Short review: West Papua New Guinea

Abstract

In May and June of 1977 more than 1,000 people crossed the border between Indonesian West Irian and the recently independent state of Papua New Guinea, long an Australian protectorate. Since those border crossings, people have become increasingly aware of a previously unacknowledged, little-understood liberation movement to free West Irian (or West Papua New Guinea as the rebels call it) from Indonesian control.     

Approaches to the study of China

Abstract

West Papua—or Irian Jaya, as it has been renamed by the Indonesian government—is Indonesia's 26th province, occupying the western half of the island of New Guinea. For the people of West Papua, however, Indonesia is an occupying power. Since the area is so little known, most non-Papuans are unaware that West Papuans have been struggling for independence there ever since the mid-1960s, led by the Organisasi Papua Merdeka (OPM—Free Papua Movement).     

Taming Risks in Asia: The World Bank Group and New Mining Regimes

Abstract

Despite the admonishments of the 2003 Extractive Industry Review, the World Bank Group (WBG) has continued to promote the expansion of mining activities in resource-rich client-countries. While maintaining its mantra on the economic benefits of the sector in cash-strapped countries, in recent years poverty reduction and environmental sustainability have become the new buzzwords to justify the need for the WBG to remain actively involved in the sector. Building on the cases of the Philippines, Papua New Guinea and Lao PDR, this paper analyses this new socio-environmental narrative in conjunction with the highly political nature of the role played by the WBG in the mining sector of its country-clients. The cases demonstrate that the World Bank has played a key role in influencing a wave of new mining regimes in the region. Further, these new regimes, which comprise multilateral social and environmental safeguards, circumscribe the risks faced by industry, rather than by local populations. While successful in stimulating foreign investments in the sector, these regimes might prove ineffective in taming local and national resentment against mining activities. Crucially, the engineering of mining regimes and norm-settings in multilateral arenas raises concerns about the legitimacy of the transformations of roles and responsibilities assigned to local mining stakeholders and the possible subsequent contraction of local political spaces.     

Economic or Political Development: The Evolution of "Native" Local Government Policy in the Territory of Papua and New Guinea, 1945–1963

In 1969, Speaker of the House Assembly of Papua and New Guinea John Guise, spoke of a "quiet decision" to limit the activities of "Native" Local Government Councils in the Territory, so that "they seem to be much more like those of Australian Shire Councils" . The present essay suggests that this "quiet decision", contrary to conventional wisdom, was not simply part of a colonial policy designed to serve "assimilationist purposes". Rather, the restricted role finally accorded to local councils was a corollary of the enhanced, post-war capacity of the metropolitan state. Early local government policy never envisaged councils as a first step toward self-government. Rather, councils were to be vehicles for securing the "systematic development of native agricultural potential". The decision to limit the scope of local government policy reflected not a rejection of this initial intent, but rather agrarian reform after 1956 was re-constituted as an object of direct government control. The legacy of local government in Papua New Guinea is not so much one of 'white' colonialism, but of 'development' entrapped in trusteeship.     

Demonizing the enemy: the influence of Russian state-sponsored media on American audiences

ABSTRACT

There is growing anxiety about the influence of international propaganda on public opinion. Under what conditions can countries shift foreign public opinion against an adversary? Does making people aware that news is coming from a foreign source mitigate its influence? I examine these questions in the context of Russian propaganda in the United States. I subject subgroups of Americans to an article from Russia Today (RT), a Russian international television network, criticizing the Ukrainian government. I vary whether audiences are aware of the message source, and/or the intentions, of the Russian-funded network. I show that exposure to information about Ukrainian human rights violations lowers Americans’ evaluations of Ukraine irrespective of source awareness – indicating that making people more aware of foreign propaganda does not attenuate its influence. The findings have important implications for understanding the micro-level effects of international propaganda and the effectiveness of counter-propaganda strategies.     

The Puzzle of India’s Relations with “Central Eurasia”

ABSTRACT

India’s relations with Afghanistan and the post-Soviet countries of Central Asia have contributed to the growing interest in the country’s rise. By treating them together as “Central Eurasia,” the discourses of Indian foreign policy invoke a contiguous geopolitical locale bound to India by a shared past. Yet, despite the strategic articulation of a manifest Central Eurasian region, the article uncovers a puzzle of bifurcation in India’s foreign policy reflecting distinct operationalizations of India’s cultural capital in its relations with Afghanistan and the Central Asia republics. The comparative analysis indicates that prior historical experience becomes a compelling strategic context for the continuous framing and reframing of the country’s foreign policy space, which reveals India’s shifting perceptions of international order, self-identity, and global roles. India’s interactions in Central Eurasia offer a good illustration of the crossroads that New Delhi’s foreign policy is facing – either keep on proliferating discourses that spin yarns of the international influence of its historical capital or develop proactive diplomatic strategies that deliver the international status that India desires.     

