Japan–Australia security ties and the United States: the evolution of the trilateral dialogue process and its challenges

This article considers recent developments in Australia–Japan security and defence ties and their trilateral dimension with the United States. I argue that the security links bilaterally and through their main ally the US have scope for development while the three nations share perceptions of security and strategic matters. However, there are elements of inherent unpredictability that may come into play to hinder the move towards a further strengthening of the current trilateral security arrangement. Possible impediments come from both external and internal sources making it difficult for the three nations to transform their trilateral security relations into an institution, alliance or treaty that formally links the three partners strategically.1 1. This is a revised and updated version of a paper presented at a workshop held at the Australian National University on 31 July 2006. The author would like to thank Bill Tow, Andrew MacIntyre, David Walton and an anonymous reviewer for their constructive comments on an earlier draft of the paper. However, the normal academic caveat applies. View all notes     

Playing and affective time-spaces

In this paper I have two objectives. The first is to critically explore definitions of playing that have underpinned a great deal of research in children's geography. In so doing I want to highlight some of the assumptions that various authors within geography have made (often implicitly) about the ontological status of playing. This will in turn, lead me to work with, between and sometimes against three authors who have tried to theorize playing. In following this route, I hope to come to some tentative conclusions about the status of playing, which paradoxically will eschew any (strong) ontological commitment at all. This leads to my second objective, which is to explore four particular aspects of playing—embodiment, affect, objects and time-space—to examine how they are interleaved with spaces and spacing. In necessarily situating this work within my research at Hilltop Primary School1 1. This is a pseudonym, used as part of a confidentiality agreement signed with the school. View all notes in the summer of 2001, I hope to show that geographical studies can contribute to definitions of playing as much as playing can inflect certain notions of space.     

Australia–Taiwan relations: the evolving geopolitical setting

Compared to its relations with the People's Republic of China (PRC), Australia's relations with Taiwan are often underrated. As a substantial trading partner and as a polity that has transformed into a robust ‘Asian democracy’, Taiwan constitutes a significant if highly complex dimension of evolving Australian foreign policy. A workshop was convened at the Australian National University in early May 2007 to consider the evolving geopolitical, economic and socio-cultural dimensions of bilateral relations between these two regional actors. Among the basic themes emerging from workshop deliberations were how the growth of Chinese power would effect stability in the Taiwan Straits and throughout maritime Asia; how Chinese power would shape future order-building in the region and any role that Australia and/or Taiwan might play in that process; how Taiwanese democracy would factor into any future regional order and what Australia's future Taiwan posture should be given that that country is committed to a ‘one China policy’ acknowledging the PRC as China. Among the conclusions reached were that Australia must intensify its diplomatic efforts toward both Beijing and Washington to ensure that potential Sino–American differences over Taiwan do not escalate into military conflict and that time and generational change may work to facilitate a peaceful solution to this protracted security dilemma? ? The authors would like to thank Bruce Jacobs for his review of earlier drafts. View all notes.     

Breaking Ranks: C. P. Snow and the Crisis of Mid-Century Liberalism, 1930–1980

C. P. Snow's identification of ‘two cultures’, as the literary critic F. R. Leavis pointed out in 1962, represents not an insight but a cliché, one that invites the repetition of further clichés about the origins of a divided culture, the need to bridge cultures, the emergence of a third culture, or the reality of one culture. Yet this recurrent feature of ‘two cultures’ talk does not nullify the concept's value as an object of study, if these discussions are treated as revealing points of entry into foreign historical contexts. This article adopts this approach, unearthing the liberal position that Snow developed as a novelist and critic from the 1930s, that he advanced in the form of a disciplinary lament in The Two Cultures (Snow, C.P. 1959 Snow, C.P. 1959. The two cultures and the scientific revolution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [Google Scholar]. The two cultures and the scientific revolution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.), and that — to his distress — increasingly came under radical critique from the mid-1960s. Ultimately, the technocratic liberalism that Snow associated with science at mid-century came to be closer to American neo-conservatism by 1980. By tracking the fortunes of the ideological position that structured The Two Cultures, rather than lifting that text out of its moment in an attempt to engage its arguments today, this article testifies to the abiding value of contextual analysis at a moment when intellectual historians are increasingly inclined to question and even displace it.     

