The Emergence of International Studies in New Zealand*

With acceptance of the responsibilities of a founder member of the League of Nations - including assuming an international mandate in the Pacific - the prospect of a distinctive New Zealand international role and awareness emerged, thus laying the foundation for a local version of international studies. The early figures in the field were a group of intellectuals trained in history, law, or economics, often with experience of British higher education. Members of the League of Nations Union, the Institute of Pacific Relations, and later the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs, their activities and publications sometimes challenged the boundaries of Empire-centric discourse. An avowed Internationalism - though sometimes compromised by racial anxieties - was a strong theme in their work; the impact of US foundations especially stimulated a knowledge of the importance to New Zealand of extra-Imperial issues in the Pacific and Asia. Although only intermittently engaged with policy, their influence is nevertheless discernible, especially from 1935.     

The second North Korean nuclear crisis

In 2002 the inclusion of North Korea by the Bush administration within the 'axis of evil' portended a break from the Clinton policy of engagement. Despite the apparent inconsistencies of this categorisation, North Korea's undoubted possession of some weapons of mass destruction capability seemed to make it a possible target for US containment if not preemption. However, Pyongyang's chief motive in such weapons development might actually be to guarantee regime survival. The revelation that North Korea had been developing a covert uranium enrichment program led US policymakers in the Bush administration to contemplate a policy of quarantine and containment. The wider policy community is divided on the question of whether Pyongyang was seeking a new bargain with the US, or whether this program was intended to produce a deterrent from possible US attack. These alternatives prescribe, respectively, a new negotiating approach or a strategy designed to dissuade. But the actual policy choice hinges on the outcome in Iraq.     

Book reviews

Young Whan Kihl and Peter Hayes (eds), Peace and Security in Northeast Asia. The Nuclear Issue and the Korean Peninsula. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1996. xvi + 491 pp. US$74.95 (cloth).

Dae Hwan Kim and Tat Yan Kong (eds), The Korean Peninsula in Transition. London: Macmillan, 1997. xiv + 269 pp. £40.00 (cloth).

Desmond Ball, Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) in South Korea. Canberra: Canberra Papers on Strategy and Defence No. 110, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University, 1995. 83 pp. $15.00 (paper).

Suisheng Zhao, Power By Design: Constitution‐Making in Nationalist China. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1996. xii + 217 pp. US$37.00 (cloth).

Frederick C. Teiwes and Warren Sun, The Tragedy of Lin Biao: Riding the Tiger during the Cultural Revolution 1966–1971. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1996. 251 pp. US$30.00 (cloth).

Paul J. Bailey, Postwar Japan: 1945 to the Present. Oxford: Blackwell, 1996. xv + 208 pp. $22.95 (paper).

Ralph Pettman, Understanding International Political Economy: With Readings for the Fatigued. Boulder, CO and London: Lynne Rienner, 1996. xiv + 257pp. US$19.95 (paper).

Cal Clark and K.C. Roy, Comparing Development Patterns in Asia. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 1997. ix+ 198 pp. US$45.00 (cloth).

David Wall, Jiang Boke and Yin Xiangshuo, China's Opening Door. London: The Royal Institute of International Affairs, International Economics Programme, 1996. 150 pp. £15.95 (paper).

Hal Hill, The Indonesian Economy since 1966. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996. xx + 327 pp. No price given.

Joseph R. Blasi, Maya Kroumova, Douglas Kruse, foreword by Andrei Shleifer, Kremlin Capitalism: Privatizing the Russian Economy. Ithaca, NY and London: Cornell University Press, 1997. xix + 249 pp. US$42.50 (cloth) US$16.95 (paper).

Ron Edwards and Michael Skully (eds), ASEAN Business Trade and Development: An Australian Perspective. Melbourne: Butterworth Heinemann, 1996. xviii + 356 pp. $45.00 (paper).

Richard Robison (ed.), Pathways to Asia: The Politics of Engagement. St Leonards: Allen & Unwin, 1996. xvii + 270 pp. $24.95 (paper).

Edwin E. Moise, Tonkin Gulf and the Escalation of the Vietnam War. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 1996. xviii + 304 pp. US$39.95 (cloth).

Peter Edwards, A Nation at War: Australian Politics, Society and Diplomacy during the Vietnam War, 1965–1975. St Leonards: Allen & Unwin in Association with the Australian War Memorial, 1997. xx + 460 pp. $59.95 (cloth).

Meg Gurry, India: Australia's Neglected Neighbour? 1947–1996. Brisbane: Centre for the Study of Australia‐Asia Relations, Griffith University, 1996. 105 pp. $18.00 (paper).

Sandy Gordon, Security and Security Building in the Indian Ocean Region. Canberra: Canberra Papers on Strategy and Defence No. 116, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, The Australian National University, 1996. 243 pp. $24.00 (paper).

David Stevens (ed.), In Search of a Maritime Strategy: The Maritime Element in Australian Defence Planning since 1901. Canberra: Canberra Papers on Strategy and Defence No. 119, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, The Australian National University, 1997. xviii + 252 pp. $24.00 (paper).

Helen Hookey and Denny Roy (eds), Australian Defence Planning: Five Views from Policy Makers. Canberra: Canberra Papers on Strategy and Defence No. 120, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, The Australian National University, 1997. xiv + 71 pp. $15.00 (paper).

Carl G. Jacobsen, The New World Order's Defining Crises: The Clash of Promise and Essence. Aldershot, Hants: Dartmouth, 1996. 124 pp. £37.50 (cloth).

Douglas T. Stuart and William T. Tow, Security Policy in the Asia‐Pacific: A US Strategy for a New Century? Griffith University: Centre for the Study of Australia‐Asia Relations, Australia‐Asia Papers, No. 76, 1996. xiv + 52 pp. No price given.

Stanley R. Sloan, NATO's Future: Beyond Collective Defense. Washington, DC: INSS McNair Paper No. 46, 1995. 73 pp. No price given.

John M. Shields and William C. Potter (eds), Dismantling the Cold War: U.S. and NIS Perspectives on the Nunn‐Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program. Cambridge, MA: CSIA Studies in International Security, MIT Press, 1997. 426 pp. $39.95 (paper).

William F. Martin, Ryukichi Imai and Helga Steeg, Maintaining Energy Security in a Global Context. A Report to the Trilateral Commission No. 48. New York: The Trilateral Commission, 1996. xiv+ 117 pp. No price given.     

Political parties at critical junctures: explaining the decisions to offer referendums on constitutional change in the United Kingdom

This article investigates the Labour and Conservative parties’ decisions to offer referendums on constitutional change. We focus on Labour’s Scottish devolution referendum and the Conservatives’ EU referendum. Rather than responding to public demand, we argue each party offered referendums based on short-term electoral calculations. Both parties believed their commitments would resolve intra-party dissension, neutralise emergent electoral threats and expand their electorate. While each party won the subsequent election, the referendums produced long-term unintended outcomes counter to their initial objectives: an invigorated Scottish National Party and an impending EU exit. Ultimately, the consequences of both may lead to Scottish independence.