The Eye of the beholder: Background notes on the US-Japan military relationship

Abstract

In the last half century, the pivotal steps in American-Japanese relations have been paced off at roughly ten-year intervals. At the Washington Conference of 1921-1922, American and other Western pressure brought about cancellation of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance and forced Japan to rely upon uncertain international guarantees for its security. The Manchurian Incident of 1931 dispelled the professed hopes of the twenties, and a full decade later Pearl Harbor marked the total bankruptcy of Japan's relationship with the West. At the San Francisco peace conference in 1951, America led forty-eight other nations in restoring Japan's sovereignty, and five hours after the signing of the peace treaty the U.S. summoned forth shades of the old Anglo-Japanese Alliance by signing its own bilateral military pact with Japan. Nine years later, nationalistic resentment against this security arrangement of 1951 erupted in Japan, forcing cancellation of President Eisenhower's proposed visit. Now another decade has passed, and 1970 is clearly destined to mark yet another watershed in the American-Japanese relationship.     

The Portuguese Empire: Australia’s Forward Defence from 1961–1972

Australia’s strategic interests from 1961–1972 were forwarded by the late Portuguese Empire. Portugal and Australia shared a similar problem: both feared the consequences of decolonisation. Portugal was forthright in this stance, attracting much of the world’s ire that could have been directed at Australia. Lisbon routinely stated that Australian and Portuguese interests were in such tight alignment that they were natural partners. Canberra privately acknowledged this but was reluctant to identify with Portugal’s internationally unpopular authoritarian government. Re-inserting Portugal into the narrative contributes to the existing scholarship on Australia’s role in the decolonisation of the Territory of Papua and New Guinea and Portuguese Timor, and Australian support for white minority rule in Southern Africa. This article demonstrates that Portuguese efforts to attain their own security goals aided Australia and shines new light on this neglected aspect of Australia’s foreign policy literature.     

Review Essay

Abstract

So far in modern world history, social revolutions, though they have entailed elements of class conflict, have plainly not conformed to Marx's theoretical expectations or moral vision. They have occurred in agrarian countries caught behind foreign competitors, not in the most advanced capitalist industrial nations. And even those revolutions that have expropriated domestic capitalist classes in the name of socialist ideals have hardly resulted to date in the prosperous, democratic communist societies envisaged by Marx. (Skocpol, p. 292)     

How important is participatory constitution-making? Lessons from Timor-Leste and Bougainville

How can fragmented or divided post-conflict societies best be accommodated and adjust to state structures in order to achieve sustainable peace? Reflecting on the contrary experiences of Timor-Leste and Bougainville, an autonomous region of Papua New Guinea, this article argues the answer to this question rests partly on the role that participatory constitution-making can play in state-building, nation-building and peace-building. Constitution-making can play a central role in state-building, because constitutions provide the operating system that establishes state institutions and regulates state power. It can also play a nation-building role by defining the political bond between the people, and a peace-building role by encouraging reconciliation and embedding state institutions in society. This article draws on liberal political theory to argue that public participation in constitution-making can enhance the likelihood that the constitution produces legitimate and effective state institutions, generates a unifying sense of national identity and establishes sustainable peace. It finds that extensive public participation in Bougainville played a positive role by creating a sense of common identity, reconciling many of the most severe societal divisions and creating institutions that are relatively legitimate and effective. In contrast, minimal public participation in Timor-Leste meant that the constitution-making process did not play a positive role; it did not create a unifying national identity, left certain societal divisions unreconciled and exacerbated others, and created institutions that were largely illegitimate and ineffective.     

Economics before politics– a colonial phantasy

I shall now try to recapitulate the argument of the paper and to draw a conclusion from it. The early pages gave evidence that, although the Australian government during the 1960s took the initiative in setting up the constitutional framework for a democratic polity, on the whole they assigned primacy, especially in the second half of the period, to policies of economic development. Without entering into the merits or successes of those policies themselves, I attributed the basic order of priorities to a mixture of motives and assumptions. The first assumption was that Australia's colonial responsibility and her commitment to heavily subsidised economic development required restraints on political development, and hence the prolongation of colonial dependence. The conflict between this assumption and Australia's trusteeship obligations could be rationalised by the notion of cautious ‘preparation’ of the people for self-determination, under Australian official guidance, and with the bait of continued Australian aid. This rationalisation seemed to be supported by a ‘vulgar’ Marxian belief in the primacy of economic activity and the secondary importance of political and other social functions. However, it was also hoped that economic change need have no awkward political repercussions. To sustain that hope, it was further assumed that while the colonial regime lasted, the government of Papua and New Guinea could be treated as essentially an administrative task, untrammelled by the claims of autonomous political ideologies and interests. If the policy makers for Papua and New Guinea held such a set of assumptions, consciously or otherwise, it would go far to explain some of the leading features of the country's governmental history in recent years: the strength of its economic planning machinery and the lack of sophistication in its administrative and political dealings; the relatively perfunctory efforts at political ‘preparation’; the attempts to keep local government and the public service ‘non-political’ and to contain incipient politics in the House of Assembly; the paternalistic controls over members of formal government institutions; above all, the failure to maintain meaningful communication with the groups of people most profoundly affected by the incidence of economic development itself. For experience had falsified the basic assumptions of policy, so far as they accord a primary role to economics, relied on a comfortable continuance of the colonial relationship, and conceived government mainly in terms of administration. Politics the demand for the reconciliation of conflicting interests by autonomous negotiation—had erupted in local government, in the House of Assembly, in political associations, and in the villages. I t had erupted in spite of the assumptions of the regime—and also because of them, for the more rigidly such beliefs are practised, the more violent is the reaction likely to be. The conclusion, then, is that politics is independent of economics, and interdependent with it. In the government of Papua and New Guinea, as of any such country, political skills are as important as economic planning if economic growth is to be matched by political stability.     

