As financial markets have become more integrated and international capital flows larger, overseas conditions – growth, inflation, terms of trade, spare productive capacity, inflation – all impinge more strongly on the domestic economy. At the same time, the transmission channels of policy have certainly changed, so the policy instruments need to be recalibrated. In coming...

This paper explores the implications of the looming Taliban Spring offensive on the international reconstruction and security effort in Afghanistan. It is argued that a more aggressive posture by Coalition forces toward the Taliban and more concerted international pressure on Pakistan is needed to ensure that Afghanistan does not once again become a safe haven...

Professor Raja Mohan, Strategic Affairs Editor of the Indian Express, and one of India's most influential commentators on India's foreign and strategic policy, delivered the inaugural Australia-India Strategic Lecture on the subject of India and East Asia in Melbourne on 21 February. The lecture has now been made available as a podcast

Stephen Grenville, former deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, writes that economists are again debating the role of money in monetary policy. For more than two decades, money has almost disappeared from monetary policy. Most central banks target inflation, using the short-term interest rate as their instrument. Is there any role left for...

This paper argues that the rules, procedures and understandings that surround international financial flows are inadequate. The paper advocates limiting short-term capital inflows and strengthening international crisis management measures. International capital flows can be very volatile: capital reversals were a central element in the Asian crisis of 1997-8.