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Begin New Search Political Geography Australia/Pacific Publication Year within 25 Years

141. Beyond good governance

Author:
Jenny Hayward-Jones
Publication Date:
09-2008
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Lowy Institute for International Policy
Abstract:
The Pacific Islands region is not on track to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, the internationally agreed targets for improving human development by 2015. The Melanesian countries, which have the largest population, face the most significant challenges in attempting to meet the goals. In the Port Moresby Declaration of 6 March 2008, the Australian government promised to work jointly with Pacific Island countries to meet the goals in the context of new Pacific Partnerships for Development. While the Millennium Development Goals may not be the fairest measurement of the success of inputs from the Australian aid program, they provide a valuable universal mechanism of measuring development outcomes.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Development, and Government
Political Geography:
Australia/Pacific

142. What does a free-trade area of the Asia-Pacific mean to China

Author:
Warwick McKibbin and Tingsong Jiang
Publication Date:
05-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Lowy Institute for International Policy
Abstract:
A Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP) has been proposed as a long-term prospect by the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC). This paper examines the impact of the FTAAP on the national and regional economies in China using a suite of general equilibrium models: APG-Cubed, a dynamic global model; GTAP, a static global model; and CERD, a static China model with regional dimension. The impact on the Chinese economy of the APFTA is also compared with those of other forms of FTAs such as the ASEAN-China FTA (ACFTA) and the East Asia FTA (EAFTA).
Topic:
International Trade and Finance and Markets
Political Geography:
China, Asia, and Australia/Pacific

143. The sting of climate change

Author:
Sarah Potter
Publication Date:
11-2008
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Lowy Institute for International Policy
Abstract:
Global climate change will intensify the already significant malaria and dengue problems in maritime Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands. Those countries with the fewest resources and poor public health infrastructure are likely to feel the impact of increasing disease the most acutely. Australia itself is a 'fringe country' to the expanding endemic zone of mosquito-borne diseases to its north. Climate change may well make more of northern Australia more vulnerable to malaria and dengue outbreaks.
Topic:
Climate Change, Environment, and Health
Political Geography:
Asia and Australia/Pacific

144. Engaging Pakistan

Author:
Claude Rakisits
Publication Date:
12-2008
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Lowy Institute for International Policy
Abstract:
The late November terror attacks in Mumbai have once again thrown the spotlight onto Pakistan. The country had already been struggling with growing international pressure over the safe haven and support that the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan and international terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda were obtaining in Pakistan's troubled Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and North West Frontier Province. Claims that the Mumbai attacks were carried out by Pakistani nationals, perhaps linked to the terrorist group Lashkar–e-Taiba (LeT), will place even more pressure on Islamabad.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Foreign Policy, Political Violence, Diplomacy, and Terrorism
Political Geography:
Asia and Australia/Pacific

145. Shared Challenges and Solutions: Australia's Unique Contribution to the Future of African Development

Author:
Glenn Denning and Joel Negin
Publication Date:
12-2008
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Lowy Institute for International Policy
Abstract:
The new Australian government has made a significant commitment to increasing its overseas development assistance (ODA) from 0.3% of gross national income (GNI) in the 2007-08 budget to 0.5% of GNI by 2015/16. This represents a return to the levels last seen in the 1970s that were eroded over the 1990s and early 2000s (Figure 1). Depending on the projected economic growth rate, some estimates foresee a tripling of ODA from the mid-2000s to 2015/16.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Development, and International Cooperation
Political Geography:
Africa and Australia/Pacific

146. The politics of post-trauma emotions: Securing community after the Bali bombing

Author:
Emma Hutchison
Publication Date:
12-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Australian National University Department of International Relations
Abstract:
This paper examines how traumatic events can influence the constitution of identity and community in international relations. It demonstrates that emotions are central to how individuals and societies experience and work through the legacy of catastrophe. Often neglected in scholarly analysis of international relations, emotions can become pivotal sites for the renewal of political stability and social control. Key to this process are practices of representation. They provide individual experiences of trauma with a collective and often international dimension. They often smooth over feelings of shock and terror and unite individuals in a spirit of shared experience and mutual understanding. The paper illustrates the ensuing dynamics by examining the media's portrayal of the Bali bombing of 12 October 2002. Focusing on photographs and the stories that accompany them, the paper shows how representations of trauma may provide a sense of collective solace that can, in turn, underwrite the emotional dynamics of a political community.
Topic:
International Relations, Political Violence, and Terrorism
Political Geography:
Israel and Australia/Pacific