Global and local models of governance in interaction: configurations of power in Upper Guinea Coast societies

ABSTRACT

This paper studies emerging power configurations in Upper Guinea Coast societies which result from contemporary interactions of global and local models of governance. With empirical data on shifting meanings of chieftaincy and control of land, changing tax regimes and the rising importance of youth in domestic politics, modifications of legitimate authority across time are contrasted with the effects of international interventions and global discourses on socio-political change. Some of these interventions accelerate, others accentuate or counteract processes of change within local power configurations. Only by carefully considering the innate malleability of local concepts of authority, history, and tradition can contemporary processes of change be identified as either mere reconfigurations or genuinely new configurations of power.     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed:
Margaret Chambers (comp) Finding Families. The Guide to the National Archives of Australia for Genealogists
E.M. Johnston-Liik, George Liik and R.G. Ward A Measure of Greatness: The Origins of the Australian Iron and Steel Industry
Helen Irving (ed) The Centenary Companion to Australian Federation
Janice Caulfield and John Wanna (eds) Power and Politics in the City: Brisbane in Transition
K.D. Calthorpe and K. Capell Brisbane on Fire: A History of Firefighting 1860–1925
Ian Tyrrell True Gardens of the Gods: Californian-Australian Environmental Reform, 1860–1930
Sue Gough A Long Way to Tipperary
Sue Gough Here Comes the Night
Eric Rolls Citizens: Flowers and the Wide Sea
Father Frank Brennan The Wik Debate: Its Impact on Aborigines, Pastoralists and Miners
Moira Gatens and Alison Mackinnon (eds) Gender and Institutions: Welfare, Work and Citizenship
Philip Bell and Roger Bell (eds) Americanization and Australia
David Wetherell Charles Abel and the Kwato Mission of Papua New Guinea, 1891–1975
August K. Kituai My gun, my brother, the world of the Papua New Guinea colonial police 1920–1960
Howard B. Clarke, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh and Raghnall Ó Floinn Ireland and Scandinavia in Early Viking Age
Martin Kitchin The British Empire and Commonwealth: A Short History
Mike Cronin The Blueshirts and Irish Politics
Jonathan Sperber The Kaiser's Voters: Electors and Elections in Imperial Germany
Roger Chickering Imperial Germany and the Great War, 1914–1918
David E. Smith The Republican Option in Canada, Past and Present
Ian Copland The Princes of India in the Endgame of Empire, 1917–1947     

South Africa’s Inclusion in BRICS: Challenges and Prospects for Development in Africa

Abstract

The forming of alliances on the international scene has reflected a provisional arrangement in the world economy. Amongst such alliances was the formation of BRICS by the five world economies—Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa into what is commonly known as BRICS. BRICS is considered a joint initiative, aimed at shifting conventional norms in international economic and political cooperation to create a new trans-continental platform for these actors. Each member country in BRICS has, in one way or another, reflected growth either through its economy foreign policy, and developmental pursuit. However, South Africa is portrayed by some researchers as lagging behind, when compared to the other member countries. Hence, this study sought to analyse the potential mediumand long-term implications of South Africa's inclusion in BRICS. The study also aimed to underscore the benefits and risks associated with South Africa's membership in the alliance in the area of development; specifically poverty reduction, foreign policy, trade, and global partnership. The researchers collected secondary data to analytically critique the inclusion of South Africa in the BRICS alliance, its benefits, and shortcomings for development in South Africa, and in Africa as a whole. We argue that as a global player under BRICS, South Africa has opened a new vista of opportunities, including transnational gateways to Brazil, Russia, India, and China, with the attendant inflow of infrastructural and developmental investments, enriching educational exchanges and technology transfers. The article concludes by stressing the need for South Africa and other African countries to formulate policies that will drive meaningful development in their respective countries. The authors recommend that African leaders should come up with innate policies that are Africa-centred, that would incite development internally.     

