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| LATEST NEWS
FROM THE CENTRE: |
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Centre Embarks on New Modes of Governance Project
The Asia Research Centre is embarking on a new flagship project, New Modes
of Governance in the Asia-Pacific, with the aim of identifying, analysing
and assessing new modes of governance in the region. Researchers will
investigate such questions as: What patterns are discernible in the way
that public
goods are being provided? What are the competing conceptions of the ‘public’ in
the provision of these goods and can they be reconciled? What conflicts
and coalitions of interest are involved in the competing notions of how
to provide public goods? More broadly, what are the links between new modes
of governance and political regimes? Are these modes fostering forms of
political participation and accountability that converge with or depart
sharply from institutions of representative democracy? And what are the
implications of this – both
for the region and engagement with it?
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2006 Annual Report released:
The Annual Report of the Asia Research Centre for 2006 is now available
to download as a .pdf file (3Mb), simply by clicking on the image
of the cover to the right.
the report contains such higlights
as the report contains such higlights
as
life as a 2 yr old
- Policy Commentary on Australia’s White
Paper on Overseas Aid
The Australian Institute of International Affairs (AIIA) announces
the release of a policy commentary which looks at Australia’s White Paper on Overseas Aid. The AIIA seeks to keep Australian citizens
informed on international affairs through its events and publications which provide quick and targeted
expert responses on current issues. The current AIIA Policy Commentary includes the speech given
by the Hon. Alexander Downer MP, Minister of Foreign Affairs, at the launch of the Australian Aid
White Paper and two commentary articles by Dr Robert Glasser, Chief Executive of CARE Australia
and Toby Carroll and Shahar Hameiri, experts from the Asia Research Centre at Murdoch University.
Dr Robert Glasser is Chief Executive for CARE Australia, which is the largest
non-political nonreligious overseas aid organization in Australia, providing
humanitarian assistance across the globe. In
his article he addresses trends and changes in Australia’s White Paper on Overseas
Aid. Trends include ‘the focus of the program on the Asia-Pacific region, support
for sectors, such as education, health and governance, and the emphasis on
aid ‘partnerships’. A clear factor of evolution of policy
has been ‘the huge body of recent research on, and Australian experience with,
aid effectiveness’.
Another factor that significantly influenced the evolution of aid policy is ‘the
instability in Australia’s
immediate region’. The second external trend is the ‘emergence of transnational
threats, such as terrorism, drug and people trafficking, and health threats’.
Toby Carroll and Shahar Hameiri research development issues at the Asia Research
Centre of Murdoch University. In their article The Politics of AusAid’s White
Paper they doubt whether the White Paper will be successful in promoting its
stated objectives. The White Paper’s claims to make Australia
safer are ‘not at all convincing’ and both authors conclude that the White
Paper could ‘actually achieve
just the opposite’.
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In January 2006 Associate Professor Malcolm
Tull was appointed principal
investigator for the History
of Marine Animal Populations (HMAP) activities
in
SE Asia and a member of HMAP’s
international Steering Group. HMAP is the historical component of the Census of Marine Life (CoML),
and “aims to improve our understanding
of ecosystem dynamics, specifically with regard to long-term changes
in stock abundance,
the ecological impact of large-scale harvesting by man, and the role
of marine resources in the historical development of human society.” The
Asia Research Centre will serve as the collaborating partner for
HMAP’s
activities in the region.
- Statecraft,
Welfare and the Politics of Inclusion the new book by Kanishka
Jayasuriya,
Palgrave, 2006
Jayasuriya explores the dynamics of a new social agenda conceived within the boundaries of neo liberalism. The enhanced focus on issues such as poverty through strategies of inclusion frames new terms of engagement for social policy, different from that which existed in the terrain of the post war welfare state. The author argues that this represents a form of neo liberal sociability built around a diverse complex of welfare reform extending from the advanced industrial states to East Asia, all of which creates a new social contract within a market model.
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