Australia's trade policy dilemmas

In recent years, Australia has had a very active agenda for the negotiation of preferential trade agreements (PTAs) whose net economic benefits remain at best unclear. There has been a strong defensive element to some of this PTA activity but the Howard government also used PTAs to pursue non-economic objectives, such as the promotion of foreign policy and security interests. This article broadly outlines Australia's PTA policy and the problems and dilemmas that it has generated. More importantly, it looks ahead to consider likely scenarios for trade policy under the Rudd Labor government. Each of these scenarios has different implications for policy strategies and outcomes. This article concludes that while there could be significant pay-offs should Labor choose to pursue its traditional preferences for non-discriminatory trade arrangements, the world has changed considerably since the heydays of the multilateral trade system. A commitment to reinvigorating multilateralism will require strong political leadership, imaginative thinking, and creative diplomacy.     

Australia's international cultural relations: Some domestic dimensions

Recent policy statements about and administrative innovations for Australia's international cultural relations activities (involving the country‐specific councils administered by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Australia Abroad Council, the Australia Council and the Cultural Ministers’ Council) are examined in terms of the connections between foreign policy making and the domestic political sphere. The evidence demonstrates that while the developments were promoted in terms of supporting Australia's interests in the external world each is demonstrably serving the domestic political interests of the bureaucratic units involved.     

Minority nations and attitudes towards immigration: the case of Quebec

Growing international migration constitutes a tremendous challenge for contemporary democracies, no more so than for minority nations. An important challenge for the latter is one of acceptance of immigration from the native‐born population, in a context in which immigrant can be seen as both a cultural and a political threat. In this article we ask what explains attitudes towards immigration in minority nations. More specifically, we seek to provide answers to these questions: What is the impact of cultural insecurity on attitudes towards immigration in minority nations? Is strong attachment to a minority nation associated with less positive attitudes towards immigration? And finally, are proponents of independence for minority nations more likely to favour a reduction in the level of immigration than those who oppose it? The article seeks to answer these questions by exploring the case of Quebec.     

Inequality and attitudes toward immigration: the native-immigrant gap in Australia

ABSTRACT

How does local economic inequality affect the native-immigrant gap in immigration attitudes? Existing studies do not distinguish between native and immigrant citizens, which is problematic because immigrants represent an increasing share of the population and voting public. Immigrant citizens, as legal residents, receive the same legal and social protections as native citizens. However, as an out-group, they are less likely to be attached to the national and cultural identity of a host country. This paper uses the Australian Election Study to show that immigrant citizens prioritise cultural or psychological considerations in forming immigration attitudes. As local economic inequality rises, immigrant citizens’ support for immigration strengthens regardless of their country of origin, reason for migration and length of stay in Australia.     

The 'external dimension' of EU immigration and asylum policy

Since the late 1990s, the EU has sought to develop the so-called 'external dimension' of cooperation on immigration and asylum: attempts to manage migration through cooperation with migration sending or transit countries. However, one can discern two rather distinct concepts of the 'external dimension'. The first involves attempts to externalize traditional tools of domestic or EU migration control; the second to prevent the causes of migration and refugee flows, through development assistance and foreign policy tools. Both are based on different assumptions about how best to influence migration flows, and will have divergent impacts on migration flows, refugee protection and relations with third countries. It therefore makes a big difference which of the two is likely to emerge as the predominant pattern of cooperation in the future. This article looks at the factors influencing the emergence of both concepts, focusing on three central determinants: the potential of such approaches to meet migration policy goals; the institutional context; and domestic political—electoral pressures. It argues that the two last factors have militated in favour of the prevalence of externalization approaches to the detriment of longer-term strategies of migration management, refugee protection and relations with third countries.     

Secularization of immigration policy vs. religion's influence on integration: Israel's non‐Jewish Jews' immigration in a comparative perspective

This article deals with the complex relationship between religion and immigration in Western countries, with an emphasis on Israel. The main argument it presents is that the legal procedures of immigration, i.e. laws relating to the acquisition of civil status, have undergone dramatic secularization, while religion's influence is expressed in the social and cultural aspects of the integration of immigrants belonging to religious minorities. This division reinforces the classical theory of secularization, as the formal boundaries of nations are not subject to religious affiliations, but it also supports the theories of competition and complementation between religion and secularism in the social sphere. The tension in the Israeli case between the immigration, naturalization and integration of non‐Jewish Jews, who are part of the extended Jewish population that is not defined by religious parameters, confirms this thesis. The immigration of hundreds of thousands of non‐Jewish Jews' under the Law of Return based on ethno‐national‐secular parameters is an ultimate expression of the secularization of Jewish nationality. On the other hand, the state's encouragement of non‐Jewish immigrants to convert to Judaism so that they can better assimilate into Jewish society signifies the importance of religion in the social integration aspect.     

Some recent writing on Japanese Foreign policy

JAPAN IN THE POSTWAR EAST ASIAN INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM. Donald C. Hellmann. McLean, Virginia, Research Analysis Corporation, Strategic Studies Department Report RAC‐R‐46–2, February 1969. Pp. vi + 46. No price stated.

JAPAN AND THE UNITED STATES IN ASIA. Robert H. Osgood, George R. Packard III and John H. Badgley. The Washington Center of Foreign Policy Research, School of Advanced International Studies, The Johns Hopkins University, Studies in International Affairs Number 8. Baltimore, The Johns Hopkins Press, 1968. Pp. vii + 65. US$1.95.

THE JAPANESE CIVILIAN NUCLEAR PROGRAM. Victor Gilinsky and Paul F. Langer. Santa Monica, California, The Rand Corporation Memorandum RM‐5366‐PR, August 1967. Pp. xi + 48. No price stated.

THE JAPANESE SPACE PROGRAM: POLITICAL AND SOCIAL IMPLICATIONS. Paul F. Langer. Santa Monica, California, The Rand Corporation, August 1968. Pp. 30. No price stated.