Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
governmentCanberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
Research output, citation impact, and the most-cited recent papers from Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Australia). Aggregated across the NobleBlocks index of 300M+ scholarly works.
Top-cited papers from Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
Perhaps the key question of debate among neorealist scholars of international political economy concerns the manner in which cooperation may or may not be secured in the global economic order "after hegemony," a question posed by Robert Keohane. A second broad question of interest to scholars of international politics concerns the manner in which weaker states attempt to influence stronger ones. A conflation of these two questions could cause scholars and practitioners alike to pay closer attention than they have in the past to coalitions of the weak as vehicles for cooperation and regime building in the global political economy. This article offers a case study of one recent exercise in coalition building as an attempt to foster cooperation in a "nonhegemonic" environment. Specifically, it examines the role of the Cairns Group of Fair Trading Nations in its attempts to foster reform in global agricultural trade within the current Uruguay Round of trade negotiations. The Cairns Group is shown to be an atypical, single-issue driven, transregional coalition. Led by Australia, the Group's actions represent an interesting exercise in "middle power" politics in a global economic order whose decisionmaking processes are increasingly more fragmented and complex and whose major actors need coaxing toward processes of cooperative economic management.
RATIONALE, AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: Within the field of evidence-based practice, policy makers, health care professionals and consumers require timely reviews to inform decisions on efficacious health care and treatments. Rapid evidence assessment (REA), also known as rapid review, has emerged in recent years as a literature review methodology that fulfils this need. It highlights what is known in a clinical area to the target audience in a relatively short time frame. METHODS: This article discusses the lack of transparency and limited critical appraisal that can occur in REA, and goes on to propose general principles for conducting a REA. The approach that we describe is consistent with the principles underlying systematic review methodology, but also makes allowances for the rapid delivery of information as required while utilizing explicit and reproducible methods at each stage. RESULTS: Our method for conducting REA includes: developing an explicit research question in consultation with the end-users; clear definition of the components of the research question; development of a thorough and reproducible search strategy; development of explicit evidence selection criteria; and quality assessments and transparent decisions about the level of information to be obtained from each study. In addition, the REA may also include an assessment of the quality of the total body of evidence. CONCLUSIONS: Transparent reporting of REA methodologies will provide greater clarity to end-users about how the information is obtained and about the trade-offs that are made between speed and rigour.
As Iran continues its apparent pursuit of a nuclear weapons breakout capability and North Korea resists efforts to roll back its proliferation, policy makers in Washington eager to prevent further proliferation in both regions regard security guarantees to allies as crucial tools. But recent scholarship calls into question whether security guarantees ameliorate proliferation risks. Relying on a combination of large- N quantitative analysis and a case study of South Korea from the late 1960s to the mid-1980s, this article argues that, consistent with policy makers’ conventional wisdom, security guarantees significantly reduce proliferation proclivity among their recipients.
Abstract The purpose of this paper is to analyse the causality between exports and GDP of Namibia and to evaluate the relationship of these variables for the period 1970 to 2005. Time‐series econometric techniques (Granger causality and cointegration) are applied to test the hypothesis of a growth strategy led by exports. It tests whether export Granger causes GDP, or whether the causality runs from GDP to exports, or if there is bi‐directional causality between exports and GDP. The results revealed that exports Granger cause GDP and GDP per capita. This suggests that the export‐led growth strategy through various incentives has a positive influence on growth.
Abstract A new nationalist mood is visible in I ndonesia, expressed in increasingly bellicose rejection of alleged foreign interference in I ndonesia's affairs and in demands for greater international recognition of I ndonesia's power and status. This new mood has been visible for several years, but became particularly marked during the 2014 presidential election and under the new J oko W idodo administration. This article analyses I ndonesia's new nationalism, especially as manifested in economic, cultural and territorial spheres, noting both continuities with past episodes, and novel features. A chief novelty is contemporary nationalism's markedly non‐ideological and non‐intellectual form; continuity is visible in its discursive style, with many contemporary nationalists anachronistically reproducing tropes rooted in earlier periods. The article concludes by identifying forces driving the contemporary resurgence of nationalism, notably the effects of democratisation as well as deeper feelings of insecurity about I ndonesia's achievements.
