Search

This paper argues that Brazil can only be classified as a middle power by engaging in what Sartori criticized as the process of conceptual stretching. Moreover, it is argued that Brazil neither sees itself as a middle power, nor conducts itself as one despite superficial appearances. After the context is set with a survey of thinking on middle power theory, attention is turned to explaining how Brazil might be mistaken for a middle power before explaining in more detail why the country is not one. Evidence is drawn from Brazil's multilateral engagement in institutions such as the WTO, the inter-American system, the NPT, and the wider context of global development. Ultimately the paper advises policy-makers and academics against using the concept of middle power as a conceptual guide or shortcut to understanding Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In 1926, the Empire Marketing Board (EMB) was established to foster empire trade without the use of tariffs. It was to simulate imperial preference by redirecting consumer choice away from ‘foreign’ goods and towards the produce of ‘home and empire’. Using newspapers, pamphlets, film, exhibitions and poster displays, the EMB aimed to ‘bring the empire alive’ to British consumers. This paper analyses the presentation of three settler dominions—Australia, New Zealand and Canada—in the EMB's advertising campaigns. The EMB's large visual archive has been the subject of only limited study, most of which has focused on a homogeneous reading of empire. This article argues that the work of the EMB reveals the presence of a separate discourse of empire—a ‘dominion discourse’—that has not been recognised in cultural histories of empire, which, with the recent exception of ‘British world’ studies, have been more interested in mapping and conceptualising the formation of identities in other colonial settings. The ‘dominion discourse’ emphasised the familiar, white and ‘British’ nature of the former colonies of settlement, attributes that are clearly displayed in the campaigns of the EMB, but can also be found in settler culture much more widely. In doing so, the white dominions stressed not only their difference from the dependent colonies, but their similarity to Britain. Though the inter-war period is often associated with the rise of distinctive national identities and the loosening of imperial bonds, the production of these attributes in an imperial and metropolitan context draws attention to both the transnational nature of identity formation and the continuing importance of Britain and empire in the construction of settler culture in this period. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Academic and political debates about international sanctions tend to focus on the instrumental purposes of these measures—their ability to hurt a target state sufficiently to cause it to change its behaviour. By contrast, the symbolic purposes of sanctions are commonly assumed not to be as important. Such assumptions are appropriate for states which have the capabilities necessary to achieve these ends—great powers or regional powers targetting very weak neighbours, for example. But are these assumptions useful in explaining the sanctions policies of non-great powers, particularly those which impose sanctions against great powers? This paper explores the case of Australian and Canadian sanctions against the USSR after the invasion of Afghanistan and demonstrates the fallacy of such assumptions, and argues that symbolic purposes were much more important than the instrumental utilities normally associated with sanctions theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We critically review the Better Life Index (BLI) recently introduced by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). We discuss methodological issues in the definition of the criteria used to rank the countries, as well as in their aggregation method. Moreover, we explore the unique option offered by the BLI to apply one's own weight set to 11 criteria. Although 16 countries can be ranked first by choosing ad hoc weightings, only Canada, Australia and Sweden do so over a substantial fraction of the parameter space defined by all possible weight sets. Furthermore, most pairwise comparisons between countries are insensitive to the choice of the weights. Therefore, the BLI establishes a hierarchy among the evaluated countries, independent of the chosen set of weights. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

It is often asserted that, between 1865 and 1914, economic dependence on British capital subjected settler societies to an unofficial imperialism wielded by the City of London. This article argues that both advocates and critics of such models, particularly in the recent controversy over 'gentlemanly capitalism', pay insufficient attention to the City itself. Using the Edwardian City's connections with Australia and Canada, it illustrates the range of financial intermediaries involved and explores their perceptions of political economy in these countries. It concludes that the City's influence (or 'structural power') was limited by its internal divisions and hazy conceptions of political economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the implications of economic globalization and the Internet on the proliferation and mobilization of nongovernmental organizations and social movements who challenge the international trade policy through the World Trade Organization. Trade policy processes in Australia, Canada and the European Union; Economic relations.

Examines the reactions of three older dominions to the European Economic Community membership negotiations in 1961-1963. Threat posed by Macmillan's Common Market to the economic well-being of New Zealand; Importance of British custom to Australian wheat exporters; Differences between export situations of Canada and New Zealand; Imposition of reverse preferences on Commonwealth imports.

Examines the policies of Australia and Canada towards international reconstruction after World War II. Economic relations of two countries with Great Britain and the United States; Crises caused by acute postwar shortage of dollars; Economic policy aims of Labor administration; Australia's exposure to international economy; Continuance of long-term food contracts.