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1. International Relations in Australia: Michael Lindsay, Martin Wight, and the first Department at the Australian National University

Author:
James Cotton
Publication Date:
08-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Australian National University Department of International Relations
Abstract:
Although he was an original member from 1951 of the Department of International Relations at the Australian National University (ANU), Michael Lindsay's contribution to the discipline and to the ANU is rarely acknowledged. He is probably best known from the brief account given in the official ANU history of the second appointment to the chair. The candidate in question was Martin Wight, then reader at the London School of Economics. Having accepted the position, Wight later withdrew in controversial circumstances. In the official history it is claimed that Lindsay 'wrote to him in terms that scared him away'. In the contemporary international relations discipline, Wight, by contrast, is regarded as one of the most influential figures of his generation. For those with any awareness of this episode, Lindsay's role as, apparently, the person responsible for this path not taken is generally regarded as negative. The account offered in the official history has obscured two important points. First, setting aside issues of personality, it can be shown that Lindsay's correspondence with Wight and any differences they might have had were based upon a coherent view on Lindsay's part of the discipline and also of the work that was most appropriate to the new institution. Second, the record shows that, as he was the acting head of the Department for much of the 1950s, Lindsay played a large role in establishing its character, and was indeed immensely active, despite his junior status, in fostering interest in the discipline in the ANU and the wider community. This paper shows Lindsay to have played a strong and creative role in the discipline, one which should be more remembered and celebrated today.
Topic:
International Relations, Economics, International Political Economy, Politics, and Political Theory
Political Geography:
Australia

2. Australia as a supplier of uranium to the Asian region: Implications

Author:
Stuart Harris
Publication Date:
07-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Australian National University Department of International Relations
Abstract:
Significant interest in Australia's uranium export industry has re-emerged in the face of increased energy demand, fears of eventual reduced supplies of traditional energy sources, further evidence of global climate change and prospective higher electricity prices. This paper examines how Australia will respond to that renewed interest and how it seeks to balance its economic and environmental interests with its traditional nuclear non- proliferation activism.
Topic:
Economics, Energy Policy, Environment, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
Australia

3. Fighting irrelevance: An economic community 'with ASEAN characteristics'

Author:
John Ravenhill
Publication Date:
12-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Australian National University Department of International Relations
Abstract:
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) enters its fifth decade of economic cooperation in more favourable circumstances than those experienced at the time of its thirtieth anniversary. Paradoxically, and contrary to expectations at the time, the financial crises of 1997—98 may have strengthened ASEAN. The backlash against what was perceived as an unsympathetic Western response to East Asian difficulties put ASEAN at centrestage in new regional cooperative arrangements. Moreover, rivalry between China and Japan for regional leadership has led them both to seek to negotiate regional partnerships with ASEAN as a whole. ASEAN, however, faces new challenges—particularly from rapid economic growth in China and India, and from the proliferation of preferential trade agreements (PTAs) (including a large number involving individual ASEAN members). ASEAN has made only slow progress in economic cooperation. The complete removal of tariffs has fallen behind schedule and is not due to be realised until 2010. The private sector makes little use of ASEAN's preferential arrangements because they afford little advantage over most-favoured-nation tariffs—certainly not sufficient to offset the costs of complying with paperwork, and the consequent delays experienced. ASEAN has made little progress on 'deeper integration' issues—the removal of 'beyond border' barriers to trade. Some of the bilateral PTAs that ASEAN countries have negotiated with extra-regional partners go further in removing barriers than ASEAN's own arrangements. ASEAN members continue to eschew binding commitments within their own economic collaboration despite making them within the World Trade Organization and in some of their bilateral PTAs. Liberalisation under ASEAN's auspices has not been sufficiently significant to encourage business groups to invest substantial resources in lobbying for deeper integration.
Topic:
International Relations and Economics
Political Geography:
Japan, China, India, Israel, East Asia, and Australia/Pacific