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Demersal reef fishes of the Indo-Pacific are under increasing pressure as a fisheries resource, yet many of the important life history characteristics required for suitable management are poorly known. The three fish species, eightbar grouper (Hyporthodus octofasciatus), ruby snapper (Etelis carbunculus) and the spangled emperor (Lethrinus nebulosus), are important components of fisheries and ecosystems throughout the Indo-Pacific. Despite their importance, age and growth information is incomplete. Age has been estimated for E. carbunculus and L. nebulosus, but validated age beyond the first few years is lacking and for H. octofasciatus no age estimates exist. Bomb radiocarbon dating can provide age estimates that are independent of growth-zone counting, but only if appropriate reference Δ14C chronologies exist. In this study, a series of Δ14C records from hermatypic corals was assembled to provide a basis for bomb radiocarbon dating in the western Indo-Pacific region. Results provided (1) valid age estimates for comparison to age estimates from two facilities investigating growth-zones in otolith thin sections; (2) support for age estimation protocols using otolith thin sections; and (3) the information necessary for further refinement of age estimation procedures. Estimates of longevity from bomb radiocarbon dating agree with some prior studies: H. octofasciatus, E. carbunculus and L. nebulosus all being long-lived species with life spans of at least 43, 35 and 28 years respectively.
"One consequence of economic reform in China has been the greatly accelerated migration of labour from rural areas to cities. Estimates suggest an annual migrant labour flow of around 50-60 million people, of whom 10-15 million have settled permanently in cities. This article surveys the information that has become available from a number of population and labour surveys. It covers the volume, spatial and temporal dimension of rural-to-urban migration, the characteristics of migrant labourers, the determinants of migration and the impact of migration on China's rural and urban economy."
Assistant Professor, Department of Communications, University of Ottawa; and Special Adviser (Communications), Policy Planning Division, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. The views in this article reflect those of the author and do not necessarily represent the positions of the government of Canada. I would like to thank members of the Policy Planning Division and the International Cultural Relations Bureau at DFAIT for their insights. I am also grateful for the detailed comments from the anonymous reviewers.INTRODUCTIONWe are witnessing a fundamental shift in how nations manage their international relations. National interests are advanced abroad through events and actions that go well beyond the classic diplomacy of communiques, demarches, and aide memoires. Foreign ministries must now devise programmes and muster complex coalitions involving the wider public aimed directly at specific problems rather than simply urge governments or international organizations to act. It is a cliche to say that the terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001 and the subsequent public relations campaign by the United States and its allies to win understanding in the Arab and Islamic worlds have changed 'everything.' Nonetheless, this tragedy has enabled public diplomacy, 'once the stepchild of diplomats,' in the words of David Hoffman, to assume its rightful place at the centre of diplomatic relations.(1)In this new world, knowledge, culture, and communications are the key, not only to technological progress and economic prosperity, but also to social cohesion and sustainable development. There is concern that the powerful engine of the global economy will roll over cultural diversity, fragile social and political systems, and state sovereignty itself. In this world of instant and ubiquitous communication, hyper text (a document on the World Wide Web that has links to other text, sound, images), and easy travel, the ideas, images, and values that motivate citizens take on an importance and power never known before. As Akihiko Tanaka says, 'word politics' is becoming more important in world politics.(2)In other words, image counts for a lot in contemporary world politics. Whether a country needs to build international coalitions against terrorism, co-operate to protect the environment, attract foreign investment, or bring in foreign students, influencing foreign public opinion is critical to national success because, in the absence of substantial military or economic weight, most countries are the image or 'words' they project abroad. Their room to manoeuvre is affected by their image, or soft power, so that all points of contact - whether promoting policies or exporting - will feed off this general image in both positive and negative ways.(3) The diplomatic advantage goes to countries that are able to present distinct voices or 'information edges,'(4) attract broad non-governmental support, and project three-dimensional national images. Forging relationships with citizens in other countries is now as important as talking to their governments. More than a decade ago, Allan Gotlieb, a former Canadian ambassador to the United States, summed up his experience: 'The new diplomacy, as I call it, is, to a large extent, public diplomacy and requires different skills, techniques, and attitudes than those found in traditional diplomacy.'