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Begin New Search Political Geography Asia Publishing Institution Australian National University Department of International Relations

11. Russia and Europe: National identity, national interest, pragmatism, or delusions of empire?

Author:
Robert F. Miller
Publication Date:
05-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Australian National University Department of International Relations
Abstract:
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Moscow's weight in international relations underwent a tremendous decline. To appreciate the extent of change in the Russian Federation's (RF) foreign policy since the end of Soviet communism it is worth taking a brief look at the international relations of its predecessor, the USSR. An essential feature of Soviet foreign policy was that it was ideologically driven. Western commentators tended to play down this feature or treat it as mere window dressing for what was really just imperialism 'with a socialist face'. But it was more than that. It gave Soviet policy-makers a sure sense of identity and a guide, however faulty, to national ('international proletarian') interest.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Development, and Nationalism
Political Geography:
Russia, Europe, and Asia

12. 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

13. Reimagining International Society Through the Emergence of Japanese Imperialism

Author:
Shogo Suzuki
Publication Date:
11-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Australian National University Department of International Relations
Abstract:
In the not too distant past Timothy Dunne asserted that '[International] society is what states have made of it'. Since then much has been written about how the English School offers a valuable interpretivist approach, how it has spread across the world, how it can be improved, and what it has to say about non-European societies and 'world society'. This paper aims to contribute to all three facets of the debate through a case study of how the Japanese elite understood international society during the bakumatsu (late-Tokugawa)/early-Meiji periods (1853-95). In doing so, it examines the emergence of Japanese imperialism from the perspective of international society as perceived by English School scholars.
Topic:
International Relations and Development
Political Geography:
United States, Japan, Europe, and Asia

14. The North Korean Nuclear Crisis: Four-plus-two - an idea whose time has come

Author:
Peter Van Ness
Publication Date:
11-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Australian National University Department of International Relations
Abstract:
The six-party negotiations on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's (DPRK) nuclear programs, held in Beijing in August 2003, concluded with nothing more than the expectation that the six participating nations would meet again—no time or place was announced. Meanwhile, North Korea threatened to escalate tensions further by testing a nuclear device, while the US remained undecided about how to proceed.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Security, and Nuclear Weapons
Political Geography:
United States, Asia, and North Korea

15. 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

16. Refugees and the Myth of the Borderless World

Author:
William Maley, Greg Fry, Alan Dupont, Jean-Pierre Fonteyne, James Jupp, and Thuy Do
Publication Date:
02-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Australian National University Department of International Relations
Abstract:
Refugees are quintessentially victims of the states system. If the moral justification of the territorial state is to provide an authority accountable for the well-being of a designated citizenry, then the failure of individual states to discharge this task creates a responsibility on those who otherwise benefit from the system of states to aid those who suffer persecution in the territories in which they are nominally owed a primary duty of care. The number of refugees and other displaced persons in the world is extremely small—roughly 0.3 per cent of the world's population—but each is a precious being, and the way they are treated is a measure not of their worth, but of the moral capacity of those who are in a position to come to their assistance. Life chances in the present world order are to a significant degree arbitrarily determined by the accident of birthplace. Afghans and Iraqis, strongly represented in the world's present refugee population, are not refugees as punishment for their own failings. And ministers and bureaucrats in Western countries, typically enjoying lives of considerable luxury, are rarely well-off in recognition of their outstanding moral virtues; many simply had the good luck to be born in the right countries. If there is a global refugee crisis, it is not in terms of the number of refugees, but in terms of the willingness of wealthy and prosperous peoples to reach out to them. In the following paragraphs, I shall do three things. First, I offer brief overviews of the meaning of 'refugee' and of the current state of the world's refugees. Second, I outline the framework of institutions and measures which has evolved for the management of refugee protection and refugee needs. In conclusion, I offer some observations on the challenges which the refugee regime faces, and on the steps which need to be taken to improve the refugees' positions.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution and Government
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, Iraq, Asia, and Australia/Pacific

17. The Day the World Changed? Terrorism and World Order

Author:
Stuart Harris, William Maley, Amin Saikal, Richard Price, and Christian Reus-Smit
Publication Date:
10-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Australian National University Department of International Relations
Abstract:
Change in world politics is generally thought to be more momentous than incremental. The power of social, political and economic structures, combined with habit, routine and sunk costs, favours continuity over change, and practices can persist long after their purpose has declined. It usually takes major shocks to the system 'cataclysmic events that expose the shortcomings of established practices' to license new forms of understanding, empower new sets of actors, and encourage new methods of ordering social, economic and political relations. The Great Depression and the Second World War were cataclysmic events of this import, as were the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union. The story of international relations is thus one of 'punctuated equilibria', not gradual evolution.
Topic:
Security and Terrorism
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, United States, and Asia