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Japan's Future in East Asia and the Pacific »
Edited by: Mari Pangestu, Ligang Song
Publication date: December 2007
Japan’s Future in East Asia and the Pacific takes a ’big-picture‘ approach to Japan’s economic place in East Asia alongside that of China. It analyses Japan’s successes and experiments in trade policy as well as its failures in macro-economic policy. Japan’s diplomatic and economic integration strategies are also examined for their impact on East Asia and on Australia. The collection assesses China’s growth and dynamism and questions the nature of the competition for economic influence between Japan and China.
Contributors to Japan’s Future in East Asia and the Pacific are all graduates of The Australian National University who are making their mark in the region as scholars and economists on East Asian and Pacific affairs.
History as Policy »
Framing the debate on the future of Australia’s defence policy
Edited by: Ron Huisken, Meredith Thatcher
Publication date: December 2007
The fortieth anniversary of the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre’s founding provided the opportunity to assemble many of Australia’s leading analysts and commentators to review some of the more significant issues that should define Australian defence policy.
In the first 20 years after its establishment, SDSC scholars played a prominent role in shaping the ideas and aspirations that eventually found official expression in the 1987 Defence of Australia White Paper. This policy sustained a coherent balance between strategy, force structure and budgets for well over a decade. In recent years, however, the cumulative effects of the end of the Cold War and watershed events like the East Timor experience; the attacks on New York and Washington, D.C., in September 2001; the Bali bombings in October 2002; and the invasion of Iraq in March 2003 have fractured the former consensus on defence policy. These developments have eroded acceptance of the core judgements underpinning defence policy. This has led to a more tenuous connection between some recent major equipment acquisitions and declared policy.
The unravelling of the consensus on the ‘defence of Australia’ policy means that we must again undertake a balanced, long-term assessment of the nature of Australia’s strategic interests. Only by doing so can we determine the kinds of armed forces that would contribute most effectively to protecting those interests. The papers collected in this volume are not informed by a common view of where Australia should focus its defence policy, but all address themes that should figure prominently in this difficult but essential task.
Conflict and Resource Development in the Southern Highlands of Papua New Guinea »
Edited by: Nicole Haley, R.J. May
Publication date: November 2007
The Southern Highlands is one of Papua New Guinea’s most resource-rich provinces, but for a number of years the province has been riven by conflict. Longstanding inter-group rivalries, briefly set aside during the colonial period, have been compounded by competition for the benefits provided by the modern state and by fighting over the distribution of returns from the several big mining and petroleum projects located within the province or impinging upon it. Deaths from the various conflicts over the past decade number in the hundreds. As a result of inter-group fighting, criminal activity and vandalism, a number of businesses have withdrawn from the province. Roadblocks and ambushes have made travel dangerous in many parts and expatriate missionaries and aid workers have left. Many public servants have abandoned their posts with the result that state services are not provided. Corruption is rife. Police are often reluctant to act because they are outnumbered and outgunned.
This volume brings together a number of authors with deep experience of the Southern Highlands to examine the underlying dynamics of resource development and conflict in the province. Its primary purpose is to provide some background to recent events, but the authors also explore possible approaches to limiting the human and economic costs of the ongoing conflict and breakdown of governance.
Caretaker Conventions in Australasia »
Minding the Shop for Government
Authored by: Anne Tiernan, Jennifer Menzies
Publication date: October 2007
A revised and updated 2014 edition of Caretaker Conventions in Australasia is available.
In this monograph, Anne Tiernan and Jennifer Menzies capably chart the often hazardous terrain of the ‘caretaker period’ that ensues from the time an election is called until a new government is formed. This is a landscape fraught with political and administrative dangers – particularly for public servants who are required to ‘mind the shop’ and keep the basic machinery of government going. The conventions represent an historical accretion of custom, practice and rules, often leavened with uncertainty. In tackling their subject, Tiernan and Menzies draw upon their shared past experiences as public servants and ministerial ‘staffers’ as well as the highest standards of academic scholarship – this is a ‘must read’ for politicians, public servants and students of government.
Myanmar »
The state, community and the environment
Edited by: Monique Skidmore, Trevor Wilson
Publication date: October 2007
Despite deteriorating economic and developmental conditions, worsening environmental problems, and troubles arising from the unresolved status of its ethnic minorities, Myanmar seems no closer to a political resolution. Myanmar’s economy continues to stagnate, with severe implications for its people. Low levels of international assistance have exacerbated the situation.
Myanmar—the state, community and the environment examines the missed opportunities by government and opposition groups to find a way out of the political impasse and improve the standard of living of the people of Myanmar.
This collection provides insights into the country’s economic development, in particular the vital rice-marketing sector and the attempts to expand existing industrial zones. It focuses, for the first time, on Myanmar’s environmental governance with in-depth case studies, and on the increasing need for effective environmental protection and sustainability.