Anti‐Conservatism: Paul Hasluck and Liberal Development in Papua New Guinea

In the continuing debates about the relative importance of conservatism and liberalism in the history of the Australian Liberal Party, one important dimension remains absent. Liberal developmentalism as an important anti‐conservative strand of thought was critical to the party's formative years after the Second World War as a party of government. The importance of this facet of liberalism is illustrated here by reference to the role of long‐serving Minister for Territories Paul Hasluck in overseeing development in Papua and New Guinea (PNG). Hasluck and the Australian Administration formulated policy intended to secure the indigenous population on rural smallholdings at higher standards of living before industrialisation's anticipated effects of proletarianisation could take effect.     

Denigrating the local,glorifying the foreign: Malawian language policies in the era of African Renaissance

ABSTRACT

Malawi's Vision 2020 document, a national document that serves as a vehicle to project a future for a more developed, secure and democratically mature nation, laments the tendency of Malawians to denigrade local products and glorify all things foreign. Yet, paradoxically, the document does not address the important issue of promoting Malawi's indigenous languages. This silence can be interpreted as reflective of the population's inclination to ascribe greater value to foreign culture. In Malawi, as in many other African countries, indigenous languages are not considered worthy as media of education, subjects of advanced study or critical vehicles for national development. They are still victim to a discrimination rooted in Africa's 500 plus years of European enslavement and colonisation. Against the backdrop of the pursuit of an African Renaissance, this article looks at Malawi's language policies since independence in 1964, and at how, ten years short of an idyllic national vision, Malawi measures up on the important issue of language.     

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: “Rats and Revolutionaries”: The Labour Movement in Australia and New Zealand 1890–1940. By James Bennett John Curtin: Guide to Archives of Australia's Prime Ministers. By David Black and Lesley Wallace Ten Pound Poms: Australia's Invisible Migrants. By A. James Hammerton and Alistair Thomson Freud in the Antipodes: A Cultural History of Psychoanalysis in Australia. By Joy Damousi Terms of Trust: Arguments over Ethics in Australian Government. By John Uhr A Trial Separation: Australia and the Decolonisation of Papua New Guinea By Donald Denoon An Indonesian Frontier: Acehnese and Other Histories of Sumatra. By Anthony Reid Vestiges of the Colonial Empire in France: Monuments, Museums and Colonial Memories. By Robert Aldrich     

In their image: The Vietnamese Communist Party,the “West” and the social evils campaign of 1996

Abstract

This article analyzes the production of English-language and Vietnamese-language state-owned newspaper reports that appeared in the early days of the “social evils campaign” in Vietnam in January and February 1996. While the English-language coverage attempts to depict the campaign as an attempt to create a drug-free, able-bodied workforce in compliance with international anti-trafficking efforts, the Vietnamese-language coverage portrays the campaign as an attempt to fight against decadent and corrupt “Western values” in order to reinvent the Vietnamese Communist Party (VCP) as the gatekeeper of Vietnamese tradition. These depictions serve a dual purpose. On the one hand, they can be seen as an attempt by the VCP to walk a fine line to avoid the alienation of the expatriate community while at the same time reconstituting itself as a significant institution in the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese people. At another level, the social evils campaign demonstrates that neither an easy invocation of “democratization theory” nor a call to arms against Eurocentrism and an affirmation of the particularity of the “East” is sufficient to analyze under what conditions purportedly “Communist” parties might survive and grow vibrant in an age of globalization. Rather, it is important to note the role of the West not as an actual entity but as an imagined phenomenon against which a pure, Eastern tradition is constructed. In other words, the Vietnamese Communist Party uses the social evils campaign to construct the “West” as a phantasmic “straw man” in order to construct itself in the inverted image of the “West,” as “anti-West.” This portrayal is put forward despite the fact that most foreign direct investment in Vietnam comes from East Asian countries and that the businesses singled out in the newspaper articles as the locus of “social evils” were often Japanese-, Korean-, or Vietnamese-owned.     

Hidden Horrors: Japanese War Crimes in World War II,by Tanaka Yuki

Abstract

In Hidden Horrors Tanaka Yuki undertakes the ambitious project of trying to show the connections among the many examples of Japanese war crimes during World War II, specifically, the maltreatment and killing of prisoners of war, the abuse and rape of women, cannibalism by Japanese soldiers, biological warfare experiments, and civilian massacres. But rather than examine the most infamous examples of these war crimes, he focuses on little-known incidents that occurred in Borneo, Indonesia, and New Guinea. Tanaka's detailed narratives show that these incidents, although smaller in scale, were equally horrific and, in his analysis, manifestations of a broad systemic problem rather than isolated cases of madness.