Woman Traveller/Colonial Tourist

I promised to show you a map but you say this is a mural

Then yes let it be these are small distinctions

Where do we see it from is the question1 ?1. Adrienne Rich, cited in Kaplan Kaplan, Karen. 2000. Questions of Travel: Postmodern Discourses of Displacement, London: Duke University Press.  [Google Scholar], Questions of Travel, 8. View all notes     

Deconstructing twinned towers: Lisbon's Expo '98 and the occluded geographies of discovery

This paper develops a critique of Western representations of discovery, centrality and self-identity via a focus on Portugal's Expo '98. Two of the towers of the title were incorporated into the site of Expo '98 (the last universal exposition of the twentieth century), which offered the chance to reiterate the importance of Portugal's imperial discoveries on a global stage and to reaffirm Portuguese national identity in the process. The paper examines how historical and geographical narratives of imperialism and the ‘Portuguese voyages of discovery’ were reworked in Expo '98 to resurrect a national sense of pride in belonging to and pioneering Europe. Critical postcolonial perspectives which break with Eurocentrism are required if the role of other cultures and histories in the Portuguese contribution to the making of modernity is to be appreciated. Such perspectives enable wider reflections about the constitution of the West and the non-West in the making of a multifaceted modernity of which expositions (and monumental towers) are concentrated expressions.

Portugal's was the pioneer empire in more ways than one, and it exhibited all the defects as well as all the glories of the age it inaugurated. No Nation of the fifteenth or sixteenth century ever saw more, reported a greater variety of things, or left more of its imprint on the modern world, whose chief characteristic, after all, is mobility. (Diffie and Winius 1996 Diffie, B.W. and Winius, G.D. 1996. Foundations of the Portuguese Empire 1415–1580, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.  [Google Scholar]: 434)     

New fossil species of Ephialtitidae and Baissidae (Hymenoptera,Apocrita) from the mid-Mesozoic of northeastern China

Li, L., Shih, C.K., Li, D. & Ren, D. 12 June 2019. New fossil species of Ephialtitidae and Baissidae (Hymenoptera, Apocrita) from the mid-Mesozoic of northeastern China. Alcheringa XX, X–X. ISSN 0311-5518.

One new species of Ephialtitidae—Stephanogaster integra sp. nov.—from the uppermost Middle Jurassic Jiulongshan Formation at Daohugou Village, Inner Mongolia, China, and four new species of Baissidae—Manlaya proba sp. nov., Manlaya magna sp. nov., Manlaya ultima sp. nov. and Mesepipolaea parva sp. nov.—from the Lower Cretaceous Yixian Formation at Huangbanjigou Village, Liaoning, China, are described and illustrated. In addition, all described fossils of the genera Manlaya Rasnitsyn, 1980b Rasnitsyn, A.P., 1980b. On the system of the family Aulacidae (Hymenoptera) in connection with a new finding in the Lower Cretaceous of Manlay. Trudy Sovmestnoy Sovetsko-Mongol’skoy Paleontologicheskoy Ekspeditsii 13, 65–67. (Russian) [Google Scholar] and Stephanogaster Rasnitsyn, 1975 Rasnitsyn, A.P., 1975. Hymenoptera Apocrita of the Mesozoic. Transactions of the Paleontological Institute, Academy of Sciences of the USSR 147, 1–134. (Russian) [Google Scholar] are listed with their distributions, geological ages, and key forewing characters. This list allows the comparison of interspecific venational differences within the two genera, which in turn highlights high levels of species-level diversity among both the Cretaceous species of Manlaya and Jurassic species of Stephanogaster.

Longfeng Li* [fenger4499@163.com], Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology, College of Life Science and Technology, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou, 730070, Gansu Province, PR China; Chungkun Shih [chungkun.shih@gmail.com], College of Life Sciences, Capital Normal University, Beijing 100048, PR China; Daqing Li [daqingli@gsau.edu.cn], Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology, College of Life Science and Technology, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou City, 730070, Gansu Province, PR China; Dong Ren [rendong@mail.cnu.edu.cn], College of Life Sciences, Capital Normal University, Beijing 100048, PR China.     