Struggling for the Umma »
Changing Leadership Roles of Kiai in Jombang, East Java
Authored by: Endang Turmudi
Publication date: October 2007
This thesis focuses on the relationship of Indonesian kiai (‘ulama: religious leaders) in Jombang to their wider social and political situation. It argues that the charismatic authority exerted through the leadership of the kiai in Java has limitations in terms of its legitimacy. At the very least it has boundaries that determine areas or circumstances for its legitimate expression. It also argues that the kiai’s influence in politics is not as strong as in other domains. Despite being a charismatic figure, only a minority of followers feel compelled to follow the kiai’s political example. Differences between the kiai and his followers in relation to political behaviour are common, especially after the transformation of the Islamic political party. Nevertheless, the role of the kiai in general remains important in the eyes of Muslim society.
China: Linking Markets for Growth »
Edited by: Ross Garnaut, Ligang Song
Publication date: August 2007
China’s prosperity is at the core of the emerging Platinum Age of global economic growth. Rapid economic growth has been underpinned by expansion in its domestic markets, and the integration of domestic and international markets in goods, services, capital, labour and foreign exchange. Global commodity prices have reached historic highs, while China’s capital outflows have helped to hold down interest rates worldwide. Linking markets, both domestic and international, has been key to China’s success.
In sustaining its strong economic growth, China has become one of the world’s most voracious consumers of energy. The challenge now facing the government and people of China is in achieving cooperation with the international community to avert the costs–both economic and environmental–of accelerating energy consumption.
China–Linking Markets for Growth gathers together leading scholars on China’s economic success and its effect on the world economy into the next few decades.
A Quest for True Islam »
A Study of the Islamic Resurgence Movement among the Youth in Bandung, Indonesia
Authored by: Rifki Rosyad
Publication date: July 2007
This study presents the contemporary Islamic resurgence movement among young people in Bandung Indonesia, focusing on its emergence, development and routinisation. It traces various factors and conditions that contributed to the emergence of the movement. It also tries to explain how and why young people (students in particular) turn to Islam, and how the movement is organised and developed among students. Finally, it examines internal changes among various Islamic groups as responses to social, political and cultural changes.
From Election to Coup in Fiji »
The 2006 campaign and its aftermath
Edited by: Jon Fraenkel, Stewart Firth
Publication date: June 2007
In May 2006 Fiji held its tenth general election since independence in 1970. In a country with an unenviable history of electoral trauma, the mood was apprehensive if not tense – not least because of controversial public statements against the incumbent Qarase government being made by the commander of Fiji’s military forces.
Despite a record number of parties and candidates, the winners were the two big parties – the heavily church-backed SDL, the party of choice of the majority of indigenous Fijians; and the Fiji Labour Party, the party preferred by most Indo-Fijians.
Although the result was ethnically polarised, for the first time in Fijian history the successful candidates came together to share power in a constitutionally ordained multiparty cabinet, with Laisenia Qarase retaining the prime ministership. But the fragile collaboration was short-lived. On 5 December 2006, Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama ordered a military takeover, declaring himself ‘President’, ousting the elected government and replacing it with an ‘interim’ government of his choice, and once again throwing Fiji into political turmoil.
With contributions from ex-Vice President Ratu Joni Madraiwiwi, ousted Prime Minister Laesenia Qarase, leader of the Fiji Labour Party and now interim Minister for Finance Mahendra Chaudhry, and an impressive array of leading commentators on Fijian affairs, this book provides a comprehensive and penetrating analysis of the lead-up to, the outcome and the aftermath of Fiji’s historic 2006 election. Shedding light on the complex weave of traditional chiefly systems, race relations, economics, constitutionality, the military ethos and religion, From Election to Coup in Fiji is essential reading for anyone with an interest in Fiji, the South Pacific and the politics of divided societies.
Globalisation and Governance in the Pacific Islands »
State, Society and Governance in Melanesia
Edited by: Stewart Firth
Publication date: December 2006
The Pacific Islands are feeling the effects of globalisation. Free trade in sugar and garments is threatening two of Fiji’s key industries. At the same time other opportunities are emerging. Labour migration is growing in importance, and Pacific governments are calling for more access to Australia’s labour market. Fiji has joined Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu and Kiribati as a remittance economy, with thousands of its citizens working overseas. Meantime, Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands grapple with an older kind of globalisation in which overseas companies exploit mineral and forest resources.
The Pacific Islands confront unique problems of governance in this era of globalisation. The modern, democratic state often fits awkwardly with traditional ways of doing politics in that part of the world. Just as often, politicians in the Pacific exploit tradition or invent it to serve modern political purposes.
The contributors to this volume examine Pacific globalisation and governance from a wide range of perspectives. They come from Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Hawai’i, the Federated States of Micronesia, Samoa, Fiji, New Zealand and Jamaica as well as Australia.