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The article presents the conference paper "How is RAMSI faring? Progress, challenges, and lessons learned" presented for the "46th International Studies Association Convention" held in Hawaii on 6 March 2005. It outlines the situation in Solomon Islands before the assistance mission and some of the factors that led to the decision of Australia to intervene. It also examines the challenges being faced by the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI).

This paper assesses the global health implications of security-oriented regulation of laboratory research on pathogenic micro-organisms. The challenge with such regulation, implemented to address government concerns about biological weapons use, is to maximise security benefits while minimising interference with legitimate scientific research conducted for therapeutic ends. The biotechnology sector performs basic research on infectious diseases, produces vaccines and other drugs, and instructs health professionals on how to use them. Too much biosecurity regulation might cripple commercial and academic enterprise in the life sciences and thereby diminish the ability of public health systemsâ??particularly their diagnostic and patient care elementsâ??to respond to an infectious disease outbreak. It may also hinder valuable international collaborations on addressing local and transnational infectious disease threats. On the other hand, the potential application of gene technology for offensive purposes highlights the powerful position held by scientists with access to pathogens and knowledge of what makes them dangerous. The paper compares biosecurity regulatory schemes in the United States and Australia, and offers more general observations about health and security trade-offs in a global context. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Risk assessments on organized crime are intended to determine which criminalnetworks pose the greatest risk to society and to assess the nature and level of the negativeconsequences or "harms" from organized crime's illicit activities. In this paper, "harm" is definedas the type and level of adverse consequences, intentional or inadvertent, resulting from criminalactivities undertaken by organized crime. This paper explores the concept of harm analysis froma Canadian perspective in light of similar explorations in the United Kingdom and Australia, andalso discusses the practical and theoretical challenges involved in implementing a technique toevaluate and rank the harms from organized crime. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The question of how to build effective, resilient and legitimate state institutions figures prominently in Australia’s development policy as well as its foreign and security policy. The Australian government’s White Paper on its overseas aid program posits that “the effective functioning of a state’s institutions is central to development” (White Paper 2006: 42) and that the “long-term vision for international engagement must be on state building through support for increased capacity, legitimacy and accountability” (ibid.: 17). Australia has committed itself to the prevention of violent conflict and of state failure, to state-building, peacebuilding and development, especially in neighbouring regions. It seeks to bring together development assistance, security assistance and institutional reform by pursuing a ‘whole of government’ (WoG) approach that in particular aims at bringing security and development to bear on each other.The Australian government has established a so-called Fragile States Unit (FSU) which consists of representatives from different branches of government (Foreign Affairs and Trade, Defence, Treasury, AusAid and Australian Federal Police), thus mirroring its WoG approach. Australia also plays an active role in the OECD-DAC’s Fragile States Group (FSG). Here it has made major contributions to the WoG workstream in particular, and currently it is actively engaged in the state-building workstream.Australia is confronted with state fragility in its immediate neighbourhood in the South Pacific. It took a leading role in the so-called Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI), a multilateral civil-military intervention that aimed at preventing state collapse in the Solomon Islands and that is in its fourth year by now. RAMSI and other cases in the South Pacific have provided Australia with valuable experiences with regard to the challenges of assistance in state-building. These experiences at present are leading to a reconsideration of major aspects of state fragility and state-building.Starting with an overview of Australia’s perspective on state fragility this paper will present a report of work in progress on a research project that commenced in June 2007, commissioned by the FSU, on “effective and legitimate governance: states emerging from hybrid political orders”. This project is meant to contribute to the deliberations on state fragility and state-building in the Australian national context and the OECD-DAC’s FSG context. It draws on case studies of the South Pacific region (Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, Bougainville, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Kiribati, and East Timor) and the comparison between them. The guiding hypothesis of this research is that a re-conceptualisation of so-called fragile states as hybrid political orders and, flowing from this re-conceptualisation, a re-orientation of state-building from the Western (OECD) model of the state towards an approach that focusses on positive mutual accommodation between introduced state institutions, customary indigenous institutions and civil society institutions might lead to innovative novel recommendations for the improvement of donor assistance effectiveness in so-called fragile states. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Internet has opened many avenues for collaborative work across the globe. Recently, a number of networks have formed that seek to connect governance researchers and practitioners from around the world through the application of Internet and Communication Technologies (ICT) to governance research. Because of the increasing interest in Internet-assisted research collaboration projects, now is an advantageous time for participants in the movement to assess impacts and discuss lessons learned. This paper begins with an introduction to the historical, structural and demographic characteristics of the Australian Research Council's Governance Research Network (GovNet). It then conducts an evaluation of this network based on its stated objectives. Following this evaluation, the paper seeks to broaden the evaluative framework by proposing a network-level evaluation, which includes a series of definitional questions and a three-category typology. The paper concludes with several observations and questions for further inquiry. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent debates about international security have overwhelmingly focussed on how the content of security needs to be widened to account for the location of security in non-military settings (Weaver et al, 1998; Paris, 2001; Newman, 2001; Dunne and Wheeler, 2004). Human security has frequently been the focal point of such “securitisation” debates. For many commentators, this involves a shift in the ‘referent object’ of security away from the state to individuals and, in so doing, challenges the centrality of deeply embedded “statist” conceptions of political violence. This paper seeks to add to this debate by offering a critique of the manner in which security is commonly operationalised by foreign policy actors within so called “middle powers” with particular emphasis being placed upon Australia and Sweden. The two countries have considerable economic and military clout and their self identities are those of “good international citizens” (GIC) or so called “forces for good”. However, as the paper will demonstrate, their conceptions of what this means in the security field vary a great deal. A key argument developed here is that Middle powers should not be regarded as inherently benign forces for good, but as actors which both enable and disable certain normative agendas within the international security structure. Paying attention to the gendering of security policy within these states allows for a critical evaluation of the way in which “soft security” functions as a highly strategic narrative of foreign policy actors. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Admiration and resentment of America are deeply rooted in the current international system even among countries that are traditional US allies. This paper distinguishes in its first part between critical opinion, skepticism and prejudice as different lenses through which to view anti-Americanism and then details six different types of anti-Americanism. In the paper's next two parts these categories are confronted with data from Australia and New Zealand and the different historical trajectories in the evolution of anti-Americanism in these two countries. The fourth and final section seeks to identify commonalities, if any, across the two political settings and, in the efort to test for the effect of geographic proximity, makes some comparisons to anti-Americanism in Mexico and Canada. The expected finding is that the paper will point to a plurality ofdifferent types of anti-Americanisms, a condition that reflects the pluralis mof world politics more generally. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1990s, there has been a growing body of literature in international relations, which looks at the unipolar world order following the end of the Cold War. Most of these works, however, tend to focus on describing the characteristics of this unipolar world or predicting its longevity. This working paper contends that such approaches do not pay adequate attention to how non-leading states in the international system are attempting to respond to American primacy of power in this age of unipolarity. The author argues that conventional conceptions of international politics that frame state reactions to superior power within the bounds of balancing and bandwagoning are inadequate to understand how state actors are trying to advance and preserve interests in relation to preponderant power. As such, this paper tries to argue that states try to forward and defend interests in relation to the system leader based on power relative to the pre-eminent state and integration in the world system. Power, on one hand, defines the capability of second-tier states to act, while integration, on the other, helps determine the incentives and costs of different actions. Looking at relative power and integration, the paper identifies four possible alternative conceptualisations of alternative strategies to balancing and bandwagoning--buffering, bonding, binding, and beleaguering. It goes on to suggest that the tendency of states to pursue these various approaches to advancing and defending interests may have an impact on the nature and duration of the current unipolar order. Although this paper takes seriously the structural perspective in considering responses to dealing with the problem created by highly asymmetric power realities that lie beyond the balancing-bandwagoning dichotomy, it does not rule out the possibility that other factors may also affect state action. It accepts that a states power and level of integration are highly dependent on prior decisions within the polity that may rest on ideational and contingent material realities. The argument of this paper also does not rule out the effects of path dependence from previous historical events specific to each state. This paper tests its theoretical propositions against five empirical cases, China, Taiwan, Singapore, North Korea, and Australia over the past decade-and-a-half. This permits the variation of power and integration while holding culture, geography, and history constant. Australia is a control case as it differs qualitatively from the four East Asian cases. This paper finds that non-leading states largely respond to power preponderance as its argument predicts. However, state responses to power preponderance also display some mixture of strategic responses even if they tend towards one approach. Nonetheless, such variation in response appears unsystematic and fluctuates according to specific historical contingencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the relationship between power and knowledge in the context of the construction of security in Australia. Specifically, it seeks to apply critical theoretical approaches to security to the Australian government’s security discourse regarding asylum-seekers in 2001 and terrorist attacks in 2001 and 2002. It is argued in this paper that perceptions of the provision of security are central to the political legitimacy of states. In particular, specific actions on the part of governments may be enabled by perceptions among their citizens that these actions maintain or further their security. If we accept this point, then the crucial question becomes: how do certain meanings of security come to resonate with particular populations in particular contexts? It is argued here that we can further our understanding of this process through acknowledging relationships between power and knowledge, and specifically the role of governments in creating contexts in which particular meanings of security become resonant. Through applying such an approach to the Australian government’s depiction of asylum-seekers and its response to terrorist attacks in New York and particularly Bali, we can move towards a greater understanding of the ways in which security is constructed and of the relationship between security and political legitimacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The controversies regarding Critical Terrorism Studies evident in UK and US analytical and political circles have recently surfaced in Australia in a series of bitter and increasingly public confrontations over the meanings and implications of 21st century terrorism; how it should be taught in Australian Universities; and who should teach it. This paper engages this 'debate' in seeking to establish that the issues at stake on the issue of terrorism studies go far beyond the personal animosities and immediate sites of ideological contention intrinsic to these disputes. I argue that this contention, passionately and uncompromisingly articulated as it was in 2008, represents just the tip of a deep intellectual and political iceberg which contains within its parameters some of the most powerful and complex themes in modern western thought, and some of the most fiercely contested debates within the foreign and defence policy literature in the post World War Two era. Debates that have taken on an even sharper edge since 9/11 2001 and the shattering impact upon global consciousness of Islamist terrorism. The initial focus is Australia but the issues at stake necessitate that the discussion goes far beyond this initial context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Challenging the traditional US position, China was able to broaden its economic orbit in Asia-Pacific. The regional economic structure has become more China-centred in recent years. Australia, an important regional middle power, is no exception in this regard: For several years, Beijing has been ahead of Washington in trade with Australia. This trend, however, has not resulted in greater Chinese influence on Australian security affairs. In contrast, Canberra has even strengthened its security ties with Washington in recent years. It is a telling example about the limited fungibility of power. This paper is going to inquire, i) why China has failed to transfer its economic power into the security sphere, ii) what rationale and processes have prevented a shift of Australia's allegiance away from the US and iii) what general lessons this poses for global power shifts. Obviously, statistics are a good indicator for shifting power capabilities, but power also has to be seen as a relational ability to make others to do (or want) what one want. The allegiance of states, i.e. the relations of middle powers to dominant powers are therefore a very apt measurement about de facto power shifts in specific international areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that islands are part of an enforcement archipelago, a tactic of migration control practiced by the United States, Australia, and member states of the European Union. From off-shore border enforcement to detention centers on remote isla ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Paper will explore the factors contributing to the ultimate repeal of these laws in the United States and Australiaâ€"as well as the factors militating against the repeal of such laws in Malaysia. The repeal of such laws in the US and Australia is ref ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1915, some 8000 Australian soldiers ('diggers') lost their lives in a military campaign that began with an attempt to capture a peninsula on the Black Sea in Turkey. In the years following, their 'sacrifice' came to be commemorated on April 25th ('Anzac Day') in dawn services across the country and at the site of the landing itself: ANZAC Cove. Since the mid-1990s, increasing numbers of Australians have attended dawn services, with young Australians undertaking what they themselves term as 'pilgrimages' to Anzac Cove in record numbers. Simultaneously, Prime Minister John Howard emphasized both the centrality of the Anazc myth to Australian national identity and invoked the memory of diggers' sacrifice to justify military intervention in the post-2001 'war on terror'. This paper explores how the Anzac myth and memory of sacrifice has been invoked politically; how this relates to practices of memorialisation and broader conceptions of national identity; and what implications this has for the way we understand the relationship between collective memory and the practices of international politics. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trilateral security cooperation among Japan, Australia and the United States has accelerated over the last few years, with the first foreign ministerial meeting held in early 2006. Not unexpectedly, the new cooperation between Canberra, Tokyo, and Washington is often characterized as a revival of Containment (against China, this time) or a mini-NATO in Asia. The paper will examine this latest development in East Asia’s security relations, with a specific focus on Japanese policymaking. The concept of a democratic state as one form of state identity will be given particular attention for understanding Tokyo’s attitude toward trilateral security cooperation, as well as the new security order in Asia. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper, part of a broader research project, is concerned with the question of how military intervention as part of the 'war on terror' was justified in the three core members of the 'Coalition of the Willing': the US, UK and Australia. In particular, we focus on the ways in which interventions in Iraq were justified to domestic audiences across these states. Building on critical constructivist understandings of security, we suggest the importance of conceiving of security discourse and policy as an intersubjective realm. Within this realm, the ability to legitimise or enable particular foreign and security practices is related to the extent to which these practices are located within dominant narratives of history, culture and identity within the political communities concerned. While political leaders in these three states therefore defined the need for intervention in broadly similar terms, subtle differences in emphasis and argumentation are potentially important not only in communicating how the military interventions themselves are made possible in different contexts, but also in illuminating the possibilities and constraints for discourses and practices of security in global politics. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper tracks the development of refugee policy in Canada, Australia and the United States over the past twenty years, arguing that the growth of the asylum seeker phenomenon has led to a conceptual and practical merge between refugee policy and immigration control in all three countries. Historically, nations made strategic choices about how many refugees to accept from which regions. Increasingly however, asylum seekers arrive at borders without U.N. refugee status, and require processing by national level immigration officials to determine their eligibility for protection. For example, whereas in 1990, 6% of people who were given refugee status in the United States were granted that status via a domestic asylum hearing; in 2005 that percentage had jumped to 32%. I explore the implications of that shift through an analysis of the passage and implementation of two recent policies used to control rates of application for asylum, specifically the Safe Third Country Agreement between the United States and Canada that went into effect in 2004, and Australia’s Pacific Solution initiated in 2001. The data are drawn from interviews with key refugee policy makers and advocates in each of the three nations, as well as content analysis of the policy frames used in legislative hearings and newspaper coverage. I find that as asylum seekers come to be viewed as illegal immigrants, often referred to in the media as ‘queue jumpers,’ refugee policy looses its distinct identity as a human rights issue, and thus its insulation from the politics of immigration control. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An eager participant in the Global War on Terror, Australia has since 2001 conducted ongoing renovations to its security policy. After contrived and fleeting public discussion, in December 2005, the Anti-Terrorism Bill (No.2) 2005 was made law, providing the clearest indication yet that Australians were fully immersed in a counter-terrorism discourse characterised by fear and absolutism. Despite condemnation of aspects of the legislation - notably control order and preventative detention measures, as well as strengthened sedition laws - from a multiplicity of sources, the legislation was passed hastily and with comparatively minimal amendment. Despite comprehensive expert critiques public sentiment did not reflect these concerns; polls found that fear of terrorism amongst Australians was, at this time extraordinarily high. This paper argues that the tacit complicity with which these draconian measures were accepted is symptomatic of the broader public attitude towards counter-terrorism in Australia since 2001, a phenomenon demonstrative of a broader web of discursive processes. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents an examination of the dynamics of multilateral military alliances or 'coalitions'. Framed within the wider debate over the future security architecture of the Asia-Pacific region, it has the dual objective of both enriching the academic debate and offering guidance to policy-makers by investigating the theory and practice of coalition behaviour. The article expounds the case for the American-Japanese-Australian combination and analyses the issues that confront such an alliance-coalition using two competing theoretical perspectives of allied behaviour: 'balance of power' and 'intra-alliance politics'. The main propositions of these perspectives are empirically tested against policy statements based on American, Japanese and Australian foreign and defence policies and associated academic writings. The paper demonstrates the continued validity of realist-conceived approaches to security provision and concludes that both theoretical perspectives are useful tools of analysis in this case. Focusing on separate levels and therefore different aspects of allied behaviour, they can in fact be viewed as complementary, rather than competing, and clearly exhibit strong potential for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New thinking about security management has emerged in the South Pacific region in response to the changing international and regional security environments particularly since 9/11, the Bali bombing of October 2002, and the incidence of internal conflict in a number of Pacific Island countries. From a once fairly detached position of allowing the small Pacific Island countries to manage their own internal security, the South Pacific's major security players, Australia and (to a lesser extent) New Zealand, embarked on an activist strategy of interventionism to bolster perceived 'failing states' (Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea). At much the same time, ideas emerged from a high-level review of Pacific regionalism for a stronger role for the premier regional organization -- the Pacific Islands Forum -- in security management. Similarly, a separate report by an Australian Senate Committee also pushed the boundaries on security thinking by proposing a deeper form of political and economic 'engagement' by Australia with the Islands region that, the report argued, would enhance South Pacific well-being and security. This paper briefly canvasses these changing approaches and comments on their sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2004 Pacific Islands Forum meeting included a discussion of a report by an Eminent Persons Group to reshape the nature and mission of the Forum itself. For many, it was a discussion long overdue, with the organization viewed as a mere talking shop, ineffectual especially in dealing with security issues, most notably the 1987 and 2000 Fiji coups, the Bougainville crisis in Papua New Guinea, and the civil war on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. This last event sparked a multilateral regional intervention, though it was led and staffed primarily by Australia. The Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands (RAMSI) may signal a sea change in the way Australia views its place in the region, and its subsequent activities ("enhanced cooperation" in Papua New Guinea, and the unprecedented election of an Australian as Secretary General of the Forum) suggest that Australia may now be willing to play a more active (and activist) role in Oceania. The benefits and drawbacks to Australia's new activism in Oceania and its implications for the small