Watch: 2020 Lowy Lecture: Fareed Zakaria

Delivering the 2020 Lowy Lecture, Dr Fareed Zakaria evaluates the turbulent year in world politics marked by the growing rivalry between the US and China, and the coronavirus pandemic. The Lowy Lecture is followed by an extended Q&A with Lowy Institute Executive Director Dr Michael Fullilove.

The annual Lowy Lecture is the Lowy Institute's flagship event and one of the world's leading lecture series, at which a prominent speaker reflects on Australia and the world. Past Lowy Lecturers have included leaders such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel, UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, as well as four sitting Australian prime ministers: Anthony Albanese, Scott Morrison, Malcolm Turnbull and John Howard, who delivered the inaugural Lowy Lecture in 2005. Dr Zakaria delivered this year's lecture via webcast from the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City.

Fareed Zakaria hosts CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS and is a columnist for The Washington Post. His show earned a Peabody Award in 2011 and has received multiple Emmy nominations. Dr Zakaria is the author of five New York Times bestsellers, the most recent of which is Age of Revolutions: Progress and Backlash from 1600 to the Present (2024). Previously, Zakaria was editor of Newsweek International, managing editor of Foreign Affairs, a columnist for Time and an analyst for ABC News.