined by Dr. Huw Mackay to talk through the economics and financial market angles, a full day after the tariff announcement. How did markets react and what might that tell us about the days and weeks ahead? How will companies be thinking about these events, and what advice would Huw offer to governments around the world on how they ought to manage this policy challenge?
Huw, a former Chief Economist at BHP, offers a vital perspective from the private sector on big questions not just of economics but of geopolitics and foreign policy. Fair warning: the first part of the discussion is extremely wonky, but nevertheless essential, because understanding the potential macroeconomic impacts of these tariffs is a precondition for analysing their impact on geopolitics and the international economic order.
Australia in the World is written, hosted, and produced by Darren Lim, with research and editing this episode by Walter Colnaghi and theme music composed by Rory Stenning.
Relevant links
Huw McKay (LinkedIn): https://au.linkedin.com/in/huw-mckay-6ab582ab
Huw McKay, “How the West can shore up its strategic metals supply chain”, Lowy Interpreter, 28 Feb 2025: https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/how-west-can-shore-its-strategic-metals-supply-chain
William Dalrymple, The Golden Road (2024): https://williamdalrymple.com/books/the-golden-road
Jordan Schneider, China Talk (podcast): https://www.chinatalk.media/p/podcast-corruption-spies-tiananmen

Thursday Apr 03, 2025
Ep. 153: Trump tariffs - Rapid reactions
Thursday Apr 03, 2025
Thursday Apr 03, 2025
President Trump's "Liberation Day" has come and gone, and hours after the momentous announcement of tariffs being imposed on basically the entire world, Darren shares his initial reactions.
Australia in the World is written, hosted, and produced by Darren Lim, with research and editing this episode by Walter Colnaghi and theme music composed by Rory Stenning.
Relevant links
Oren Cass, "The One Word that Explains Globalization's Failure, and Trump's Response", Understanind America, 25 February 2025: https://www.understandingamerica.co/p/the-one-word-that-explains-globalizations

Tuesday Mar 18, 2025
Ep. 152: Aussie reactions to Trump, & PRC warships; NZ-Cook Islands
Tuesday Mar 18, 2025
Tuesday Mar 18, 2025
It’s time to return to the news, and Stephen Dziedzic of the ABC returns to discuss three big stories that he’s been reporting on in recent weeks. First, what is the impact of Donald Trump on the foreign policy community in Australia? How is the government managing the tariffs and numerous other controversies, and will this become an election issue? Is there ballast developing around a “plan B”? Second, a group of People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) warships circumnavigated Australia in February, causing quite a stir. And third, New Zealand and Cook Islands have been a tense relationship in recent months with the latter’s relationship with Beijing central to the dispute.
Australia in the World is written, hosted, and produced by Darren Lim, with research and editing this episode by Corbin Duncan and theme music composed by Rory Stenning.
Relevant links
Stephen Dziedzic, “What the Trump and Zelenskyy fallout means for Australian foreign policy”, ABC, 4 March 2025: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-04/trump-zelenskyy-fallout-repercussions-australian-foreign-policy/105004636
Stephen Dziedzic, “Tariffs could be turning point in Albanese's 'no comment' strategy on Trump”, ABC, 12 March 2025: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-12/tariffs-turning-point-albanese-response-trump/105043594
Andrew Greene and Stephen Dziedzic, “Intelligence chief says Chinese warship deployment designed to be 'provocative'”, ABC, 26 February 2025: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-26/chinese-warship-deployment-designed-to-be-provocative/104982224
Jennifer Parker, “China’s expedition shows Australia must become a naval power”, Australian Financial Review, 23 February 2025: https://www.afr.com/policy/foreign-affairs/china-s-expedition-shows-australia-must-become-a-naval-power-20250222-p5le9k
Lim, D. J., & Colnaghi, W. B. (2024). "Strategically (in)secure and economically (in)vulnerable: Australia, New Zealand, and their relations with China". Australian Journal of International Affairs, 78(5), 600–613. https://doi.org/10.1080/10357718.2024.2406279
Stephen Dziedzic, and Kyle Evans “How passports and a deal with China have put New Zealand at odds with its former colony Cook Islands”, ABC, 8 February 2025: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-08/cook-islands-new-zealand-relations-china-passports/104909718
The Last Dance (Netflix): https://www.netflix.com/au/title/80203144
Lady Gaga, Mayhem (album): https://open.spotify.com/album/2MHUaRi9OCyTN02SoyRRBJ

