The Mutual Obligation Policy in Australia: The rhetoric and reasoning of recent social security policy

Since 1997, the Australian Federal Liberal Government has introduced policies which have sought to reduce rates of unemployment, particularly long-term unemployment. The policy, known as Mutual Obligation, increased the expectations on unemployed people in return for their social security payment. At the same time, previous labour market programmes and government assistance schemes were scrapped or privatised. This article explores the justification of the term 'Mutual Obligation' by examining both the language and the underlying principles of the policy. By defining the problem of unemployment in terms of flaws in the previous social security system, the stage is set for the government to introduce policies which remedy those flaws by emphasising self- reliance in favour of government assistance. Further, by invoking notions of fairness and mutuality, the article argues that the term 'Mutual Obligation' masks both the extent and the strength of the obligations imposed on unemployed people.     

A Friend Indeed? From Tobruk to El Alamein: The American Contribution to Victory in the Desert

The article offers a re-evaluation of American reinforcement for the Eighth Army following the fall of Tobruk in June 1942, arguing that American arms and air power made a decisive, if largely unrecognized, contribution to the victory at El Alamein. Both British and American leaders, for their own reasons, glossed over the critical American component of this most quintessentially British victory, and historians have echoed this downplaying of American aid. The article sets these political and military events in the context of expanding American interest in the Middle East.     

Harmonizing investment incentives in the APEC process

Security of access to markets is critically important in international trade in goods and services. Security is also critically important to foreign direct investment. With the “globalization” of production, international attention has been turning to improving the institutional environment for FDI, especially in developing economies. In APEC, the focus has been on principles and a non-binding code, but in due course the focus will have to shift to a binding agreement with rules that instill the confidence needed for providers of capital to invest in the major infrastructure projects that will make a difference in East Asia’s development. The focus here is on limits on the level of investment incentives that governments can use to attract foreign investors.     

Book reviews

John P. Willerton, Patronage and Politics in the USSR. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992, xv+305 pp., $59.95, £40.00.

Michael Ellman & Vladimir Kontorovich, eds, The Disintegration of the Soviet Economic System. London and New York: Routledge, 1992, xv+281 pp., h/b £45.00., p/b £14.99.

Paul R. Josephson, Physics and Politics in Revolutionary Russia. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1991, xix+423 pp., $39.95.

Hélène Carrère D'Encausse, The Great Challenge: Nationalities and the Bolshevik State 1917–1930. Nancy Festinger, Trans., Richard Pipes, Foreword. New York: Holmes & Meier Publishers, 1991, xviii+262 pp., $39.95.

Niels Erik Rosenfeldt, Stalin's Secret Chancellery and the Comintern. University of Copenhagen, Institute of Slavonic and East European Studies, 1991. 116 pp.

Christoph Bluth, Soviet Strategic Arms Policy Before SALT. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992, 317 pp., £40.00.

Roger E. Kanet, Deborah Nutter Miner & Tamara J. Resler, Soviet Foreign Policy in Transition. Cambridge University Press, 1992, xvi+308 pp., £40.00, $59.95.

M. A. Babkina, ed., New Political Parties and Movements in the Soviet Union. Commack, NY: Nova Science Publishers, Inc., 1991, 156 pp., $35.00.

S. Berglund & J. A. Dellenbrandt, eds., The New Democracies in Eastern Europe: Party Systems and Political Cleavages. Aldershot: Edward Elgar, 1991, xii + 237 pp., £39.95.

Gyorgy Csepeli & Antal Örkény, Ideology and Political Beliefs in Hungary: The Twilight of State Socialism. Trans., Brian McLean & Julianna Parti, London: Pinter, 1992, viii+148 pp., £35.00.     

The Pursuit of Power. Europe 1815–1914: To Hell and Back. Europe 1914–1949

The Pursuit of Power. Europe 1815–1914 . By Richard J. Evans (London: Allen Lane, 2016), pp.xxiv + 819, maps and colour plates, £25.00 (hb). To Hell and Back. Europe 1914–1949 . By Ian Kershaw (London: Allen Lane, 2015), pp.xx + 593, maps and colour and b/w plates. £30.00 (hb).     

Needed: A smaller and very different U.S. military

Conclusion How should the Pentagon decide those missions that it will retain in house? Those missions for which it should seek strategic alliances? Those new missions that it will actively seek to develop a competency in? Or those missions that require service competition because they are viewed as critical? Or those missions that have acquired redundancy due to service poaching, and thus can prudently be the target of reductions?The answers to these questions very much depend on the leadership's developing a view of the long-term future that is very different from the past. For example, will the United States be in the business of maintaining stability in troubled Third World regions? If so, what kind of capabilities, what kind of missions, does it see as necessary to conduct effective operations in these conflicts? What can the U.S. military count on from its strategic partnerships with other nations? What competing roles will the U.S. military be asked to play? What resources are available?These are fundamental, first-order questions. But they must all be answered - a credible vision of the business must be established - before restructuring can proceed in a productive manner. This does not imply a definitive prediction of the future; rather, it involves recognizing that the United States is in a period of relatively low danger, high uncertainty and dynamic change. For that reason the defense establishment should restructure to be more flexible, innovative and adaptive. A primary goal should be to exploit rapidly advancing technologies, while meeting (or preferably forestalling) the greatest and most likely challenges to national security. In summary, developing a credible vision of the future security environment, and acting upon it, is essential if the U.S. defense establishment is to avoid the pitfalls of the interwar French military and the IBM of the 1980s, dominant organizations that restructured to be more efficient in a competitive environment that was rapidly passing into history.