Reviews

Japan's International Relations, by Takashi Inoguchi. Pinter Publishers, London, 1991. xii + 190 pp. £10.95 paperback, £39.50 hardback. ISBN 0–86187–095–6, 0–86187–076‐X.

NIPPON: New Superpower, Japan since 1945, by William Horsley and Roger Buckley. BBC Books, London, 1990. x + 278 pp., 24 pp. plates. £15. ISBN 0–563–20875–9.

Korea Briefing, 1990, edited by Chong‐Sik Lee. Westview, Boulder, CO, 1991. viii + 175 pp. £9.95 paperback. ISBN 0–8133–8010–3.

Britain and the Korean War, by Callum MacDonald. Blackwell, Oxford, 1990. viii + 112 pp. £17.50 hardback, £8.95 paperback. ISBN 0–631–16769–2, 0–631–16771–4.

The Future of South Korean‐U.S. Security Relations, edited by William J. Taylor Jr., Young Koo Cha, John Q. Blodgett, and Michael Mazarr. Westview Press, Boulder CO, 1989. £22.50. ISBN 0–8133–7889–3.

The Cambodian Crisis and U.S. Policy Dilemmas, by Robert G. Sutter. Westview Press, Boulder, CO, 1991. vi + 135 pp. £15.50, paperback. ISBN 0–8133–8047–2.

Opium and Foreign Policy: The Anglo‐American Search for Order in Asia: 1912–1954, by William O. Walker III. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill and London, 1991. xvi + 345 pp. $43.95. ISBN 0–8078–1970.

Beautiful Imperialist: China Perceives America, 1972–1990, by David Shambaugh. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 1991. 326 pp. £25, $35. ISBN 0–691–07864–5.

Building Sino‐American Relations: An Analysis for the 1990s, edited by William T. Tow. Paragon House, New York, 1991. vii + 327 pp. $18.95 paperback. ISBN 0–88702–061–5.

Molding the Medium: The Chinese Communist Party and the Liberation Daily, by Patricia Stranahan. M. E. Sharpe, Armonk NY and London, 1991. x + 189 pp. $39.95 ISBN 0–87332–662–8.

The Privatization of China: The Great Reversal, by William Hinton. New York, Monthly Review Press, 1990; Earthscan Publications, London, 1991.191 pp. £7.95 paperback. ISBN 1–85383–098–4.

Rural Reform and Peasant Income in China, by Zhu Ling. Macmillan, Houndmills and London, 1991. xiv + 204 pp. £35 hardback, £14.99 paperback. ISBN 0–333–49743–0, 0–333–49744–9.

China's Defence Modernisation and Military Leadership, by Ngok Lee. Australian National University Press, Sydney, 1989. xxi + 395 pp. ISBN 0–08–033046–0.

Taiwan: China's Last Frontier, by Simon Long. Macmillan, Houndmills and London, 1991. xix + 264 pp. £40 hardback, £14.99 paperback. ISBN 0–333–51292–8, 0–333–51293–6.

Party‐Military Relations in the PRC and Taiwan: Paradoxes of Control, by Cheng Hsiao‐shih. Westview Special Studies on China and East Asia, Boulder, CO, 1990. xiv + 178 pp. £18.50. ISBN 0–8133–7738–2.

Modern Taiwan in the 1990s, edited by Garry Klintworth. Canberra Papers on Strategy and Defence No. 75. Australian National University, Canberra, 1991. 216 pp. A$15. ISBN 07315–11689.

Shanghai, by Harriet Sergeant. Jonathan Cape, London, 1991. xi + 371 pp., 16 pp. plates, maps. £16.99. ISBN 0–224–02816–2.

An Illustrated History of Hong Kong, by Nigel Cameron. Oxford University Press, Hong Kong, 1991. 362 pp., maps, illus. £25. ISBN 0–19–584997–3.

Hong Kong 1977: dans la gueule du Dragon rouge, by Jules Nadeau with Mathieu‐Robert Sauvé and Judith Bélanger. Editions Québec/Amérique, Montreal, 1990. 306 pp., maps, illus. Can$26.95. ISBN 2–89037–513–7.

Australia in the International Economy in the Twentieth Century, by Barrie Dyster and David Meredith. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1990. xvi + 362 pp. £39.50 hardback, £15.00 paperback. ISBN 0–521–33496–9, 0–521–33689–9.

Art and Identity in Oceania, edited by F. Allan Hanson and Louise Hanson. University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, 1990. viii + 315 pp., illus. £37. ISBN 0–8248–1304–0.