Can Liberalism Still Tell Powerful Stories?1

The need of reason is not inspired by the quest for truth but by the quest for meaning. And truth and meaning are not the same. The basic fallacy, taking precedence over all specific metaphysical fallacies, is to interpret meaning on the model of truth. (Hanna Arendt, The Life of the Mind: Thinking)2 2.?Quoted in Victor Kestenbaum, The Grace and Severity of the Ideal: John Dewey and the Transcendent (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002), 89. View all notes     

Feeling insecure: a personal account in a psychoanalytic voice

The concept of ontological security has been taken up in human geography primarily through Giddens' (1990 Giddens, A. (1990) The Consequences of Modernity. Cambridge: Polity Press. [Google Scholar], 1991 Giddens, A. (1991) Modernity and Self-Identity. Cambridge: Polity Press. [Google Scholar]) formulation, but the idea has its origins in the writings of the existential psychoanalyst R.D. Laing. Returning to the psychoanalytic underpinnings of the concept, I use autobiographical vignettes to evoke and explore what it means to feel insecure. Using psychoanalytically informed illustrations of melancholia, ordinary acute anxiety and unconscious splitting, I develop a personal, subjective emotional geography of insecurity, and I caution against confusing certainty with ontological security.     

Future directions in Australia–Japan relations: an Australian perspective

This article offers an Australian perspective on future directions in Australia–Japan relations. An attempt is made to identify issues that will have a bearing on the bilateral relationship over the next five years and beyond at the national level. There is not any likelihood of a substantial rupture or change in relations in the short-term. The continuation of a stable, close and dynamic relationship in the mid to long-term, however, will depend on how both countries conduct their respective foreign policies towards China.1 1. I wish to thank Bill Tow for his comments on a draft of this article. Peter Drysdale, Purnendra Jain, Chris Pokarier, Chris Braddick, Takashi Terada and Geoff Miller also provided useful comments on a draft at the Workshop on the 30th Anniversary of the NARA Treaty organised through the Australia–Japan Research Centre at the Australian National University, and the Australian Institute of International Affairs, 31 July 2006. View all notes     

Transformational design literacies: children as active place-makers

Innovative curriculum frameworks that support children as active researchers and designers in everyday learning contexts remain unprioritized in school settings. Design literacies challenge and expand existing curriculum structures at a time when state and national curriculum privilege literacy and numeracy testing. Drawing on a broader ethnographic study that examined children's inhabitation of school food gardens through pedagogies of food production, ecology and design in three Australian primary schools [Green, M. 2011 Green, M. 2011. “Place Matters: Pedagogies of Food, Ecology and Design.” Unpublished PhD, Monash University Churchill Victoria [Google Scholar]. “Place Matters: Pedagogies of Food, Ecology and Design.” Unpublished PhD, Monash University Churchill Victoria], this paper focuses on the design literacies or ‘design-centered pedagogy’ [McLaren, S. 2008 McLaren, S. 2008. “Learning for Engagement: Lose the Ring-Fencing.” Paper presented at the Technology Education Research Conference: Exploring Technology Education: Solutions to Issues in a Globalised World, Gold Coast, Queensland. [Google Scholar]. “Learning for Engagement: Lose the Ring-Fencing.” Paper presented at the Technology Education Research Conference: Exploring Technology Education: Solutions to Issues in a Globalised World, Gold Coast, Queensland] that supported children's engagement with everyday learning in one school community. Semi-structured and ‘walking interviews’ provide rich data for understanding the contributions of design and design processes in a garden-based curriculum. When linked to a framework of sustainability, design literacies can expand learning opportunities that deepen their connection to everyday places.     

The Form and Function of Poverty: Examining National Identity through Public Housing Architecture

Abstract

Lawrence J. Vale tells us that “grand symbolic state buildings need to be understood in terms of the political and cultural contexts that helped to bring them into being,” ¹ 1. Lawrence J. Vale, Architecture, Power, and National Identity (London: Routledge, 1992), 3. and that these buildings can help us understand our national identity. But all buildings are part of a broader political and cultural context. Even unimpressive state-funded buildings express meaning about the politics, power, and priorities of a nation. Because these buildings are not purposefully symbolic, their symbolism has the potential to provide a less contrived—though perhaps less appealing—portrayal of the nation in which they are built. Public housing provides an example of this idea. Public housing in the United States is latent with negative meanings that are reinforced and perpetuated by its architecture, siting, and design. This article examines three historical and iconic public housing communities and analyzes the meanings of these spaces through Goodman's four frames of reference—denotation, exemplification, metaphorical expression, and mediated reference—to determine what these spaces, as architecture, say about the American national identity and our relationship with public housing.     

