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The 2017 Foreign Policy White Paper identifies major themes and recommends preferred strategies in Australia’s engagement with the world. These themes and strategies relate to geopolitics, economics and the ‘new international agenda’; there is also a more specific focus on Australia’s Pacific island neighbours and Timor-Leste. There is a strong emphasis on perceived Australian national interests throughout the document. The geopolitical discussion is primarily ‘realist’; economically the document is pro-globalisation; the discussion of the ‘new international agenda’ involves an Australian-oriented pragmatism; there is an assertion of Australian leadership in the South Pacific. With some minor criticism, Labor has accepted the general direction advocated in the White Paper. The document is thus indicative of the likely future direction of Australian foreign policy. Lack of US response indicates declining US engagement with Australia and the Asia-Pacific or Indo-Pacific region. China, as the other major power highly significant for Australia, has been low-key in its criticisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers news briefs on the commonwealth countries. Investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia was assassinated in Malta in regards to the Panama Papers leak. Bangladesh and Myanmar take a stand to repatriate Rohingya Muslim refugees. Protests in India by Hindu fundamentalists against the screening of Rajasthan's royal queen related movie "Padmavati".

This article responds to suggestions that Australia is becoming increasingly insular and that Australians should direct their compassionate and humanitarian efforts wholly towards other Australians. This paper briefly reviews arguments for this inward turn, as well as the extant polling evidence about the prevalence of such attitudes, which appear to be reflected in the recent cutting of overseas aid budgets by the Australian government. However, the authors do not agree with even well-meaning exhortations to Australians to direct their altruistic activities to local communities only. To explore the compassionate and humanitarian sensibilities and activities of Australians who are actively supporting distant others, sixteen interviews were conducted with practitioners in non-profit organisations and ventures in Melbourne. We sought to understand how they came to dedicate their lives to working for or founding organisations whose aim is to benefit distant others; how they navigated the potentially overwhelming nature of global problems; and finally the hurdles they faced in continuing their work. Despite the challenges that both these practitioners and the world face, this article concludes with grounded optimism and defends a more expansive scope for our care for others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The election of the Labor government in 2007 appeared to usher in a new era of EU-Australian relations with a greater focus on those areas of agreement between Australia and the EU. This paper therefore explores the potential for closer cooperation between the EU and Australia in the area of sustainable development. It takes climate change as a 'litmus test' for the EU-Australia relationship due to the prominence given to the issue by both the EU and Australia and the contentious nature of the issue in relations between the EU and Australia under the previous government. After outlining the major tenets of the 'new era' under the Rudd government, those areas of policy divergence and convergence and thus opportunities for closer cooperation are highlighted and the residual issues that could offer opportunities for closer cooperation. It is concluded that these residual issues hinder developments in the relationship, but more signs of a new relationship are seen than previously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the post-war period Australian Prime Ministers have played a proactive role in formulating foreign policy towards Japan. This paper explores the role of executive leadership towards Japan and its impact on the bilateral relationship. The Howard period and current Rudd-led initiatives on whaling, nuclear disarmament, climate change and regional architecture are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the current state of economic relations that the United Kingdom has with New Zealand and Australia, in light of the former's decision to leave the European Union.  Although there are prospects for future trade between these countries post-Brexit based on the three countries' current comparative advantages, perhaps the greatest scope is for greater trade in services along with greater investment flows.  Trade in food produce would be affected by changes in trade policy post-Brexit but other goods such as forestry, mineral and manufacturing products would be more affected by changes in general economic conditions and the relative competiveness of the industries in international markets. Already these aspects of trade are important and are expected to grow and develop over time.  Much of the future negotiations between the three countries will take up a range of issues associated with investment and the trade in services and much of the future prospects for growth in trade might depend on the success of these negotiations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia's relationship with South Africa was founded on their being two groups of colonies, and later dominions, in the British Empire. As remote settler societies there were certain affinities, anxiously promoted by South Africa and usually resisted by Australia. Australian prime ministers played a major role in helping to bring about majority rule, but since 1994 the relationship has stiffened. For South Africa, partly for geopolitical reasons, the Commonwealth remains a functional concept; for Australia, it has lost much of its efficacy. Australia and South Africa have also exchanged two significant migrations: of Australian miners and artisans to the Rand around the turn of last century, and of South African emigrants to Australia in our own time. Trade between the two countries is increasing, and a new range and diversity in contact has occurred, with the resumption of full relations since the apartheid years. Given South Africa's disjunction from its immediate past, it is difficult at present to indicate what forms the relationship might take in future. The paper therefore sketches the whole history of interaction between the two countries, drawing attention to its phases and reconfigurations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia and Canada have been active participants in international climate change negotiations since the early 1990s and have often shared negotiating positions. This paper discusses why, in spite of considerable similarities in national circumstances, the Canadian government chose to ratify the Kyoto Protocol in 2002, while the Australian government decided against doing so. It is argued that a range of factors led to a narrower conception of the national interest in the case of Australia, which encouraged a focus on the short-term, economic costs of implementing the Protocol. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New Zealand’s governmental and non-governmental agencies, academic commentators and media have long framed the country as uniquely and favourably positioned on cultural grounds to be a strategic diplomatic actor in the South Pacific. Justifications for the framing stem from two linked complexes: the history of New Zealand’s colonial and post-colonial involvement in a number of Polynesian territories in the Pacific; and the related history of relations between settlers and indigenes in New Zealand itself. These different strands of the argument have increasingly been brought together by the growth in numbers of New Zealand-born and domiciled Pacific Islanders. They, along with Maori, have been recruited into the diplomatic service and overtly contribute to the use of Polynesian encounter rituals in New Zealand’s diplomatic outreach. Such histories are used to justify New Zealand’s role in the Pacific in its relations with other external powers, especially in diplomatic jostling with Australia. The claims to special insight and cultural capital are subjected to critical scrutiny. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Australia's climate change relationship with developing countries is framed by the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. Under those agreements, Australia has committed to take a lead in cutting greenhouse gas emissions and to provide technological and financial support to developing countries. In practice, Australian governments of both political hues have adopted a somewhat ambiguous and ambivalent attitude to developing countries within climate change politics and their fulfilment of those commitments has been uneven. This is particularly so if the concept of the 'Global South' is expanded from developing countries to include those people who are vulnerable to the environmental, social and economic impacts of climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia and New Zealand have done relatively well in international terms in combating COVID-19, aided by their geographical isolation and political leadership. Overall, they have pursued strategies of assertive suppression in relation to the virus, varying to some extent between 'softer' and 'harder' versions, as among the federal government in Australia, the various Australian states and territories, and New Zealand. Economically both countries have experienced a recession, New Zealand more so than Australia. Governments in both countries have pursued Keynesian policies, acting decisively to provide wage support and assist businesses. The assumption is that these policies will provide the necessary stimulus to prevent economic collapse and to enhance the prospects for subsequent economic recovery. Internationally the relative success of Australia and New Zealand in responding to COVID enhances their ability to influence the post-COVID world. While Australia as the larger country is better positioned in this respect, New Zealand also has considerable 'soft power'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite expectations of a Labor victory, the Liberal-National Coalition government in Australia was narrowly returned to office in the elections of 18 May 2019. The Coalition campaigned on a status quo platform, whereas Labor promised mildly redistributive policies in the name of fairness. The Coalition's success is built on its very strong position in Queensland and Western Australia, also picking up two seats in Tasmania. Comparisons with Trumpism and Brexit are too simple, but the Coalition had a populist appeal among less affluent and less well educated Australians, complementing its traditional base among higher income groups; the biggest swings to Labor were in the most affluent and highly educated electorates rather than in the working class heartlands. The Coalition's success gives Scott Morrison as prime minister a strong authority; Labor now has a new leadership with Anthony Albanese replacing Bill Shorten. The biggest policy challenges for the Coalition government concern the economy, and climate change and energy. Key international issues for Australia are US-China tensions and implementing the Pacific 'step up'; the hard line policies relating to asylum seekers arriving by boat are likely to continue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia witnessed a change of prime minister in late August 2018, with Scott Morrison replacing Malcolm Turnbull as leader of the Liberal-National Coalition government, even though the initial challenge came from Peter Dutton on the Liberal right. The immediate context was dissatisfaction on the Liberal right with government attempts to implement a new national energy policy. However, there had been long-term discontent from this quarter with Turnbull on the grounds that he was not a ‘true’ Liberal. Morrison as the new prime minister is more to the right than Turnbull but less so than Dutton. Domestically there will be some rightward adjustments in policy but not on a major scale; internationally there will be continuity with Australia’s previous policies. The Liberal leadership turmoil has strengthened the electoral position of the opposition Labor Party, with a federal election due by May 2019. More broadly the crisis could be seen as an Australian variant of the resurgence of the populist right in other countries, and the dilemmas in maintaining unity in centre-right parties; however, there have also been institutional factors that contributed to Turnbull’s rapid downfall. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article gives an overview of the involvement of Australia, New Zealand and Fiji in peacekeeping operations with attention to motives, experience and ‘lessons learnt’. Australia and New Zealand have been strongly influenced by regional considerations and an understanding of good international citizenship. Fiji’s contribution has been determined less by regional considerations and more by its position as a small developing country whose peacekeeping activities bring economic benefits, although it could be argued that by providing a basis for extending military forces they have contributed indirectly to political instability. Police contributions have been increasingly important to Australia and New Zealand and they have advocated a stronger role for police in other situations around the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current state of Pacific regionalism is faced with a range of external and internal factors that are acting to reshape the region and which call for a rethinking of Pacific regionalism. Within this context a range of new and in some cases reinvigorated groupings of political actors have emerged, seeking to influence and shape the region. Interpretations of this plurality of political groupings differ, with some authors seeing it as a direct challenge to the previously existing regional order, while others argue it signals a return to a foundational Pacific voice in regional politics. This article suggests that the present plurality is more than resituating a ‘Pacific voice’ and is not necessarily a challenge to the existing order. Rather, the Pacific’s experience mirrors global trends in the evolution of regionalism as a practice, in which network diplomacy or coalition-building across the plethora of actors will become a predominant feature of new regionalism. Further, the authors argue that the Framework for Pacific Regionalism provides the platform for effectively navigating this new context through facilitating the politics of networks and coalitions to drive the shared interests of the region, and presents a shared platform to test paradigm-shifting ideas. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Regionalism in Oceania emerged in a context shaped both by the decolonisation movement as well as the Cold War, the dynamics of which are still being played out today. This article considers two cases of particular interest in current regional politics which illustrate a number of important contradictions in conventional approaches to the analysis of colonialism. The first involves the two larger French territories in the region – New Caledonia and French Polynesia – which have recently been admitted to full membership of the Pacific Islands Forum despite falling short of the technical requirements for such membership, namely independent status. The second concerns Indonesia’s claim to sovereignty over West Papua. Although this claim has been recognised in international law since 1969, its basis is highly suspect and Indonesia’s record from the start is arguably tantamount to a repressive form of colonialism enabled by the United Nations itself. Placed in comparative perspective, these cases invite us to reconsider just what colonialism on the one hand and self-determination on the other really mean in the contemporary period. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Foreign aid from China to the island countries of the Pacific has grown rapidly over the last few decades and an expanding body of literature has examined various aspects of what this means for politics in the region generally. This article focuses on China’s impact on Pacific regional politics partly from the perspective of identity politics. It suggests that China has substantially increased its engagement with the Pacific island states by making use of its own identity as a South–South development partner in contrast to traditional (mainly Western) donors in the region. Unlike most traditional donors, however, China’s diplomacy and engagement are based largely on bilateralism, and this is likely to continue for the foreseeable future. This approach could continue to limit its impact on Pacific regionalism, regardless of how it projects its image. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Abbott Coalition government, elected to office in Australia in September 2013, has not had a major focus on the developing world. Nevertheless, in terms of substance this government has been engaged with a number of issues that relate to, or have implications for, the developing world. At a general level these issues concern development cooperation, refugees and asylum seekers, and climate change. At a regional level Australia has had particular concerns relating to Indonesia and the Pacific island countries; there has also been some focus on India and Indian Ocean regionalism. Beyond Australia’s immediate region there has been engagement in some issues relating to Southwest Asia and the Middle East, and Africa. The government’s approach to issues concerning the developing world reflects its pragmatism based on a perception of Australian interests and an identification with the countries of the developed world as led by the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The activities of successive Governors General of Australia have traditionally been couched in secrecy and this has prevented any meaningful public discussion of the subject. This article argues that, regardless of whether Australia continues to be a monarchy or transforms itself into a republic, far-reaching reforms are essential to ensure greater accountability for the position of head of state. In the view of the authors, heads of state do play, and should play, political roles, but they should be firmly and explicitly constrained in so doing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the beginning of the First World War, atrocity stories about German depredations against Belgian civilians circulated throughout the Allied world. Caricatures of German soldiers rapidly degenerated into depictions of monstrous ‘Huns’ who were subhuman beasts, prone to acts of rapine and banditry. The most prominent producer of ‘Hun’ cartoons in Australia was artist Norman Lindsay, who published extensively throughout the war. Through an analysis of the antecedents of Lindsay’s monstrous ‘Hun’, this article will demonstrate that the rapid creation of the ‘Hun’ in Australia was made possible by the pre-existing racial caricatures of non-European people that were popular during this period. Chinese and Japanese people who were excluded from Australia by the White Australia policy were the previous targets of Norman Lindsay’s racial caricatures; as stories of German atrocities filtered into Australia, Lindsay transferred traits of Asians on to the German ‘Hun’, thus transforming him into the enemy ‘Other’. These traits were products of British imperial propaganda, and part of an ideology that asserted it was the job of the white man to civilise the barbaric coloured man. By ‘Asianising’ the German, Lindsay used a well understood language of racial caricature to reduce the German to the status of a barbarian. Race was therefore one of the central paradigms through which Australian propaganda operated. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Canada and Australia, as Westminster parliamentary federal systems, share many institutional similarities. However, there are key divergences in the exercise of institutional practices within their judiciaries and legislatures. In spite of these divergences, there has been a policy convergence in the area of same-sex unions. The causes of this convergence are twofold: first, the institutional arrangements under federalism provided the mechanisms for addressing same-sex unions; and second, it was the constituent units that utilised these institutional mechanisms in order to pursue the recognition of same-sex unions. Both the constituent units within Canada and Australia generated an ‘upward’ pressure on their respective federal governments (specifically the legislatures) to address the question of same-sex marriage. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In identifying the determinants of Australia's foreign aid relationship with developing countries (sometimes labelled 'the South'), this article examines the institutional history of official Australian development assistance since the Second World War. Several, often competing, narratives are delineated. These include: an ongoing questioning within the aid 'policy community', such as it is, of the purpose of foreign aid and the nature of its relationship to foreign policy; bureaucratic contestation over access to foreign aid resources; the desire of Australian foreign aid decision-makers to ensure their control, increasingly via managerialist methods, of aid delivery; and an avoidance by decision-makers of viewing the South as a politically relevant entity. Taken together, these narratives portray an aid programme that has become more 'professionalised' over time, but which finds itself institutionally inhibited from engaging meaningfully with the political nature of international development relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

North-South issues as such do not figure prominently in Australia's international policy but are mostly implicit. These issues arise particularly in the context of Australia's relations with countries in its immediate vicinity, including the South Pacific, Indonesia and East Timor. There are also some global issues in the North-South context where Australia is affected. Australian governments, in developing policies relating to this context, have been influenced by a 'practical realism' that puts first priority on Australian interests as perceived by governments at any given time. The way in which those policies have been developed, in both the regional and the global contexts, can be assessed through an examination of issues relating to security and international economic relations. Australia's alliance relationship has a strong bearing on the way Australia approaches the security issues. In relation to international economic issues there are many commonalities with fellow producers of raw materials in the Global South. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the early post-war era, a Japanese revival was a source of profound concern to members of the Commonwealth, especially Australia and New Zealand. Britain, having abdicated the leading role in the Western Pacific to the United States, attempted to retain some influence in the region, but economic frailties and lack of Commonwealth unity undermined these efforts. Under American guidance, diplomatic, commercial and (to a lesser extent) security ties with Japan were later promoted, but elements of cooperation and competition persisted in Commonwealth relations with their former enemy. Ultimately, Britain, Australia and New Zealand placed their respective regional identities ahead of their Commonwealth loyalties. Japan took advantage of this situation to promote its own national interests. Hence, the wider aperture of the 'Commonwealth lens' throws into sharp relief the contours of a number of members' bilateral relationships with Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia in the 1950s received and subsidised its first international students from neighbouring Asian countries under the Colombo Plan to train 'the expert minds' necessary for development. During the 1980s subsidies were phased out, but the number of international students greatly increased. Migration rules based on points encouraged such students to become skilled migrants. Globalisation brought massive increases in student numbers and competition for revenue from their fees. English-speaking countries have market advantages because of the 'empire' of the United States; but it is dangerous to become over-reliant on overseas fee income. Public funding and curriculum structures need reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Australian federal election of 24 November 2007 saw the defeat of the Howard Liberal-National Party coalition government after almost 12 years in office and brought to power a Labor government, the first since 1996, under the leadership of Kevin Rudd. John Howard, Australia's second longest-serving prime minister, became only the second prime minister to lose his own seat at an election. This article summarizes the election result and places it in the context of post-Second World War Australian political and electoral history. The highly unusual character of the large swing to the Labor Party is underlined, as is the rarity of a change of government in Australia since the Second World War. The article also examines the influence of the political leadership of the two major parties in contributing to the changing climate of opinion during 2007 and surveys the campaign itself, underlining the many problems experienced by the Howard government in the final weeks of its life. Finally, the article emphasizes the critical roles that interest rates, climate change and industrial relations all played in fatally undermining the Howard ascendancy. The government, faced with a politically credible and electorally attractive opponent, emerging