The Pacific, by Simon Winchester. Hutchinson, London, 1991. xi + 501 pp. £19.99. ISBN 0–09–173485–1.     

Women in the shadow war: gender,class and MI5 in the Second World War

During the Second World War, the women employed in Britain’s secret Security Service (MI5) far outnumbered their male colleagues, with a ratio of twelve women for every five men. Their numbers grew rapidly over the course of the war and by 1941 stood at over 800. Despite the vast influx of female labour into the agency, attitudes towards the role of women in intelligence, be it as wartime workers or as secret agents, demonstrated remarkable continuity with those of the interwar period. Women were near universally restricted to subordinate roles; typically of clerical and secretarial nature in the case of office staff. Similarly, internal attitudes regarding those traits which produced the best agents and intelligence officers, shaped by wider understandings of both masculinity and social status, demonstrated considerable resilience. Drawing upon declassified official records, this article argues that MI5’s wartime experiences did little to alter the agency’s attitudes to gender.     

Adversarial Mythologies: Policy Assumptions and Research Evidence in Family Law

This article contrasts policy advocacy of alternative dispute resolution, and demonization of lawyers and court proceedings in family law, with research evidence that calls those policy positions into question. The research demonstrates, broadly, that restrictions on the availability of publicly funded legal representation do not necessarily lead parties to choose alternative resolution processes, that lawyers are much less adversarial than self–representing litigants, and that lawyer representation and litigation may produce more satisfactory and appropriate outcomes than mediation in some kinds of family disputes. The article argues that legal aid policies should respond to these realities rather than clinging to adversarial mythologies.     

Postapartheid Justice: Can Cosmopolitanism and Nation‐Building Be Reconciled?

South African plaintiffs are suing numerous multinational corporations under the American Alien Tort Claims Act for aiding and abetting apartheid's crimes against humanity. This article argues that Re South African Apartheid Litigation should be understood as a cosmopolitan re-membering of the nation. This interpretation runs counter to theoretical and political presumptions of an inherent antagonism between cosmopolitanism and nationhood. The apparent divide between cosmopolitanism and nation-building is bridged by the concept of victimhood. Insofar as nation-building in South Africa depends upon the restoration of victims, so too is cosmopolitanism victim-centered in its commitment to prevent harm and suffering. The apartheid litigants enact the duality of cosmopolitanism: they press for justice on the basis of cosmopolitan right, yet they do so in part because of their continued marginalization in the "new" South Africa with respect to issues of "truth" and reparation. Following on the "unfinished business" of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the apartheid litigation illustrates the intersection of cosmopolitanism with national memory and belonging.     

Cornel West and the Tempest in the Ivory Tower

A major American news story of 2002 centred on a dispute at Harvard between president Lawrence Summers and Cornel West. This article explores why many commentators erroneously portrayed the dispute between the two men as a matter of civil rights and affirmative action. It also examines the issue at the heart of the fracas, namely a long-running debate about the quality of West's scholarship, and considers whether his commitments to publics outside the classroom detract from his scholarly work. Is the release of a hip-hop CD an appropriate form of intellectual activity for a senior Ivy League professor?     

Divergent Expectations and Experience: An Empirical Study of the Use Children's Contact Services in Australia

In this article, an overview of the key findings from the Children'sContact Services Project is presented. Children's Contact Services(CCSs) assist separated parents to manage contact arrangementswith their children through the provision of supervised visitationand changeover services. The aims of this project were to investigatethe use of CCSs in Australia by referring agencies (eg. courtsand legal practitioners), and clients of contact services (parentsand children), and to consider the views and expectations ofthese key stakeholders regarding those usages. This approachwas based on the assumption that there are currently conflictingusages and expectations of contact services, and that this situationcould compromise children's well-being. The findings were derivedfrom two studies. The first study involved conducting 142 in-depthinterviews with representatives from the Australian Government,the courts and legal practitioners who referred families toCCSs, CCS staff and management, as well as parents and childrenwho used CCSs. The second study comprised a quantitative analysisof client data collected by CCS staff from 396 families whohad used a government funded CCS in August 2003. The findingsdemonstrated that in Australia, CCSs provided an invaluableservice that was viewed positively by government, referral agents,CCS staff and management, and by the parents and children whoused them. Despite this generally positive view, there wereconflicting expectations of CCSs that, under certain circumstances,compromised children's well-being and that of their parents,particularly their residence mothers.