Constructing gender and local morality: exchange practices in a Javanese village

The concept of exchange has been on the anthropological agenda since Marcel Mauss published his book Essai sur le Don in 1925. The nature of gift-giving and exchange practices has since in different ways been developed and criticised (e.g. Bloch and Perry 1989 Bloch M Parry J 1989 Introduction: money and the morality of exchange In M. Bloch and J. Parry (eds), Money and the morality of exchange Cambridge Cambridge University Press pp. 1–33  [Google Scholar]; Bourdieu 1977 Bourdieu P 1977 Outline of a theory of practice Cambridge Cambridge University Press [Crossref] [Google Scholar]; Derrida 1992 Derrida J 1992 Given time: 1. Counterfeit money Chicago and London University of Chicago Press  [Google Scholar]; Dumont 1986 Dumont L 1986 Marcel Mauss: A science in process of becoming In L. Dumont, Essays on individualism. Modern ideology in anthropological perspective Chicago and London University of Chicago Press pp. 183–201  [Google Scholar]; Levi-Strauss 1950 Levi-Strauss C 1987 Introduction to the work of Marcel Mauss Translated by Felicity Baker London Routledge and Kegan Paul  [Google Scholar]; Sahlins 1974 Sahlins M 1974 Stone age economy London Tavistock Publications  [Google Scholar]). However, exchanges are social practices that continue to puzzle and arouse curiosity within anthropology and related fields. The present article focuses on the vivid exchange practices that form part of social life in Sarijati village in Central Java.2 Sarijati is a pseudonym. this article is based on a research project sponsored by the danish research council for the humanities. fieldwork was carried out in central java in 1996–97 and in 1998. View all notes I will argue that exchanges here make up a social domain that articulates gender ideology and the reasoning of local morality.     

Airports and air-mindedness: spacing,timing and using the Liverpool Airport, 1929–1939

Some popular texts have associated airports with a lack of identity. It is supposed that people are alienated from these ahistorical and interstitial spaces (Augé 1995 Augé, M. 1995. Non-places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity, London: Verso.  [Google Scholar]; Castells 1996 Castells, M. 1996. The Rise of the Network Society, Volume 1: The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture, Oxford: Blackwell.  [Google Scholar]). Other approaches have tended to ignore their sociality, exploring their role within transport networks rather than what goes on within. Through a discussion of the early beginnings of British airport development and the construction of Liverpool Airport at Speke, I attempt to show how there are other contextual geographies to airports. By using the concept of air-mindedness—a moral geographical concept that promoted the belief in the possibilities of aircraft mobility, this paper discusses how social identities became bound to flight, forming the context to the development of the airport and both local and national belonging. This examination will reveal the embeddedness of airports within the times, spaces and uses from which they are produced and consumed. Archival research provides the material for this discussion.

Les aéroports et le sens des choses de l'air: l'espace, le temps et l'utilisation de l'aéroport de Liverpool, 1929–1939

Un nombre d'écrits populaires ont dressé un parallèle entre les aéroports et un déficit d'identité. Les gens, suppose t'on, se sentent aliénés par ces espaces ahistoriques et interstitiels (Augé 1995 Augé, M. 1995. Non-places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity, London: Verso.  [Google Scholar]; Castells 1996 Castells, M. 1996. The Rise of the Network Society, Volume 1: The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture, Oxford: Blackwell.  [Google Scholar]). Dans d'autres cas, on a fait fi de leur socialité, explorant alors leur rôle au sein de réseaux des transports plutôt que de s'intéresser à ce qui se passe dedans. Une discussion sur les tout débuts de l'expansion des aéroports britanniques et de la construction de l'aéroport de Liverpool à Steke tente de montrer comment les aéroports sont situés dans des contextes géographiques différents. Grâce au concept du sens des choses de l'air—un concept moral en géographie qui renforçait la croyance dans les possibilités de mobilité qu'offre l'avion, cet article traite de la façon dont les identités sociales se rattachent au vol créant ainsi le contexte dans lequel se situe le développement de l'aéroport et de l'appartenance locale et nationale. Dans cette étude, il est question de l'enchâssement des aéroports dans les époques, espaces et usages à partir desquels ils sont produits et consommés. La discussion fait état des résultats d'une recherche en archivistique.

Mots-clefs: aéroports, géographie, contexte, mobilité, identité, sens des choses de l'air.