(5)This article examines the extent to which Canada as a middle power has embraced this new diplomacy and describes how Canada is positioned to develop the 'information edge' in its diplomacy. My thesis is that a middle power such as Canada, with a limited ability to influence the global public discussion, must give its image serious attention because Canada's global influence today depends increasingly on factors that transcend raw economic or military power and that appeal to public perceptions abroad.Despite the severe budget cuts of the 1990s, Canada still brings formidable assets to the table: a bricks and mortar network of 160 embassies and trade offices abroad linked by the most advanced information technology infrastructure of any foreign ministry in the world; extensive experience with civil society groups on sensitive international trade and security issues; the enshrining of culture and values as a 'third pillar' of Canada's foreign policy following a parliamentary foreign policy review in 1995; and global leadership in providing all government services on-line. …
BACKGROUND: Family-integrated care (FICare) is an innovative model of care developed at Mount Sinai Hospital, Canada, to better integrate parents into the team caring for their infant in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). The effects of FICare on neonatal outcomes and parental anxiety were assessed in an international multicenter randomized trial. As an Australian regional level 3 NICU that was randomized to the intervention group, we aimed to explore parent and staff perceptions of the FICare program in our dual occupancy NICU. SUBJECTS AND DESIGN: This qualitative study took place in a level 3 NICU with 5 parent participants and 8 staff participants, using a post implementation review design. METHODS: Parents and staff perceptions of FICare were explored through focus group methodology. Thematic content analysis was done on focus group transcripts. RESULTS: Parents and staff perceived the FICare program to have had a positive impact on parental confidence and role attainment and thought that FICare improved parent-to-parent and parent-to-staff communication. Staff reported that nurses working with families in the program performed less hands-on care and spent more time educating and supporting parents. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: FICare may change current NICU practice through integrating and accepting parents as active members of the infant's care team. In addition, nurse's roles may transition from bedside carer to care coordinator, educating and supporting parents during their journey through the NICU. IMPLICATIONS FOR RESEARCH: Further research is needed to assess the long-term impact of FICare on neonates, parents, and staff.
This book examines gender, state and social power in Indonesia, focusing in particular on state regulation of divorce from 1965 to 2005 and its impact on women. Indonesia experienced high divorce rates in the 1950s and 1960s, followed by a remarkable decline. Already falling divorce rates were reinforced by the 1974 Marriage Law, which for the first time regulated marriage for both Muslim and non-Muslim Indonesians and restricted access to divorce. This law defined the roles of men and women in Indonesian society, vesting household leadership with husbands and the management of the household with wives. Drawing on a wide selection of primary sources, including court records, legal codes, newspaper reports, fiction, interviews and case studies, this book provides a detailed historical account of this period of important social change, exploring fully the impact and operation of state regulation of divorce, including the New Order government’s aims in enacting this legal framework, its effects in practice and how it was utilised by citizens (both men and women) to advance their own agendas. It argues that the Marriage Law was a tool of social control enacted by the New Order government in response to the social upheaval and protests experienced in the mid 1970s. However, it also shows that state power was not hegemonic: it was both contested and co-opted by citizens, with men and women enjoying different degrees of autonomy from the state. This book explores all of these issues, providing important insights on the nature of the New Order regime, social power and gender relations, both during the years of its rule and since its collapse.
This study reports on the results of a survey of 300 state‐owned, collective and foreign‐funded industrial enterprises conducted in three of China's coastal provinces; Guangdong, Fujian and Shanghai‐shi in 1993.’ Its major focus and policy relevance is to identify which of China's recent enterprise, market and ownership reforms have been most effective in improving the productivity performance of China's state owned enterprises. The study concludes that productivity growth (measured by total factor productivity) has been significantly higher for non‐state‐owned than for state‐owned enterprises and for firms located in the special economic zones of Shenzhen and Xiamen and the open city of Guangzhou than for firms in the more centrally planned Shanghai. Export‐orientated enterprises also had higher total factor productivity growth than non‐export‐orientated ones. At a lower level of significance, enterprises that controlled their own decision‐making produced a lower proportion of output for the plan, procured a higher proportion of their investment finance from loans (rather than budgetary allocations) and achieved higher total factor productivity growth. Finally, labour‐intensive industries in general had higher total factor productivity growth than did capital‐intensive ones. A number of policy conclusions may be drawn from these results.
