A Matter of Honor: Pearl Harbor: Betrayal,Blame, and a Family's Quest for Justice: Countdown to Pearl Harbor: The Twelve Days to the Attack

A Matter of Honor: Pearl Harbor: Betrayal, Blame, and a Family's Quest for Justice. By Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan (New York: HarperCollins, 2016), pp. xvi + 521. US$35.00. Countdown to Pearl Harbor: The Twelve Days to the Attack. By Steve Twomey (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2016), pp. xvi + 368. US$30.00.     

Who Sets Social Policy in Metropolis? Economic Positioning and Social Reform in Singapore*

Changes in social policy in Singapore reflect not only changing sociopolitical realities and popular attitudes, but also the island state's concerted effort to craft itself as a transnational hub, center for international business, and home-away-from-home for the skilled, moneyed cosmopolitans who drive the contemporary global political economy. Shifts in the de jure and de facto treatment of gays and lesbians provide a stark demonstration of these dynamics. This paper examines why the Singapore government has taken steps toward greater official tolerance of gays and lesbians, despite potential backlash and previous statements about Asian exceptionalism. It also considers how far the transnational environment and forces of globalization are likely to go in diminishing states' sovereignty in setting social policy—and how conversely empowering this diminution may be to certain (but not all) marginalized groups, who may find their appeals to transnational discourses, networks, and less culturally-relative identities increasingly validated as a result.     

Temporary Transnationals: Southeast Asian Students in Australia

Despite rapidly increasing global flows of international students, research to date has paid little heed to how students abroad identify and mobilise. Focusing on the experience of Indonesians, Malaysians and Singaporeans in Australia – a primary hub for international education – we explore the ways in which our informants understand their place and potential as students. We find international students to comprise a distinct sort of diaspora. With their liminal status, these – for the most part – only temporary transnationals do internalise new norms and agency in a personal sense. However, they tend to identify increasingly as national citizens and to be disinclined to mobilise politically, at least during the course of their studies. These findings add to our understanding both of collective identity and action among students, and of the broader implications of globalisation and internationalisation for social and political activism.     

Internal exiles: What next for internally displaced persons?

This article evaluates the situation of internally displaced persons ( idps ) a decade after the first mandate for the Representative of the Secretary-General on idps . Paradoxically, this fastest growing category of war-affected populations has no institutional sponsor or agreed international legal framework, whereas refugees, whose numbers are diminishing, benefit from well developed institutional and legal efforts through the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. At the outset of the 1990s the growing and massive numbers of idps and the changing nature of warfare suggested that what formerly had seemed a blemish was actually an ugly structural scar. In 1992 the UN Commission on Human Rights created the mandate, and the UN Secretary-General designated Francis M Deng to assume it. The independently financed Project on Internal Displacement, which he co-directs with Roberta Cohen, was set up specifically to support the mandate, an interesting model for other cash-pressed rapporteurs on human rights. Productivity and output have been impressive: a normative framework is in place and international discourse has changed, guiding principles are circulating, and institutions have begun to emphasise the particular problems of idps . However, there is no capacity to undertake systematic monitoring or follow-up of previous visits to countries that continue to flout international decisions. Greater in-depth analyses are prerequisites for better policy and advocacy. A permanent mandate and more adequate funding are required.