island states in the region is the subject of this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In simplistic terms, the measures a state employs, to combat transnational crime, depends on the funds available: the expense of protecting against transnational crime competes with the expense of traditional defense and military security requirements for a share of the state's limited resources (These competing demands impact on the sovereign authority of the state as the weakness of either function inhibits the ability of the state to maintain its sovereignty. The underlying dynamics between the authority of the state and the adverse effects from transnational crime have not been fully explored and constitute a rich ground for an international relations study. Any state's authority, and ability to maintain a credible sovereignty, is threatened when organized illegal trafficking of humans can take place across its borders with impunity. The cost of addressing this transnational threat is a major economic and diplomatic burden in Southeast Asia and Australia. The underlying dynamics involving state authority and transnational crime need to be more fully explored with regard to Southeast Asia and Australia. The Australian government has become increasingly concerned at international crime, particularly in regard to transnational organized crime in human smuggling and trafficking. As a result, some border enforcement measures have improved, only to be matched by growing sophistication and countermeasures by trafficking and smuggling networks. Such trafficking has become a multi-billion dollar criminal business and the growing affluence and economic stability of Australia has made the country increasingly popular as a target destination. The Australian government has responded with a comprehensive approach that emphasizes protection of its sovereign authority. This paper addresses some major issues behind a comprehensive approach: how illegal migration is carried out; the effects on its victims; the effects on regional diplomacy in Southeast Asia; and the impact on Australia in particular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the conference paper "Australia's Arc of Instability" that was prepared for the "International Studies Association Annual Conference" in Honolulu, Hawaii. It looks at the arc of instability in relation to significant trends and developments in the region, to the nature of stability as a strategic concept as well as to Australia's long-standing interests in a stable and secure regional neighborhood. Several definitions of arc of instability are discussed.

As the European Union democratizes and expands, will its basic institutions remain fundamentally intact or will the member states dramatically reshape the Union in a new grand bargain, overthrowing the existing system? Any answer to this question will necessarily rest on assumptions about the nature of institutional continuity and change that cannot be addressed by looking at the history of European institutions alone. Comparative cases of confederal systems are a methodological necessity. Australian integration in the late 19th century is a potentially useful comparative case. I develop a theory of stasis and change in international organizations that suggests that democratization and unbalanced expansion each can lead member states in an organization to scrap their institutions entirely and start from scratch. Likely developments in the near-term future of the EU raise the possibility of big changes soon. Updates and additional papers available at http://home.gwu.edu/~rector [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines two different counter-terrorist styles: the hegemonic, often unilateral approach practiced by the West and the multilateral consultative approach of the East. America and its Western allies such as Australia have often voiced impatience with the gradualist, consultative modus operandi of Southeast Asian states in dealing with terrorism. Australia even warned after the 12 October 2002 Bali attacks that it would consider mounting pre-emptive military action to rout terrorist networks taking refuge in neighbouring countries whose counter-terrorist action was perceived as lackadaisical. This created a firestorm of protest from Canberra’s Southeast Asian neighbours. It is clearly unacceptable to allow complacency or the downside of the East’s way of approaching terrorist threats to be the norm. Conversely, a unilateral approach threatens to undermine jealously-guarded sovereignty and compound international relations in a time when multilateral collaboration is required. To strike the right balance between respecting sovereignty and instituting effective action requires a new model combining not the worst but the best of both East and West. In fact such a hybrid model may already exist in the Asia-Pacific, employed by both ASEAN and Pacific Island Nations to combat transnational crime. However, applying this model is not straightforward as some regional states barely tolerate one another and trust can be described as very poor. Nevertheless, there are some excellent best practices already found within overall Asia-Pacific strategies to combat transnational criminal activity such as people smuggling and illicit drugs, that might be similarly employed against terrorism. What is important is that whilst these Asia-Pacific transnational crime strategies fit with international conventions and treaties they are uniquely tailored to the region. The regional fora that facilitate action to combat transnational crime can be described as loose coalitions but with a ‘whole of nation’ approach where developing nations work closely with developed nations that are not members of existing regional associations. In fact the developed nations, like the US, work outside the box as dialogue partners and in some cases provide the necessary impetus for effective action. Strategies to combat terrorism in the Asia Pacific need to emulate the transnational crime approach where the power and authority exerted by the West is distilled into a formula for the East that is easily converted into a shared vision for agreed outcomes. A successful formula that injects hegemonic drive and resources to energize a loose counter-terrorist multilateralism built on bilateral and informal networks might be effective in the Asia-Pacific. One critical aspect of this top-down but mediated and multilateral counter-terrorist approach involves capacity-building: the US can help improve traditional governance arrangements in the East to more effectively cope with the threat of transnational terrorism. For example, is the ASEAN Secretariat or ASEANAPOL sufficiently resourced and does it possess the required policy base to be effective? A frustration of the West is perceived inaction by the East when in some cases developing nations do not have the capacity to participate in a multinational initiative. The question seems to be balancing the expectations of the West against the capacity of the East to deliver on global counter-terrorist conventions and treaties whilst combating a common menace. A hegemonically-energized but nuanced and multilateral counter-terrorist strategy might be what is needed to combat transnational terrorism in the Asia Pacific and even globally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an assessment of Australia’s strategic policy and particularly examines how Australia’s alliance relationship with the US is changing Australian strategic commitments and its broader regional role. The paper is in three parts. The first provides an overview of the broader trends in Australia’s strategic policy and a more detailed assessment of the current state of Australia’s bilateral relationship with the US. The second part examines the changing regional and global role that Australia is taking as a function of its alliance, with a focus on the recent Japan-Australia Security Declaration. The final section considers the risks and opportunities that this new policy direction has for Australian security interests and particularly assesses Australia’s ambitions to balance its economic and political relationship with China and its security and strategic links with Japan and the US. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Throughout the post 1945 period Australian foreign policy has always had a distinctly internationalist narrative thread running through it. Hitherto somewhat muted apart from more vocal moments under the Fraser and Whitlam governments, internationalism was given much greater voice during the period of Labor governments from the mid 1980s to the mid 1990s. This was most explicitly expressed in the commitment to ?being and being seen to be a good international citizen? articulated by the former Labor Foreign Minister Gareth Evans. At the beginning of the ongoing period of conservative coalition governments led by John Howard, it seemed that a return to a more overtly realist-centred foreign policy was inevitable especially given the conservatives overt repudiation of key components of previous Labor foreign policy. Instead, the Howard governments have, especially since 2001, become associated with a strong commitment to a variety of internationalism that bears comparison in many key respects with the neoconservative-influenced activism of the George W, Bush administrations in the US. In tempering realism with a particular brand of internationalism, the Howard governments have seemingly left their Labor opponents floundering. Arguably, the new (perhaps neo) conservative Australian internationalism has been a significant contributor not only to electoral success but also to the reworking of a myth of Australian national identity. Drawing in part upon recent Australian cultural-historical scholarship, this paper critically examines the strategies of the Howard governments, particularly in their narrative dimensions, in an attempt to understand how they very effectively reworked the Australian internationalist tradition. In so doing, this paper argues, they robbed the Australian liberal-left of much of its narrative firepower and enabled a policy mix that combines a heightened degree of seemingly ethically informed international activism with both a highly exclusionary asylum and refugee policy and a robust invocation of an Australian ?national interest?. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The U.S.-Australia relationship has never been stronger. Nor, paradoxically, has it ever been so threatened. Australia's place in the world is undergoing a profound transformation that could eventuate in the first material divergence of interests between the two close allies and friends in history. The transformation of Australian maritime security represents a notable factor in this shift and illustrates the potential for tension in the future relationship. Island nations live and die by their mastery of the sea. An island continent with 40 percent of its GDP reliant on international trade, Australia is no exception. Yet Australia has until recently relied on others for trade and security. During the Industrial Revolution, Australia was one of the primary sources of raw materials for the British Empire, in both wartime and peacetime. The empire sought to protect its interests in Australia by assuring maritime security. This was a doubly profitable arrangement for Australia, guaranteeing the nation a market for its goods in the "home country," covered by the security blanket provided by the British taxpayer in the form of the Royal Navy. Yet wealth did not come without sacrifice, as the disproportionate number of Australian war dead (per capita) in the service of British, and later American, strategic interests attests. Indeed, with the exception of the campaign in the Pacific in World War II, all of Australia's military deployments have been largely tied to its historical and cultural allegiances. These deployments had less to do with narrow national interests or pragmatic calculations of geopolitics. At the outbreak of World War I, World War II, the 1991 Gulf War, and the Global War on Terror, Australian forces were immediately dispatched to the Middle East, a region hardly within Australia's immediate strategic orbit. Explaining this anomaly furnishes some insight into Australia's emerging strategic dilemma. While Australia's key trading relationships have rapidly shifted from historic partners (UK/U.S.) to geographical partners (China), its strategic posture is still largely premised on historical, demographic, and cultural linkages. For a variety of global and local reasons, this situation is rapidly becoming untenable. The wartime prime minister, John Winston Howard, has said that he sees no need to choose between Australia's strategic military alliance with the United States and its strategic trading alliance with China. He might be right in terms of the immediate political cycle, but a longer view suggests this assumption might prove dangerous. To fully explore this dilemma, this paper will examine Australia's competing maritime priorities between culture and power. It will determine whether Canberra will be forced to choose between a rising China and its traditional alliance with the United States in maritime matters. And, the paper will recommend strategies and policies that Australia should pursue in order to strike a balance that accommodates both Washington and Beijing. The paper thus will have immediate policy relevance in Canberra and Washington. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the process of political integration and the construction of political identities of immigrant groups in modern democracies. In many cases, a complex array of immigrants of numerous national origins get grouped together in the political arena, such as Latinos in the U.S. or North Africans in France. This aggregation may be calculated on the part of immigrant groups in order to consolidate power, or it may be imposed by outside (perhaps rival) actors through the construction of monolithic identities. Institutional factors like ethnic categories on the census (see the Hispanic case in the U.S.) can contribute to the construction of new ethnic identities, which may take on political significance. This paper seeks to understand the construction of immigrant and ethnic identities in host countries, and also asks what impact large-scale immigrant groupings have on anti-immigrant rhetoric. My hypothesis is that anti-immigrant mobilization is more difficult when there is no single immigrant group to be easily vilified. Several cases including the U.S., France, and Australia will be examined to show that ever-larger immigrant groupings are encouraged by both pro- and anti-immigrant forces. Aggregation rather than fragmentation will be the trend. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Do Pocketbooks Drive Politics When Mortgage Belts Tighten? Comparing the Politics of Property Booms in Australia and DenmarkJens Ladefoged MortensenUniversity of Copenhagenjlm@ifs.ku.dkLeonard Seabrooke Copenhagen Business Schoolls.cbp@cbs.dkAbstract If the fields of comparative and international political economy are interested in examining the sources of power and wealth in the world economy, then why exclude the key everyday asset for social stability and/or wealth creation - residential property? To investigate how residential property markets matter for change in the world economy, this paper provides a comparison of changes to taxation and housing finance regimes in a Liberal Market Economy (LME), Australia, and a Coordinated Market Economy (CME), Denmark. During the last decade, like most member states of the OECD, Australia and Denmark have both experienced residential property booms that have been facilitated by government regulatory changes to taxation and housing finance systems. These reforms, particularly those following financial deregulation, have introduced new mortgage instruments and changed economic incentives for selecting residential property as an investment vehicle. The reforms may also be associated with a more general process of 'neoliberalisation' that is transforming taxation and housing finance regimes to favour a conception of housing as a means to wealth rather than as a social right. During the creation of their respective property booms, both Australia and Denmark have made a turn to the right in politics. We suggest that this aided the framing of residential property as increasing a means to wealth rather than as a social right. Predictably, this has been more pronounced in Australia, where a 'wage-earners' welfare regime' has encouraged the (risky) use of property as a means to improve one's economic standing, while Denmark's high welfare regime has encouraged more risk-averse attitudes towards residential property, as well as viewing the state as more responsible for providing universal access to a home. In Australia and Denmark household indebtedness has climbed back to levels experience prior to the mid-1980s housing price collapses. While the property booms have eased recently, ongoing sensitivity to regulatory or economic changes are having an ongoing political impact.This paper first explores a framework for understanding the place of residential property markets within comparative and international political economy. It assesses the relevance of 'varieties of capitalism', 'three worlds of welfare capitalism' and, more broadly, institutional complementarities approaches to mapping differences in residential property markets within the OECD. It also considers the relevance of constructivist approaches to institutional change. Following this, and after outlining basic differences between Australia and Denmark, the paper traces the evolution of taxation and housing finance in the Danish and then Australian cases. Particularly important here is how changes in regulations for residential property were framed within political debates. The paper concludes with bv reflecting on the 'neo-liberalisation' or 'commodification' of residential property markets in Australia and Denmark, as well as speculating on its future development. We answer in the affirmative to the question: do pocketbooks drive politics when mortgage belts tighten? But the construction of how the economy should work is critical in how homeowners and would-be homeowners are politically motivated to call for change. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Asia Pacific is a fascinating site in which to study the politics of cultural interaction. The ?region? comprises a rich range of ethnicities, cultures, languages and religions. The politics of the region are complex and dynamic, influenced by the legacies of the past, including that of colonialism, and the imperatives of and challenges of growth in the current era. This paper explores how ideas about cultural identity and cultural interaction inform policy discourses and media commentary. It asks to what extent perceptions of culture, particularly of civilizational identity, are invoked as an aspect of political discourses and debates, and to what purposes?The paper focuses in particular on Australia and its relations with its near neighbors in the region. Australia?s right to ?membership? of the region has often been contested on cultural grounds. It has been cast at times as either a cultural outlier or aspirant cultural hegemon in the region. For Australia?s part, whilst Australian politicians have tended to reject the ideas underpinning the ?clash of civilizations? they have often sought to associate Australia with the norms and values of the ?civilized world?. There has also been a recent revival of debate in the domestic public arena about the extent to which core cultural values should inform Australia?s domestic and international policies.This paper examines the way in which perceptions of Australia, and Australia?s perceptions of its neighbors and of its own role in the region, are framed by invocations of cultural identity or informed by ideas of civilizational interaction. In particular, it examines occasions on which political events have been interpreted by political actors and media in the region in the light of assumptions about civilizational conflict. It asks what discourses of cultural identity and strategies of cultural differentiation are employed on such occasions? In what contexts? To further what aims, and to what effect? ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will be the US counterpart to Professor Tow's paper (which will focus on doctrinal change in Australia). The paper will consider whether, and how, US-Australian relations will change due to major shifts in US policy toward the Asia-Pacific region. Part I will survey alliance theories to develop hypotheses on the persistence of the alliance. Part II will examine the depth and robustness of the Washington-Canberra relationship, with an emphasis on institutional, perceptual, military and political elements. Part III will draw conclusions based on possible developments in the region (war on the Korean peninsula or resolution of North-South Korean conflict, nuclear Japan, conflict across the Taiwan Straits, etc.) ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will provide background for the other four papers on the panel. It will examine the recent history of US-Austrlian defense cooperation, with particular emphasis on three areas:- Grand Strategy: Do Washington and Canberra share a common grand strategy regarding the use of military force in an age of terrorism?- Military Operations: How successful have US and Australian forces been at working together in coalition operations?- Defense capabilities: What is the current state of (and future prospects for) defense capabilities in these two countries? Do the trends predict to increased cooperation or divergence? ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper sets out to explore the nature of the EU as a normative power in the field of global sustainable development by comparing it to Australia. This type of comparison offers insights into how the EU operates and in particular the ways in which it differs from nation states. It sets out to compare how commitments to the goal of global sustainable development affect negotiating positions in international trade and development fora, in particular the World Summit on Sustainable Development and WTO Ministerial meetings. The focus on trade, including agriculture, and development policy cover the broad range of EU competence. It also sets out to examine the influence of both parties on the outcome of these fora. Finally it will examine whether the EU and Australia are promoting different norms of sustainable development. Therefore this paper will add to our knowledge about the nature of the EU as a normative power by comparing it to a state from the developed world that actively engages with the sustainable development discourse and sees itself as a leader in the field of sustainable development. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent years have seen a growing consensus in the efficacy of ?governance? as a solution to problems of sovereignty. In relation to the international, institutions such as the World bank have promoted packages purported to develop ?leadership and capacity building? in north-south relations; in relation to Indigenous peoples, states and regional organizations have applied the same apparatus. In the first case, such governance strategy targets ?failed? and ?fragile? states in particular, with the express aim of developing ?democratic institutions? in states where authoritarian rule or its spectre haunts the political terrain. In the second, as will be shown concerning Finland?s Saami people and remote desert communities in Australia, Indigenous peoples are frequently objects of the same governance model.Is there a connection between these two modes of governance, apparently directed though they might be towards quite distinct ?participants?? This paper argues that there has long been an intimate connection between northern relations with the south (in the global sense) and with tribal peoples. This connection has, at least since the time of Kant, been articulated as the pedagogy of the modern subject and its relation to the problem of sovereignty. This pedagogy is constructed as a political geography that privileges east-west relations, yet does have a significant north-south dimension. Only the modern, republican subject, however, is in a position to know this geography as an act of freedom. Others, this paper contends, must be taught.Thus, on the one hand, the ?capacity building? literature (in relation to the South especially) bears a striking similarity to the pedagogy of the migrant and refugee in English-language instruction. On the other, Kant?s liberal, developmental political geography provides the ground of ?governance? in its contemporary modes. This dual pedagogy can be critically appraised by considering it in relation to Michel Foucault?s lectures on the early-modern discourses of ?savages? and ?barbarians? in Society Must Be Defended. In these discourses, specific problematics of sovereignty are central, argues Foucault. However, by the time of Kant, the discourses Foucault interrogates ? and out of which contemporary claims concerning the import of ?governmentality? are frequently made ? have already been given new resolutions. As a consequence, current governance practices may be subject to critiques that cannot capture their most significant political aspects. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How have certain illegal immigration control policies come to be regarded as essential for national security in some liberal democratic states while in others these policies remain unacceptable? Forced return, mandatory detention, restricted access to courts and temporary protection have been adopted by a number of liberal states, all of which violate the regulative norms of the 1951 Refugee Convention. This paper argues that the constitutive and regulative norms of the international refugee regime are based on a ?humanitarian? construction of refugee and receiving state identity, and that the shift toward a securitised discourse has re-constructed the identity of refugees and refugee producing states. This discursive shift has been a crucial factor in permitting state elites to enact policies that violate these international norms.Drawing on the arrival of unauthorized boat arrivals in Canada and Australia over a twenty-year period, this paper will show that securitising actors within these societies sought to alter the dominant discourse on refugees and asylum seekers. In Australia, these securitising attempts proved successful, shifting the discourse from humanitarian to securitised, thus ultimately paving the way for government elites to enact policies previously deemed unthinkable for a generous, humanitarian state. In Canada, these securitising attempts failed, making the implementation of restrictive measures unbefitting to the perceived Canadian national identity. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the possibility of dissent under conditions of extreme hegemony. Specifically, the essay examines practices of dissent in detention camps in Australia and Malaysia. The detention camp is seen as a facet of the variegated nature of modern sovereignty where the camp exists as a space of exception which defines the norm. The existence of spaces of exception or exemption, where the normal law is exempt from operating, is a consequence of a form of biopolitics where a politicized, i.e. governable, form of life is constituted. As a by-product of this constitution, an excess or waste is produced; this is that depoliticised form of life which cannot fit into the norms of a (territorial) politics. Bare or depoliticised life is in a strange position of being simultaneously excluded and included within the sovereign law of (territorial) politics. Being differentiated as the integral stranger to the norm, being the negative element which outlines the borders of the positive, requires that that stranger remain within the ambit of the norm insofar as her meaning and identity may be contained and controlled and become so much fodder for demarcating the normal politicized form of life. The camp is a receptacle that effects a physical containment of the stranger thereby also allowing for a discursive containment. The placing of the stranger in zones incommunicado and where the normal sovereign law does not apply allows for the exercise of extreme control. And yet the extra-territorial identity of the refugee, bearing the imprint of a quite different network of responsibility, kinship, community and identification, poses an inherent challenge to the givenness of the territorial order of things. Within this conceptual orientation, the paper will try to do two things. First, to explore what forms of dissent may be effective within such a condition of physical and discursive stasis. Second, to examine what forms of dissent may effectively and challengingly represent the extra-territorial nature of refugee (political or economic) identity. The paper will suggest that forms of storytelling, which specifically question the assumptions of the linearity of time and the boundedness of space (which are fundamental building blocks of a territorial account of human affairs), both represent dissent under conditions of extreme hegemony and account for identity, community and responsibility in ways that challenge the territorial norm. As such, the paper will explore poetry by asylum-seekers in detention in Australia, song and lyrics by Bangladeshi detainees in Malaysia and film as means of doing these. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The shift towards neo-liberalism as the hegemonic economic order since the 1980s has resulted in the endorsement of the free movement of information, capital, goods, and services, but not peoples. The problem of refugees challenges the hegemony of neo-liberal globalisation, which portrays refugees and asylum seekers as burdens on the retreating welfare state and its limited resources. This paper will examine how states struggle to deal with refugee and asylum issues in the context of neo-liberalism, either by reinforcing or contesting its dominance. It does so by comparing the different approaches taken by the governments of Australia and Canada to refugee policy making. The paper argues that Australia’s political leaders have consistently employed the language of immigration control, and have asserted the sovereign right of states to control the types of people who can enter the country. By contrast, successive Canadian governments have emphasised a rights based approach to those seeking refugee status in its territorial boundaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a liberal democracy, Australia has been perceived by many as a natural partner for NATO's transformation into a "globally connected security institution". It shares common values with alliance members, it has an interest in the creation of a liberal world order, and it has increased its political and military cooperation with NATO. Yet, Australia's strategic interests remain firmly anchored in the Asia-Pacific region where NATO's role still is fairly limited. NATO's current utility for Australia can thus be characterised as a 'temporary complement' to its close security and defence relationship with the United States. Any major improvement of NATO-Australia relations beyond practical military cooperation depends on a deeper engagement of the Atlantic alliance in Asia-Pacific security. NATO's new strategic concept provides conceptual leeway for a greater degree of 'functional globalization' of the alliance which over time could lead to greater connectivity with Asia-Pacific security actors. At the same time, a lack of 'institutional globalisation' will probably continue to hamper NATO's capacity as a global security actor and limit the prospect for much improved political ties with Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since normalizing diplomatic relations in 1972, successive Australian and Chinese governments have focused on deepening trade, investment, and cultural links to such an extent that China now looms as the single most important country on Australia's 21st century horizon. For their part, Chinese elites have welcomed closer ties with Australia and have been particularly keen to accelerate China's direct investment in the Australian mining and energy sectors. Since the early 2000s, a number of commentators have argued that Australia has been gradually drifting towards China's sphere of influence in the Asia-Pacific. This trend, they argue, has been reinforced following the election of the Labor party government in 2007, which has terminated Australia's involvement in quadrilateral talks with the US, India, and Japan; refused to export uranium to China's long-standing rival, India; and intensified Australia's public criticism of Japanese whaling practices. Meanwhile, in 2008, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd made a point of paying a high profile visit to China during his first major overseas journey, but not matching it with a visit to Japan. Is Australia drifting towards China's strategic orbit in Asia? We examine this question through the prism of three key indicators of realignment and conclude that, while there is some evidence of Australia accommodating Chinese strategic preferences in Asia, there is no evidence that Australia is undertaking a strategic realignment away from the US towards China. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, irregular migrants have mobilised, marched, occupied buildings, rioted, gone on strike, petitioned, blogged, written manifestos and generally brought attention to their long-term presence in states where they live with the constant threat of deportation. What do these diverse mobilizations reveal about the dynamics of citizenship as a metric of sovereignty? In this article, I reflect upon these theoretically neglected sites of growing political activism. I consider the forms of contestation employed by irregular migrants in the US, France and Australia and how these may imply new modes of political belonging that move beyond a citizen/non-citizen divide. I also consider what strategic possibilities are emerging between irregular migrants' struggles for recognition and citizens' attempts to secure their futures in the context of neoliberal globalization. To this end, I critically engage with Jennifer Gordon's innovative proposal for Transnational Labor Citizenship - an alternative mode of belonging built upon a burgeoning alliance between irregular migrants and traditional labor movements. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article assesses the implementation of police reform as a spearhead for wider peacebuilding adopted by Australia in its intervention in the Solomon Islands since 2003. It cites that the intervention called Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands (RAMSI) involves an executive policing mission to restore law and order and a development mission to endow the local police with the capability of maintaining it. It discusses the practices employed by the Australian initiative called the International Deployment Group (IDG) in the Solomon Islands.