Models of athlete decisions to use performance‐enhancing substance and method (PESM) lack an empirical base. In this paper, the validity of the content (variables thought to influence use) and process (how the variables come together) of these models is assessed. Reporting the second qualitative stage of a broader choice modelling study, n = 20 interviews (conducted from August 2007 to January 2008) and three follow‐up focus groups (n = 29; June 2008) with athletes, coaches, sports nutritionists, physiotherapists, sports administrators and sports scientists were used to generate a grounded model of athlete PESM use. Ten factors, organised around four themes, emerged (objective of PESM use, about the PESM, the deterrence system and consequences if prosecuted). The model suggested by these factors provides confidence in terms of what variables influence athlete PESM use (content), although questions remain as to whether rationality reflects how the behaviour manifests. This latter point remains to be tested in the third quantitative stage of this research programme.
This article examines the role that place naming has played in the rescaling of the Pacific waters along the Canada/United States border as the “Salish Sea.” Drawing upon archival materials and a series of semi‐structured interviews, we argue that the scalar framing of such waters as a delimited spatial “unit” was dependent upon the performative reiteration of citational practices that were employed over a period of two decades to discursively assemble these fluid multiplicities into a cartographically bounded space. Although one of the ostensible aims of this geographical designation was to acknowledge the longstanding presence of Coast Salish peoples in the region, the naming of the Salish Sea has also had the political effect of reinforcing neocolonial relations of socio‐spatial dispossession by further entrenching the powers of the state as the final arbiter of geographical naming conventions. Décoloniser la carte ? Les enjeux politiques de la toponymie et le transfert d'échelle de la mer des Salish Cet article étudie le rôle que la dénomination de la « mer des Salish » le long de la frontière canado‐américaine a joué dans le changement d'échelle des eaux du Pacifique. Des documents issus de fonds d'archives et une série d'entretiens semi‐dirigés servent d'appui pour défendre l'idée selon laquelle la conception scalaire de ces eaux en tant qu'unité spatiale délimitée découlait de la réitération performative des pratiques citationnelles adoptées depuis deux décennies afin de traduire de manière discursive cette abondance aqueuse dans un espace cartographique circonscrit. Bien que l'un des objectifs apparents de cette appellation géographique fût de reconnaître l'ancienneté de l'établissement dans la région des peuples Salish de la côte, l'appellation de la mer des Salish a eu comme impact politique de renforcer les relations néocoloniales de la dépossession socio‐spatiale en consolidant les pouvoirs étatiques comme arbitre final des conventions existantes en matière de toponymie. Mots clés : décolonisation, performativité, mer des Salish, toponymie, échelle
Research into how virtual reality (VR) can be a beneficial technology for new and emerging large, complex data visualizations for data scientists is ongoing. In this paper, we evaluate three-dimensional VR navigation technique for data visualizations and test their effectiveness with a large graph visualization. We evaluate two prominent navigation techniques employed in VR (Teleportation and One-Handed Flying) against two less common methods (Two-Handed Flying and Worlds In Miniature) and evaluate their performance and effectiveness through a series of tasks. We found Steering Patterns (One-Handed Flying and Two-Handed Flying) to be faster and preferred by participants for completing searching tasks in comparision to Teleportation. Worlds-In-Miniature was the least physically demanding of the navigations, and was preferred by participants for tasks that required an overview of the graph such as triangle counting.
This article considers whether an international investment agreement (IIA) between two states parties can be interpreted in the light of a ‘third-party IIA’ (defined as a party’s IIA with a third state, a party’s model IIA or an IIA between other states parties). A significant number of tribunals have been willing to interpret the IIA before them with reference to third-party IIAs, drawing inferences from differences or similarities in their texts. However, the use of third-party IIAs in this manner often reflects an erroneous application of the customary rules of treaty interpretation set out in Articles 31–33 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (VCLT). These conclusions have significant implications for international investment law and state practice. If investment tribunals continue to look to third-party IIAs beyond the parameters of the VCLT, beyond consent of the disputing parties and beyond the common intention of treaty parties, contemporary developments in treaty drafting may have unintended or even perverse consequences.
