Coming to Terms with Asia in Discourses of Asia-Pacific Regional Security

Over the last decade there has been a proliferation of discourses on Asia-Pacific regional security. An analysis of the predominant discourses of regional security suggests that a new orthodoxy is emerging. This orthodoxy is characterised by attempts to create a 'fusion' between the dominant security and strategic concepts of neo-realism, neoliberalism and an 'Asian way' of security. Yet the way in which the difference of an Asian way of security is constructed in relation to the 'West' remains essentialist. Despite its regional focus, the new orthodoxy does not disturb the sanctity of the principle of sovereign statehood, nor does it unsettle the status quo of political communities within the nationstate. As a result, significant differences between and below the level of states in the region are not recognised.     

Neoliberalism and the Institutions for Regional Development in Australia

This paper examines some effects of the pursuit of neoliberalism on regional development policy and practice in Australia, and in particular on the activities and effectiveness of regional development organisations. The paper interprets data from a survey of 505 regional development organisations across Australia through the framework of Jessop's contribution to state theory and his identification of four key trends in economic management under neoliberalism. Regional development policies are seen as a response of governments to electoral pressure from regions, but a response that is constrained by the dominance of neoliberal ideology. The objectives of regional development are predominantly economic, but are often limited to the role of facilitation and the provision of information. Some responsibility for regional development has been shifted downwards to regions, but the effectiveness of the organisations given this responsibility is reduced by the short‐term and competitive nature of much of their funding, the lack of coordination between regional development actors at the local level, the proliferation of agencies and the competition between them. The paper concludes that regional development agencies in Australia are in many ways a product of neoliberalism, since they represent one way in which governments can be seen to be responding to regional pressure for assistance but they can do so without incurring significant costs. Yet regional development bodies are also a victim of neoliberalist thinking, since it denies them the resources and the powers they need to be more successful in their work.     

Spatial ‘Folds’: The entwining of bodies,risks and city spaces for women injecting drug users in Melbourne's Central Business District

How do street-based injecting drug using women negotiate the myriad day to day risks of injecting in public urban space whilst, at the same time, negotiate the gendered discourses surrounding space and drug use, which work to both limit their bodily movements and position them as ‘dirty’, ‘diseased’ and ‘dangerous’? How do they avoid overdose, violence, arrest and disease, whilst at the same time avoid becoming—and being treated as—a ‘leper’ or ‘junkie’? In this article we draw on the interview narratives of 14 women who regularly inject in various public city spaces in Melbourne, Australia, in order to explore their negotiations of this complex gender/space/drug-use nexus of risk. Using Deleuze's concept of the ‘fold’, along with Butler's concept of ‘performative’ identity, we explore the ways in which women injecting drug users, through their embodied performances and their narratives of space and risk, enfold and unfold the spaces and discourses they encounter. We suggest that the ways in which these foldings are negotiated by women, impacts upon their experiences of risk in street-based drug-use environments. Understanding these folded relations will have important implications for how we might begin to make city spaces safer for women injecting drug users, and for city users more generally.

‘Pliegues’ espaciales: Entrelazando de espacios de cuerpos, riesgos, y ciudades para las mujeres que inyectan drogas en el distrito central empresarial (DCE) de Melbourne

¿Cómo negocian las mujeres que inyectan drogas los diversos riesgos cotidianos de inyectar en espacios públicos mientras, al mismo tiempo, negociar los discursos generificados («gendered») de espacio y drogas, lo cual funciona para limitar movimientos corporales y llamarlas como ‘sucias’, ‘enfermas’ y ‘peligrosas’? ¿Cómo evitan ellas sobredosis, violencia, detención y enfermedades, mientras al mismo tiempo evitar tratarse como ‘leprosa’ o ‘drogadicta’? En este artículo, utilizamos las narrativas de entrevistas de catorce mujeres quien inyectan con regularidad en varios espacios públicos en Melbourne, Australia, para explorar sus negociaciones de este complejo nexo de riesgo de género/espacio/drogas. Utilizando el concepto de Deleuze del ‘pliegue’ y también el concepto de Butler de ‘performatividad’ de identidad, exploramos las maneras en que mujeres que inyectan drogas utilizan sus interpretaciones («perfomances») y narrativas de espacio y riesgo para envolver y develar los espacios y discursos que se encuentren. Sugerimos que las maneras en que se negocian estos envueltos las mujeres influyen sus experiencias de riesgo en ambientes urbanos del uso de drogas. Entendiéndose estas relaciones envueltos tendrá implicaciones importantes para como empezamos a hacer espacios urbanos más seguro para mujeres que inyectan drogas, y para los/las ciudadanos/as en general.     

An Examination of Vertical Accretion of Floodplain Sediments in the Labasa River Sugarcane Belt of Northern Fiji: Rates,Influences and Contributing Processes

The ¹³⁷Cs (caesium‐137) method was used to investigate medium‐term rates of sediment deposition on the floodplain of the Labasa River, on Vanua Levu island in northern Fiji. The Labasa basin is commercially important for sugarcane farming, which provides much revenue and sustains the economy in the greater Labasa area. Alluvium was sampled at three riverbank sites in vertical increments of 30 mm. Measured net vertical accretion rates, based on analysis of depth‐profiles of ¹³⁷Cs activity, ranged from 10 mm yr^?1 at a low‐lying site near a tributary confluence with the main river, to 60 mm yr^?1 on a levée that was elevated slightly above the adjacent floodplain. These rates of accretion are high, but in general agreement with rates recorded using similar methods in other tropical Pacific island river systems. Soil erosion under sugarcane on hilly parts of the lower Labasa basin is an important factor in rapid floodplain development. Observations made during Cyclone Ami, which traversed Vanua Levu island in early 2003, illustrate the major contribution of severe storm events to floodplain sediment supply, by triggering numerous landslides on catchment slopes and in‐channel debris floods, and by generating large‐magnitude overbank floods.     

International political theory and the question of justice

The aim of the international justice theorist is to find coherence among ideas about justice at the international or global level. Linking justice to coercion and law can bridge the gap between just war theory and theories of international distributive justice. The idea of humanitarian intervention illustrates how the argument might go. Underlying that idea is the idea of a duty to protect. That duty is often thought to be an imperfect and therefore unenforceable duty based on a principle of beneficence. But we can also think of it as a perfect, enforceable duty to resist the violent, where that duty rests directly on the principle of respect, unmediated by beneficence. Respect also implies action to prevent non-violent harms. To do nothing while people are dying of starvation or disease is to fail to respect them as human beings by making their wellbeing a matter of indifference. We can therefore justly be compelled to prevent such harms by being taxed to support efforts to prevent them. A theory of justice that made the duty to protect central would ground the theory of international distributive justice in the justice—coercion link that underlies just war theory.