The article examines the role of Australia as the lead member state in the United Nations (UN)-sanctioned International Force in East Timor (INTERFET). It discusses the significance of the role of Australia for the U.S. military and its allies in the Pacific Command (PACOM) area of responsibility (AOR). It cites that the success of Australia in dealing with the East Timor crisis offers insights for the U.S. in replicating other UN peacekeeping forces (PKF). A historical overview of the relations between Australia and East Timor is provided.

The article discusses the impact of the policy of pre-emptive self-defense of Australia on its relations with its neighboring countries. It argues that the alliance between the U.S. and Australia has the potential to destabilize the relations of the latter with its Southeast Asian neighbors. It tackles the shift from multilateralism to alliance with the U.S. by the government of prime minister John Winston Howard in 1996. It cites that the alliance provides the U.S. with enhance military stability in the Asia Pacific region.

Globalization and new information and communications technologies are transforming the role of cities. According to Manuel Castells, the information age is ushering in a new urban form, the informational city. (Vol. 1, 398) Local governance, then, matters more than ever. At the same time governance at all levels is said to be accompanied by a democratic deficit and declining legitimacy. One of hope of ICTs is that in a globalizing world they can ameliorate the democratic deficit and close the gap between citizens, their representatives and other policy-makers. In principle local governments are supposed to be closest to their citizens and the most democratically accessible level of government, the space where e-democracy should have the greatest potential. Yet, I argue, in a comparison of the evidence - studies, polls, and an analysis of urban websites - in four countries, Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia that e-democracy is failing. It has become subordinated to the hegemony of neo-liberalism with its emphasis on the service state and the citizen as consumer, not democratic participant. Despite this, I argue, citizens are using ICTs democratically, forming networks, linking the local and the global but not in a manner intended by state authorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the themes of continuity and change in Australia-Indonesia relations. It examines the bipartisanship that characterised Australian foreign policy during the Suharto years. In doing so, it examines the major political parties' formal co ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extant accounts of the origins of ANZUS (Australia-New Zealand-United States) Pact have tended to situate it one a half-way point between America’s interest to enlist support in containing communism through regional pacts and (primarily) Australia’s interest to obtain a long-term security guarantee, underwritten by the superpower, against future Japanese and/or communist invasion. This paper considers the pact from the perspective of national identity. If ANZUS is an institutionalization of a set of shared historical, political, and racial/ethnic traits among its members, than the exclusion of Britain from the pact is puzzling. Why was Britain, despite an official request for membership, excluded from the club? To borrow from a venerable puzzle of International Relations (IR) theory, why is there no English-speaking NATO in Asia-Pacific? Neither interest nor identity offers a simple explanation of why an obvious friend and ally with a long-standing and continuing (colonial) presence in the region should be excluded from a multilateral arrangement with claims to collective defense. I will consider this question by analyzing the effect of the content and contestation of Australian and New Zealander identities on the drafting process of the ANZUS Treaty in 1951. My argument is that Australia and New Zealand â€" through contemporary foreign policy debates as well as the drafting process itself â€" clearly signaled that Britain would become a “shadow member” of ANZUS, partaking in anything from information-sharing to collective defense-planning in the region. I will conclude with a reflection on the absence of the identity variable in the institutional design research program in IR. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I explore the ways in which ships carrying potential refugees are constructed as illegitimate (and or legitimate). For this project, I am focusing on two Australian cases from 2001, where ships carrying asylum-seekers from Afghanistan and Iraq were either allowed to sink and hundreds of people permitted to drown, as in the case of SIEVX, or diverted to a non-signatory to the UN refugee convention, as in the case of the TAMPA. Given that asylum-seekers from these countries of origin receive high recognition rates (around 80%) once the asylum process kicks in, Australia has employed what some call ?presumptive refoulement? to prevent potential asylum-seekers from entering Australian territory. These ships are declared illegal, the operators are smugglers, and the passengers are seen as ?bogus refugees? or ?queue-jumpers? in attempts to shrug off responsibilities set out in the UN refugee convention. I want to pay particular attention to the ways in which the refugee regime (the UNHCR for example) helps to shape the logics through which these ships and their passengers are constructed. What influence do post-WWII norms about refugee protection have in shaping the arguments made, and the actions taken by the Australian government in these cases? ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the political uses of official apologies in comparative perspective, focusing on Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States. It explores why minority groups demand such apologies and why governments give them (or do not). It argues that official apologies are tactics used in larger political strategies to alter the terms and meanings of political membership. As tactics, official apologies are employed by groups and states, for shared and competing purposes. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]