Drivers and difficulties in the economic relationship between Australia and the European Union: from conflict to cooperation

ABSTRACT

Economic relations between Australia and the European Union (EU) have always been strong, but they have not always been easy. They have been difficult for Australia because it associated the EU with the loss of the UK preferential export market on its entry into the then European Economic Community. And because Australia associated the EU with the original Common Agricultural Policy, which combined subsidies for agricultural production and high agricultural tariffs to make Australian agricultural exports not competitive. They have been difficult for the EU also. Australia developed a biosecurity system to protect its agricultural sector: quarantine requirements and food safety standards made the importation of EU plant and animal products too costly. Yet Australia and the EU need each other. The EU, which is Australia’s largest services trade and investment partner, supplies the business services that drive a knowledge economy and provides the credit to finance economic development. Correspondingly, the EU needs Australia both as a commercial base in Asia and as a reliable energy supplier. This article analyses the drivers and difficulties in the economic relationship between Australia and the EU as they start negotiations for a free trade agreement.     

Gender and Environment: Some preliminary questions about women and water in the South Australian context

This paper speculates on three issues about the relationship between women and water, focusing on the context of South Australia, a particularly dry part of the world. First, it is suggested that gender affects our connections to environmental resources, in this instance to water. Second, it is noted that currently unexamined archival material exists for the South Australian situation and that the analysis of this material may shed light on the relationship between gender and environmental resources. Third, it is possible to argue that the conflation of nature and the feminine through such things as tropic devices in language results in both being constituted largely as corporeal, as bodies requiring management. Such a possibility suggests that a body politics exists in environmental studies and related disciplines that requires further theoretical work.     

鞭辟入里钩深致远--吕建福《关于土族史研究中的若干问题》评介

2002年底,土族著名学者吕建福教授的专著《土族史》由中国社会科学出版社正式出版了.这无疑是20万土族人民文化生活中的一件大事.《土族史》的出版不但填补了这个高原民族没有自己史书的空白,更为重要的是,吕建福先生在前人研究的基础上,以扎实的历史学功底和科学严谨的研究方法,廓清了在土族族源研究上的迷雾,在总结吐谷浑说的基础上,通过可靠的文献资料,证实土族为鲜卑——吐谷浑的后裔.     

Australia and the South Pacific nuclear free zone treaty: a reinterpretation

A number of analysts have identified the 1986 South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone (SPNFZ) Treaty as one of Australia's major achievements in the area of arms control diplomacy. This article challenges the orthodox view in the secondary literature that Australia's pursuit of a SPNFZ Treaty was motivated exclusively by a desire to protect the nuclear dimension of its alliance relationship with the United States from more ‘radical’ proposals in the region. Drawing on previously unreleased documents made available to the author by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade under the Commonwealth's Freedom of Information Act, this article argues that the Hawke government's pursuit of a nuclear‐free zone in the South Pacific was motivated primarily by what it perceived as an opportunity to promote Australia's image as an activist middle power committed to bolstering the coherence of the global non‐proliferation regime.     

Field-based learning: the challenge of practising participatory knowledge

In 2009, Geography at National University of Ireland, Galway, launched a new taught master's programme, the MA in Environment, Society and Development. The vision for the programme was to engage students in the analysis and critique of the array of interventionary practices of development and securitization in our contemporary world. A range of modules were set up focusing on a number of interrelated concerns, including “geopolitics and security”, “environment and risk” and “managing development”. These core themes are approached from a number of critical perspectives, including political ecology, critical geopolitics and political economy. A key additional aim from the outset was to go beyond solely academic critique to consider participatory forms of development knowledge and practice that can emerge from “field-based learning”. To this end, a module entitled “field-based learning” was initiated, involving a 12-week seminar course in Galway, followed by a week-long fieldwork programme in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, where each year approximately 15 students intersect with the development work of local community leaders, the UN, EU and a variety of NGOs, civil society organizations and public advocacy groups. In this paper, we outline some of the key challenges of initiating and practising such a grounded and often unsystematic approach to learning in the field. We reflect, in particular, on the complexities involved in seeking to facilitate and practise critical participatory knowledges that comprise both academic and civic engagement values.     

Regional economic resilience: the role of national and regional policies

In recent years, economic resilience has become a popular term in both theory and policy practice. This interest was triggered by the fact that some regional economies were extremely vulnerable, while others have managed to overcome, more or less effectively, the worse consequences of the current economic crisis. Within this context, questions arise regarding the role that policies at both the national and subnational levels can play in shaping regional economic resilience. Although high in the academic and political agenda, understanding the policy and governance aspects of resilience still remains a relatively underdeveloped area. The paper contributes to this debate focusing on an area which has been most severely hit by crises, the Region of West Macedonia, in Greece. The case study builds on the historical trajectory of the region in order to explain how different types of policies have influenced the ability of West Macedonia to respond to economic slumps and crises of the last 30 years. Evidence suggests that national protectionist policies largely explain not only resilience of the region against previous crises, but also its vulnerability towards the still ongoing economic crisis.     

关于早期游牧人文化研究中的几个问题

从多瑙河到长城地带的欧亚大陆草原,自古以来是诸多游牧和半游牧民族活动的舞台。 分布于这一广阔地域内的青铜时代晚期至早期铁器时代的文化遗存,具有鲜明的草     

Nazi plans and Arab collaboration: New research about old questions

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