Aeropuertos y air-mindedness: espacio, tiempo y el uso del aeropuerto de Liverpool 1929–1939

Algunos textos populares asocian los aeropuertos con una falta de identidad. Se supone que la gente se siente distanciada de estos espacios ahistóricos e intersticiales (Augé 1995 Augé, M. 1995. Non-places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity, London: Verso.  [Google Scholar]; Castells 1996 Castells, M. 1996. The Rise of the Network Society, Volume 1: The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture, Oxford: Blackwell.  [Google Scholar]). Los enfoques de otros no tienen en cuenta el aspecto social y exploran el papel del aeropuerto en las redes de transporte en vez de explorar lo que pasa dentro del mismo aeropuerto. Por un estudio de los inicios del desarrollo del Aeropuerto Británico y la construcción del aeropuerto de Liverpool en Speke, pretendo mostrar que, con respecto a los aeropuertos, hay otras geografías contextuales para explorar. Haciendo uso de la idea de ‘air-mindedness’—un concepto geográfico moral que fomentaba confianza en las posibilidades de movilidad aeronáutica—este papel habla de cómo las identidades sociales llegaron a ser vinculadas a la aviación, así formando el contexto para el desarrollo del aeropuerto y un sentido de pertenencia, tanto local como nacional. Este estudio revela hasta qué punto los aeropuertos se han arraigado en los tiempos, espacios y usos de los cuales son producidos y consumidos. Hago uso de investigaciones de archivos para este debate.

Palabras claves: aeropuertos, geografía, contexto, movilidad, identidad, air-mindedness.     

Systematics and palaeobiology of some Cambrian hyoliths from Guizhou,China, and Nevada,USA

Sun, H., Babcock, L.E., Peng, J. &; Kastigar, J.M., July 2016. Systematics and palaeobiology of some Cambrian hyoliths from Guizhou, China, and Nevada, USA. Alcheringa 41, xxx–xxx. ISSN 0311-5518.

Hyoliths constitute one of the most important groups of early biomineralized metazoans. Abundant hyolith specimens, comprising both hyolithides and orthothecides, from the Balang Formation (Cambrian Stage 4), Guizhou, China, and the Poleta Formation (Cambrian Stages 3–4), Pioche Formation (Stages 4–5) and Emigrant Formation (Stages 4–5) Nevada, USA, add to the early Palaeozoic record of hyoliths from South China and Laurentia, and provide new taxonomic, taphonomic and palaeoecologic information about this group. Hyoliths from the Balang Formation include the hyolithides ‘Ambrolinevitus’ maximus Jiang, 1982, Galicornus seeneus? Val’kov, 1975 Val’kov, A.K., 1975. Biostratigrafiya i khiolity kembriya severovostoka Sibirskoe platformy [Cambrian biostratigraphy and hyoliths of the northeastern Siberian Platform]. Akademiya Nauka SSSR, Moscow, 139 pp. (in Russian) [Google Scholar], Haplophrentis reesei Babcock &; Robison, 1988 Babcock, L.E. &; Robison, R.A., 1988. Taxonomy and paleobiology of some Middle Cambrian Scenella (Cnidaria) and hyolithids (Mollusca) from western North America. University of Kansas Paleontological Contributions, Paper 121, 1–22. [Google Scholar], ‘Linevitus’ guizhouensis sp. nov., Meitanovitus guanyindongensis Qian, 1978 Qian, Y., 1978. The Early Cambrian hyolithids in central and southwest China and their stratigraphical significance. Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Academia Sinica Memoir 11, 1–38. (in Chinese with English abstract) [Google Scholar], undetermined forms, and undetermined orthothecides. Hyoliths from Nevada include the hyolithides Haplophrentis carinatus (Matthew, 1899 Matthew, G.F., 1899. Studies on Cambrian faunas, No. 3—Upper Cambrian fauna of Mount Stephen, British Columbia—the trilobites and worms. Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada, Series 2, 5, 39–66. [Google Scholar]), Nevadotheca whitei (Resser, 1938 Resser, C.E., 1938. Fourth contribution to the study of Cambrian fossils. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections 97(10), 1–43. [Google Scholar]), an undetermined form, and undetermined orthothecides. In the Balang Formation, eocrinoids have been found attached to hyolithide conchs, which supports the view that hyolithides were benthic animals.