Thursday Mar 13, 2025
Ep. 151: Incoming govt brief, 2025 edition
Thursday Mar 13, 2025
Thursday Mar 13, 2025
While the calling of a federal election has been delayed by Tropical Cyclone Alfred, it must still happen in May, and so this episode the podcast offers its third “incoming government brief”: a document presented to the new (or returning) minister for each department, for the purpose of providing a descriptive overview of what the department does, and highlighting the most important issues facing that particular portfolio.
The Australia in the World Incoming Government Brief has four chapters:(1) A changed external environment, (2) Plausible futures and policy dilemmas, (3) Key commitments by political party, and (4) Miscellaneous. Above all, the central challenge for this document at this moment is simply how to describe the world Australia now finds itself in, and to frame the challenges the government will face, regardless of its partisan perspective.
No wonder this is probably the longest episode in the podcast's history!
Darren is joined by Richard Maude, who has appeared multiple times before, most recently in February 2024. Richard had a long career in government including serving as Director-General of the (then) Office of National Assessments, and Deputy Secretary in DFAT where, amongst other roles, he headed the whole-of-government taskforce supporting the preparation of the 2017 Foreign Policy White Paper. He was the inaugural Executive Director, Policy, the Asia Society Australia and is now a distinguished policy fellow at there.
Australia in the World is written, hosted, and produced by Darren Lim, with research and editing this episode by Hannah Nelson and theme music composed by Rory Stenning.
Relevant links
Richard Maude (bio): https://asiasociety.org/policy-institute/richard-maude
Incoming government brief for Senator the Hon Penny Wong, Minister for Foreign Affairs, May 2022: https://www.dfat.gov.au/sites/default/files/dfat-foi-lex5624.pdf
Penny Wong, “National Press Club Address, Australian interests in a regional balance of power”, 17 April 2023: https://www.foreignminister.gov.au/minister/penny-wong/speech/national-press-club-address-australian-interests-regional-balance-power
Richard Maude, “Australia’s Indo-Pacific destiny up for grabs in a new world order”, Australian Financial Review, 11 March 2025: https://www.afr.com/world/asia/australia-s-indo-pacific-destiny-up-for-grabs-in-a-new-world-order-20250304-p5lgru
Anna Del Conte, Gastronomy of Italy [Revised Edition], 2013: https://www.harpercollins.com.au/9781862059580/gastronomy-of-italy-revised-edition/
Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy (tv series): https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-series/stanley-tucci-searching-for-italy
Black Doves (tv series): https://www.netflix.com/au/title/81682935

Monday Feb 24, 2025
Ep. 150: Gutting USAID; a MAGA-friendly development policy?
Monday Feb 24, 2025
Monday Feb 24, 2025
One of the major casualties of Trump administration’s brazen efforts to reduce the size of the US federal government is its dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), including a wholesale funding freeze, shutting down the website, and recalling most staff from abroad. The impacts on the world are going to be severe and lasting, but there are many questions and uncertainties: what will be the short-term harm, how will the development sector survive in the medium term, and what will US development policy, and indeed development policy generally, look like over the longer term?
To discuss these issues Darren is once again joined by Bridi Rice, CEO of the Development Intelligence Lab in Canberra to talk through possible futures, what a “MAGA-friendly” development policy might look like, and whether development is simply the latest policy domain to see a convergence between the Trump worldview and that of China.
Australia in the World is written, hosted, and produced by Darren Lim, with research and editing this episode by Hannah Nelson and Corbin Duncan and theme music composed by Rory Stenning.
Relevant links
Bridi Rice (bio): https://www.devintelligencelab.com/team/bridi-rice
Hilltop Hoods (Spotify page): https://open.spotify.com/artist/7dlqUnjoF2U2DkNDMhcgG4
Security Economics (podcast): https://open.spotify.com/show/1jdlbmzM5do3ijANi6NH0w (Spotify)

Saturday Feb 15, 2025
Ep. 149: The (geopolitical) loneliness of Australia
Saturday Feb 15, 2025
Saturday Feb 15, 2025
“The loneliness of Australia is going to be one of many fairly dramatic changes”, says David Rennie towards the end of this utterly absorbing episode.
On Wednesday 12 February I interviewed David Rennie in DFAT’s studio in Canberra. David was visiting Australia for the week, hosted by Asia Society Australia and supported by the National Foundation for Australia-China Relations. David is geopolitics editor at The Economist having recently returned to London after six years living in China as Beijing bureau chief. He launched the Chaguan column on China in that role and last November launched a new column on geopolitics for the newspaper, The Telegram. David joined The Economist in 2007 and in addition to London and Beijing has been based in Brussels and Washington in that time. He is the co-host of the excellent Drum Tower podcast, launched in late 2022.
Our discussion is not about Australia at all, really, but about China and the US under Donald Trump. Rival great powers, but perhaps with an increasingly converging worldview which portends, according to David, loneliness for Australia. This is one of the podcast’s most important episodes of the past few years and I think worth the time for all those interested in international affairs.
Australia in the World is written, hosted, and produced by Darren Lim, with research and editing this episode by Walter Colnaghi and theme music composed by Rory Stenning.
Relevant links
David Rennie (bio): https://mediadirectory.economist.com/people/david-rennie/
The Economist, The Telegram (column): https://www.economist.com/topics/the-telegram
The Economist, Drum Tower (podcast): https://www.economist.com/audio/podcasts/drum-tower
Peter Varghese, “Trump’s Gaza grab shows America is no better than China”, Australian Financial Review, 6 February 2025: https://www.afr.com/policy/foreign-affairs/trump-s-gaza-grab-shows-america-is-no-better-than-china-20250206-p5la0x
Chappell Roan (Spotify page): https://open.spotify.com/artist/7GlBOeep6PqTfFi59PTUUN
Bobby Timmons Trio (Spotify page): https://open.spotify.com/artist/47jpbb07933jSiHmir7yda

Monday Feb 03, 2025
Ep. 148: Canada/Mexico tariffs (Darren’s rapid reaction)
Monday Feb 03, 2025
Monday Feb 03, 2025
The Trump administration has announced 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico and a 10% tariff on China. Recorded only a handful of hours after the news broke, Darren offers a rapid reaction as a mini ‘lecture’ with his initial thoughts.
(Apologies for the change in sound quality early on, which reflect the speed at which we were trying to get this out!)
Australia in the World is written, hosted, and produced by Darren Lim, with research and editing this episode by Walter Colnaghi and theme music composed by Rory Stenning.