The merger of the Foreign Affairs and Trade Departments revisited

In July 1987 the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Department of Trade were merged into a single department. Fifteen years on, this article assesses the benefits and costs of the merger. It focuses on two questions. Firstly, did the organisational change meet the objectives being sought: that is, better coordination and greater efficiency, flexibility and responsiveness? Secondly, were Australia's capabilities in managing its international relations enhanced by the merger? The article reaches mainly positive conclusions.     

The state of globalisation and the globalisation of the state

This article examines how to evaluate claims about the extent and impact of globalisation. A focus on the significance of earlier phases of globalisation is essential, but underestimating the importance and scope of recent developments is the wrong lesson to learn from a more historically informed analysis. While it is necessary to maintain a healthy scepticism towards endings, inevitability and irreversibility, it is important to remain open to the possibility that the world political economy has indeed undergone substantial transformation. This article argues that quantitative measures of globalisation need to be supplemented with an analysis of the pivotal role of the state in spurring and sponsoring the process of global economic interaction. State constructions of the imperatives of globalisation have aimed to bolster the acceptance of policy changes that support globalisation and transform domestic political economies. There is continuing potential for state activity to have effects--both positive and negative--on the progress of economic globalisation.     

War and Foreign Affairs in China

EDWARD L. DREYER. China at War, 1901–1949. London and New York: Longman, 1995. Pp. x, 422. $114.95 (CDN);

ARTHUR WALDRON. From War to Nationalism: China's Turning Point, 1924–1925. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995. Pp. xix, 366. $39.95 (us);

MICHAEL H. HUNT. The Genesis of Chinese Communist Foreign Policy. New York: Columbia University Press, 1996. Pp. xiv, 343. $34.50 (us);

XIAOYUAN LIU. A Partnership for Disorder: China, the United States, and Their Policies for the Postwar Disposition of the Japanese Empire, 1941–1945. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996. Pp. xiii, 343. $59.95 (us).     

Women and Foreign "Affairs"

Book reviewed in this article:
Katharine H. S. Moon, Sex among Allies: Military Prostitution in U.S. Korean Relations     

工业化冲击下的德意志帝国对外贸易及其政策

德意志帝国时期,工业逐步确立起在德国经济中的主导地位。由于工业化的冲击,德意志帝国时期的对外贸易量和外贸结构都发生了巨大变化,德国逐渐成为外向型经济国家。与此同时,德国的对外贸易政策也出现了因时而进的调整。     

Dangerous Liaisons: Neoliberal Foreign Policy and Australia's Regional Engagement

Recent dramatic events in the Asia/Pacific region have prompted a reassessment within the Australian community of the prevailing analytical and policy orthodoxies associated with our contemporary regional engagements. This paper, written well before the serious upheavals in Indonesia and Malaysia, warns of the likelihood of such upheavals taking place and of the long-term dangers faced by Australian foreign policy in relation to them. In this context it concentrates primarily on Australia's explicit and enthusiastic commitment to a neoliberal global trade agenda and its less explicit but still solid commitment to a neo-Realist security agenda. It suggests that the tensions intrinsic to this policy matrix could provoke major problems for Australia in the future. More specifically, it argues that the pursuit of traditional (elite-centred) political stability and radical (market-driven) economic prosperity in the Asia/Pacific might well accelerate an opposite scenario, as people throughout the region resist the processes of rapid free-market development and ongoing political repression. It urges less fealty to the latest grand-theory of (Western) global power and a more serious empirical analysis of the implications of it for Australia's long term future in the Asia/Pacific.     

Selected Characteristics of Soviet Foreign Trade and Implications for the Foreign Trade of the Commonwealth of Independent States

This paper provides observations on recent patterns of the Soviet Union's foreign trade in the context of factor endowment trade theory and two models drawn from the new trade theory. Empirical analysis indicates that recent Soviet foreign trade was not based on differing factor intensities between Soviet goods and the those of the rest of the world. Instead, the recent geography of Soviet foreign trade suggests that it conformed more to the trade in differentiated products expected under the new trade theory. These results suggest that Soviet foreign trade had developed in such a way that, at least with respect to merchandise trade, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) has a strong potential for fairly rapid integration within the group of industrial countries.     

蒋介石与战时外交制度

抗日战争时期的中国外交,近年来已经成为海内外学关注的热点。诸如战时中国与国际组织的关系、旧有不平等条约的废除、对美英等大国外交新局面的开拓,均已有不少论问世,探究其中的缘由及曲折历程。这些努力大大拓展了战时外交的研究范畴,也认识到“战时中国外交的成功是多种因素综合起作用的结果,     

国民政府外交部等编印之《关于世界贸易宪章草案及关税暨贸易总协定之说帖》

抗战结束后,中国代表团应邀参加联合国贸易暨就业准备委员会历次会议,讨论有关签定贸易宪章草案、关税暨贸易总协定等战后国际经济秩序重建事宜。国民政府外交部、财政部及经济部特编印此份说帖,就中国国情对相关条款加以分析,提出意见,反映了国民政府在美苏两大阵营形成之际所取的立场。     

1924-1945年国民党海外部与侨务工作考论

针对目前学术界在民国侨务政策、侨务工作方面的研究对象主要是侨委会,对于海外部仅粗略涉及的现状,依据相关档案及其它文献资料,对国民党海外部的沿革、职能、其侨务工作实绩及与侨务委员会之间的关系等方面做了分析和阐述。认为国民政府的侨务委员会与国民党海外党部从党政两个权力系统推展侨务工作,二者分工合作,相辅相成。抗战前,以侨委会为主;抗战爆发后,特别是太平洋战事发生以及日本推行南进政策后,以海外党部为代表的党务系统在侨务工作中发挥了更大的作用。     

Great Prospects of Foreign Trade

The Xigaze area has 18 counties(cities) under its jurisdiction.Of these, nine are located inthe border area abutting Nepal,Bhutan and Sikkim. At present, the areahas opened three border trade ports, andis preparing to open one more. In addi-tion, the area has opened 29 cross-bordermarkets.Major Ports in Xigaze Nylam (Zham) Port was approved bythe State Council as a State Class OneLand Port in 1962 anu equipped withsuch facilities as customs, commodity     

伪满洲国初期的对外贸易

20世纪初至1930年,中国东北地区的对外贸易规模不断扩大。伪满洲国成立后,伪满政府倚仗日本关东军,强行侵占了我国东北各地海关。中国东北地区长期出超的局面在1933年反转,并且入超额出现扩大趋势。伪满政权极力促进所谓的“日满一体化”,使得东北地区的对外贸易更加向对日贸易集中。随着列强的经济利益争夺日趋白热化,伪满洲国逐渐步入统制贸易之途。     

Foreign Trade and Regional Development in China

This paper puts into focus the regional implications of China's recent open-door policy. The empirical analysis employs a cross-sectional approach with 1986 data. The results suggest that foreign trade is more readily translated into economic development in the most well developed and industrialized eastern coastal provinces.