147. Skilled Emigration and Skill Creation: A quasi-experiment

Author:
Satish Chand and Michael Clemens
Publication Date:
09-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Development (CGD)
Abstract:
Does the emigration of highly-skilled workers deplete local human capital? The answer is not obvious if migration prospects induce human capital formation. We analyze a unique natural quasi-experiment in the Republic of the Fiji Islands, where political shocks have provoked one of the largest recorded exoduses of skilled workers from a developing country. Mass emigration began unexpectedly and has occurred only in a well-defined subset of the population, creating a treatment group that foresaw likely emigration and two different quasi-control groups that did not. We use rich census and administrative micro data to address a range of concerns about experimental validity. This allows plausible causal attribution of post-shock changes in human capital accumulation to changes in emigration patterns. We show that high rates of emigration by tertiary-educated Fiji Islanders not only raised investment in tertiary education in Fiji; they moreover raised the stock of tertiary educated people in Fiji—net of departures.
Topic:
International Relations, Education, Markets, and Migration
Political Geography:
Asia and Australia/Pacific

148. US public diplomacy in the Asia-Pacific: Opportunities and challenges in a time of transition

Author:
Sarah Ellen Graham
Publication Date:
12-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Australian National University Department of International Relations
Abstract:
Two key themes stand out within current US government reports and foreign policy commentaries on American public diplomacy. These are: firstly, that US efforts to attract 'hearts and minds' in the Middle East were inadequate before and immediately after the 11 September 2001 attacks on America and must be improved, and secondly that the administration of public diplomacy has required major reform in order to meet the challenge of engaging Arab and Muslim audiences into the future. This paper assesses US public diplomacy in a regional context that has not been subject to significant scrutiny within the post-11 September debates on US public diplomacy: the Asia–Pacific. This oversight is lamentable, given Washington's significant security and economic interests in the Asia–Pacific, and because the Asia–Pacific is a region undergoing significant economic, diplomatic and political shifts that are likely to complicate Washington's ability to bring about desired outcomes in the future. This paper demonstrates, furthermore, that the Asia–Pacific represents an important case study from which to reflect on the administrative and substantive questions raised in recent critiques of US public diplomacy at a general level.
Topic:
International Relations, Security, Development, Diplomacy, and Government
Political Geography:
America, Middle East, and Australia/Pacific

149. Understanding emotions in world politics: Reflections on method

Author:
Roland Bleiker and Emma Hutchison
Publication Date:
12-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Australian National University Department of International Relations
Abstract:
Although emotions play a significant role in world politics they have so far received surprisingly little attention by international relations scholars. Numerous authors have emphasised this shortcoming for several years now, but strangely there are still no systematic inquiries into emotions nor even serious methodological discussions about how one would go about doing so. This article explains this gap by the fact that much of international relations scholarship is conducted in the social sciences. Such inquiries can assess emotions up to a certain point, as illustrated by empirical studies on psychology and foreign policy and constructivist engagements with identity and community. But conventional social science methods cannot understand all aspects of phenomena as ephemeral as those of emotions. Doing so would involve conceptualising the influence of emotions even when and where it is not immediately apparent. The ensuing challenges are daunting, but at least some of them could be met by supplementing social scientific methods with modes of inquiry emanating from the humanities. We advance three propositions that would facilitate such cross-disciplinary inquiries: 1) the need to accept that research can be insightful and valid even if it engages unobservable phenomena, and even if the results of such inquiries can neither be measured nor validated empirically; 2) the importance of examining processes of representation and communication, such as visual depictions of emotions and the manner in which they shape political perceptions and dynamics; and 3) a willingness to consider alternative forms of insight, most notably those stemming from aesthetic sources, which, we argue, are particularly suited to capture emotions. Taken together, these propositions highlight the need for a more open-minded and sustained communication across different fields of knowledge.
Topic:
International Relations, Diplomacy, and International Cooperation
Political Geography:
Australia/Pacific

150. Obstinate or obsolete? The US alliance structure in the Asia-Pacific

Author:
William T. Tow and Amitav Acharya
Publication Date:
12-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Australian National University Department of International Relations
Abstract:
The longstanding US security network of bilateral alliances in the Asia–Pacific, also known as the 'San Francisco System', has reached a historical crossroads. Its purpose is becoming more questionable as the United States, its allies and friends and other key Asian security actors engage in an increasingly complex set of regional security relationships. This paper argues that while the San Francisco System will not be dissolved over the near-term, it must adapt to rapidly changing structural and politico-economic conditions in the region if its utility is to be sustained and its eventual conversion into a more relevant and effective network of Asia–Pacific order-building. It argues that 'alliance mutuality' is the essential element in any such conversion process.
Topic:
International Relations and Diplomacy
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, United States, Iraq, South Asia, and Australia/Pacific