Abstract The emergence of quantum information technologies with potential application across diverse industrial, consumer and technical domains has thrown into relief the need for practical approaches to their governance. Technology governance must balance multiple objectives including facilitating technological development while meeting legal requirements, normative expectations and managing risks regarding the use of such technology. In this paper, we articulate a variety of idealised governance models and approaches for synthesising these complementary and sometimes competing objectives. We set out a comparative analysis of quantum governance in the context of existing models of technological governance. Using this approach, we develop an actor-instrument model for quantum governance, denoted the ‘quantum governance stack’, across a governance hierarchy from states and governments through to public and private institutions. Our model sets out key characteristics that quantum governance should exhibit at each level in the stack, including identification of stakeholder rights, interests and obligations impacted by quantum technologies and the appropriate instruments by which such impacts are managed. We argue that quantum governance must be responsive based on (a) the state of technology at the time; (b) resource and economic requirements for its development; and (c) assessments and estimates of the near-term and future impacts of such technology. Our work provides a pragmatic introduction to quantum governance by (a) specifying a taxonomy of governance actors and instruments and (b) providing examples of how different stakeholders within the stack might implement governance responses to quantum information technologies. It is intended for use by stakeholders in government, industry, academia and civil society to help inform their governance response to the quantum technology revolution.
Peter A. Leggat, Mathew Klein; Personal Safety Advice for Travelers Abroad, Journal of Travel Medicine, Volume 8, Issue 1, 1 January 2001, Pages 46–51, htt
As part of its efforts to deter the arrival of asylum-seekers by boat to Australia in 2001, Prime Minister John Howard’s Coalition Government established the offshore processing of refugee claims. Known as the Pacific Solution, this policy included an agreement with Nauru and Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island for asylum-seekers arriving to Australia by boat to be transported to either of these islands where they would wait in camps while their refugee claims were processed. The majority of the asylum-seekers subjected to offshore processing at this time were held on Nauru, and most had fled Afghanistan. Governmentality, as introduced by Michel Foucault and developed by later scholars, provides insight into the institutions, methods, techniques, strategies, and tactics used by governments to achieve its ends. This article explores Australian Government policy and the experience of Afghan asylum-seekers held on Nauru from 2001 using a governmentality approach. Given that people seeking asylum in Australia are once again being transported to Nauru and Papua New Guinea, this time initiated by a Labor Government and continued by the current Coalition Government, this article’s findings are pertinent for insight into understanding current Australian policy.
BACKGROUND: Vegetables are an essential element in healthy diets, but intakes are low around the world and there is a lack of systematic knowledge on how to improve diets through food system approaches. METHODS: This scoping review assessed how studies of food systems for healthy diets have addressed the role of vegetables in low- and middle-income countries. We apply the PRISMA guidelines for scoping reviews to narratively map the literature to an accepted food systems framework and identify research gaps. RESULTS: We found 1383 relevant articles, with increasing numbers over 20 years. Only 6% of articles looked at low-income countries, and 93% looked at single-country contexts. Over half of articles assessed vegetables as a food group, without looking at diversity within the food group. 15% looked at traditional vegetables. Issues of physical access to food were among the least studied food system topics in our review (7% of articles). Only 15% of articles used a comprehensive food system lens across multiple dimensions. There is also a research gap on the impacts of different policy and practice interventions (13% of articles) to enable greater vegetable consumption. CONCLUSIONS: Food system studies necessarily drew on multiple disciplines, methods and metrics to describe, analyze, and diagnose parts of the system. More work is needed across disciplines, across contexts, and across the food system, including understanding interventions and trade-offs, and impacts and change for diets particularly of marginalized population groups. Filling these gaps in knowledge is necessary in order to work toward healthy vegetable-rich diets for everyone everywhere.