4. APEC and the search for relevance: 2007 and beyond

Author:
John Ravenhill, Lorraine Elliott, Helen E.S. Nesadurai, and Nick Bisley
Publication Date:
11-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Australian National University Department of International Relations
Abstract:
In September 2007, Australia will host the annual Economic Leaders' Meeting of the Asia–Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum. This will be the culmination of over 100 days of ministerial, official and business group meetings, working groups and dialogues that will be held in various Australian cities from January to August. Fifteen federal government departments will be involved along with a range of other interested actors, predominantly in the private sector. The Australian government will spend considerable sums of money on the leaders' meeting itself, not least to ensure the security of those attending. This will include, if all goes according to plan, the heads of government of 21 countries—member economies in APEC-speak—including the United States, Russia, Japan and China. Security may well be the least of the government's worries. Few would argue that APEC is 'going strong' as a regional economic forum and recent reviews have suggested that at best it faces an uncertain future and that at worst it could be in a state of terminal decline. The forum is argued to have lost its relevance and to have generally been unsuccessful in attaining any of its more ambitious goals such as regional trade liberalisation.
Topic:
Security, Development, Economics, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
Russia, United States, Japan, China, Australia, and Australia/Pacific

5. Is China an economic threat to Southeast Asia?

Author:
John Ravenhill
Publication Date:
05-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Australian National University Department of International Relations
Abstract:
China's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) caused widespread concern that it would gain market share at the expense of other economies in East Asia, especially the lower-income ASEAN economies. Economic modelling done by the World Bank and others appeared to substantiate these fears; the conclusions of these studies caused further consternation among politicians and academic commentators in Southeast Asia who believed that China's success in the 1990s in attracting foreign direct investment had come at ASEAN's expense.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and World Bank
Political Geography:
China, Asia, and Southeast Asia

6. The challenge of United Nations reform

Author:
Christian Reus-Sumit, Marianne Hanson, Hilary Charlesworth, and William Maley
Publication Date:
11-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Australian National University Department of International Relations
Abstract:
The first half of the twentieth century saw multiple crises in the expanding international system, characterised most tragically and dramatically by two world wars, the Great Depression, and the Holocaust. In response, the international community engaged in history's most ambitious program of international institution building, a program that centred on the creation of the United Nations, the Bretton Woods institutions, and a plethora of functional regimes governing everything from arms control to the prohibition of genocide. Despite the impediments imposed by four decades of Cold War, these institutions have evolved into a complex global architecture of institutions which can claim partial yet significant credit for the decline in traditional interstate warfare, the containment of nuclear proliferation to a handful of states, management of the world economy, and the prosecution of an ever more comprehensive humanitarian agenda.
Topic:
Security, Development, Economics, and United Nations

7. Rentier Shifts, Legitimacy, and the Social Sources of International Financial Hegemonie

Author:
Leonard Seabrooke
Publication Date:
09-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Australian National University Department of International Relations
Abstract:
This paper provides an analysis of the domestic legitimation of 'financial reform nexuses' during two periods of English and US international financial hegemony. Following Max Weber's work on the state and finance, I argue that positive state intervention is required to legitimise a 'financial reform nexus' (the interrelation of credit, property, and tax politics) for people on below median income. I hypothesise that sufficient legitimation of a financial reform nexus provides the means to generate and sustain international financial hegemony, including the capacity to tailor the structure of the international financial order to suit the hegemon's interests. Conversely, if the hegemon is unable to sustain the legitimation of its domestic financial reform nexus-a choice that correlates with negative state intervention that supports a 'rentier shift'-its capacity to maintain international financial hegemony wanes. I draw from examples of the legitimation of financial reform nexuses in England (1900-15) and the US (1985-2000), linking domestic legitimation to consequent changes in the structure of the international financial order. Through this analysis of the social sources of English and US international financial hegemonies, I differentiate the English 'international rentier economy' from the US 'international creditor economy'. Finally, I stress the importance of positive state intervention for the legitimation of the US financial reform nexus.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Government, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
England

8. Does China Matter? The Global Economic Issues

Author:
Stuart Harris
Publication Date:
09-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Australian National University Department of International Relations
Abstract:
In 1999, Gerry Segal, then Director of Research at the International Institute of Strategic Studies, wrote an article in Foreign Affairs entitled 'Does China matter?'. His article ranged across economic, political and strategic issues but his overall conclusion was that China's importance had been greatly exaggerated. As far as economic questions were concerned, Segal saw China as a small market 'that matters little to the world, especially outside Asia'.
Topic:
International Relations, Economics, and Globalization
Political Geography:
China and Asia