economic difficulties and a shifting policy agenda, was unable to present itself as equipped to deal with new local and global challenges after a long period in power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proceeds through a case study of commemorative rhetoric in a British settler state, Australia, and in a provincial capital, Brisbane, whose dominant commemorative group, the Anzac Day Commemoration Committee (ADCC), had claims to have invented the national memorial rituals for the principal day of remembrance. It briefly surveys the broader Australian commemorative background, then explores the control of Anzac Day in Brisbane, focusing on accommodations and alliances between political, civil and religious leaders and the principal returned soldiers' organization, the Returned Sailors' and Soldiers' Imperial League of Australia (RSSILA) on the ADCC, in Anzac Day activities, and in Anzac Day rhetoric. The article suggests that the theme of 'triumphalism' has been underplayed in analysis of interwar commemorative rhetoric in Australia, and that cooperation, accommodation and alliance were more typical of interwar commemoration than contest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia has historical links to the contemporary states of Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei through the British Empire and Commonwealth. While Australian relations with these countries in more recent times have been influenced by a range of factors, the Commonwealth connection remains significant. Politico-cultural tensions complicated the Australian relationship with Malaysia during the Mahathir era from 1981 to 2003. Nevertheless, the substantive aspects of the relationship remained strong. There was potential for cultural tensions in the relationships with Singapore and Brunei but no major rifts developed; Singapore has been a key partner for Australia in the region. Thus Australia has strong relationships with the three states of Commonwealth Southeast Asia in the areas of security, economics and education, with the imperial and Commonwealth past being a contributing factor in each case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The bilateral relationship between Australia and the UK has been an extremely significant relationship for Australia, albeit one that carries with it considerable historical baggage. This article offers an overview of some key issues in the bilateral relationship, with a particular focus on the years following the second world war. Underpinned by ties in defence and security, trade and investment, and a multitude of social and cultural connections, the relationship remained strong – although sometimes irritable. With the 1960s and 1970s came profound changes, affecting practically every aspect of the relationship and unravelling some fundamental Australian assumptions, including those about the Commonwealth of Nations. The article concludes by briefly examining prospects for the contemporary bilateral relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia and New Zealand (Aotearoa) have shared almost two centuries of close relations created through close geographic proximity, shared membership of political associations, and frequent policy exchange. The relevant context has shifted from the British Empire and Commonwealth to a rapidly globalizing world under US military hegemony. Australia and New Zealand were among the early settler colonies of the British Empire and this article argues that, as such, the settler colonies helped shape the form of the Empire, and subsequently the Commonwealth. This history created strong, separate, if somewhat similar, traditions of independent political experimentation. This article explores different models for explaining the cross-Tasman relationship and concludes that the path-dependent approach works best. The path was also influenced by external shocks, notably the second world war and Britain's moves towards Europe, and it was these shocks that created the necessary ruptures to create change. The first world war had catapulted Australia and New Zealand towards separate nationhood, and simultaneously strengthened their cultural and political links. The second world war pushed Australia towards the USA and led both Australia and New Zealand to develop a more explicit role as regional leaders in the Pacific. For New Zealand, Britain's membership of the European Community created an economic crisis and politico-cultural stresses which are reverberating still. Such shocks created the preconditions also for closer association, exemplified in the CER Treaty, which in turn draws upon historical precedents and experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Empire–Commonwealth played a key role in the evolution of Australia's international position. However, the post-1960s Commonwealth has only been of minor significance for Australia. The Commonwealth provides a backdrop for a number of Australia's bilateral relationships, the most important of which are those with Britain, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Canada, India, Malaysia and Singapore. The multilateral context provided by the Commonwealth is relevant to advancing Australian goals concerning North–South relations, world trade, South Pacific and southern African issues and newer issues such as the ‘war on terrorism’. Australia is a major contributor to Commonwealth aid programmes. The Commonwealth dimension has some relevance to the republican debate in Australia, although it is not a primary concern. Australia is a major participant in the ‘civil society’ aspect of the Commonwealth. The low priority accorded to the modern Commonwealth by Australia is generally a bipartisan matter: the Commonwealth has its uses but is not central to Australia's contemporary international objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ambiguity and inconsistency governed Australia's East Timor policy during the Indonesian occupation era. Contradictions sometimes emerged in the 1970s and 1980s as foreign ministers' expressed sympathy with the East Timorese was insufficient to persuade prime ministers who valued the maintenance of strong ties with Indonesia. Australia's later shift from a pro-Indonesia to a pro-UN policy did not imply a pro-East Timor one. Economic influences were significant, with Australian endorsement of Indonesia's sovereign right in East Timor a prerequisite for a treaty on sharing of natural resources in the Timor Gap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]