Haijing Sun* [hjsun1987@163.com], Resources and Environmental Engineering College, Guizhou University, Guiyang 550025, PR China; Loren E. Babcock? corresponding author [babcockloren@gmail.com], School of Earth Sciences, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA; Jin Peng corresponding author [gzpengjin@126.com], Resources and Environmental Engineering College, Guizhou University, Guiyang 550025, PR China; Jessica M. Kastigar [kastigar.2@osu.edu], School of Earth Sciences, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA. *Also affiliated with Key Laboratory of Economic Stratigraphy and Palaeogeography, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, PR China. ?Also affiliated with Department of Geology, Lund University, Sölvegatan 12, SE-223 62 Lund, Sweden.     

Children's agency and Islam: unexpected paths to solidarity

This ethnographic study analyzes the experiences of Palestinian children's agency of religion and its manifestation in religion as resistance while it is fighting the globalized hegemony. Children's agency of religion as resistance is cultivated within the debate of Islamist movements and the evolution of Palestinian national identity while it serves as a call for global solidarity. It is this creative construct of agency of religion that transcends borders and distinguishes itself from the old generation method of resistance. The differences between generations on this construct, as described by children's agency and their ability to transform, is constructed by particular meanings of Islamist symbols and rejects the assumption that children's roles are defined. The agency of religion as resistance evolves as the role of religion in national discourse is deliberated in secularism and sectarianism. In 2005/2006, I was awarded the Rockefeller Fellowship in the Anthropology Department of Johns Hopkins University. The award was for my work on children's political socialization in the Middle East. I also have been active with international studies: in 2009, I collaborated with the Children's Rights Unit, Institut Universitaire Kurt Bösch, Switzerland on the research project, Living Rights: Theorizing Children's Rights in International Development. I am serving as research member on the Joint Learning Initiative on Children and Ethnic Diversity (JLICED), Division of Children's Rights. My work has been published in the Journal of Qualitative Inquiry, Childhood, Children's Geographies, Journal of Mix Method Research and others. View all notes     

From Counterterrorism to Resilience

Since 9/11 the conceptualisation of terrorism and how governments should respond to the dangers it poses have undergone significant changes. This paper argues that the way in which terrorism is framed, academically and in policy terms, has significant implications for how counterterrorism strategies are developed and applied. It is asserted that the search for appropriate counterterrorism solutions has led to a new synthesis of several academic and practitioner traditions as policy makers and emergency professionals attempt to construct more holistic notions of security. It is further argued that in this effort specialists adopt a new vocabulary—centred on resilience—which is at once proactive and reactive, with an in-built adaptability to the fluid nature of the new security threats challenging states and their urban areas in “the age of terrorism.” It is widely agreed that the world has entered into a new age in which everything will be different: “the age of terror”. Undoubtedly 9/11 will hold a prominent place in the annals of terrorism, though we should think carefully about why this is the case. Anyone familiar with past and current history knows that the reason is not, regrettably, the scale of the crimes; rather the choice of innocent victims. What the consequences will depend substantially on how the rich and powerful interpret this dramatic demonstration that they are no longer immune from atrocities of the kind they routinely inflict upon others, and how they chose to react.1 1. Noam Chomsky, Pirates and Emperors, Old and New: International Terrorism in the Real World (London: Pluto Press, 2002). View all notes     

Human security and public health in Southeast Asia: the SARS outbreak

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is now a global public health threat with many medical, ethical, social, economic, political, and legal implications. (Abdullah et al. 2003 Abdullah ASM 2003 ‘Lessons from the severe acute respiratory syndrome outbreak in Hong Kong’ Emerging Infectious Diseases Journal [online] September. Available from: URL: http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol9no9/03–0366.htm [Crossref] [Google Scholar])

No man is an island. (John Donne)

The security of the state is dependent on the security of its individual citizens. If they are not secure, the state is not secure. Traditional, state‐dominant, conceptions of security are ill‐equipped to provide understanding into the array of security concerns that now confront nation‐states. In November 2002, one of these new security concerns, a corona pulmonary virus jumped the species barrier to begin infecting people in southern China. Three months later this virus was unwittingly transmitted from mainland China to Hong Kong. From there it spread rapidly throughout most of Southeast Asia as well as through parts of the Americas and Europe. Now known as the SARS—Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome—virus, it became a major threat to the stability and prosperity of Southeast Asian countries. This article reviews the spread and impact of the SARS virus within Southeast Asia from a human security perspective. It is intended that the utilisation of human security in this instance will not only provide a better understanding of the impact of SARS on regional states but will also advance the conceptualisation of the human security model.