Search

One of the most successful defence pacts in history, Australia's alliance with America is becoming ever more central to our strategic policy. This is a bipartisan trend that has been supported by previous governments, including in the Morrison government's 2020 Defence Strategic Update, and is being implemented by the Albanese government, as confirmed in its 2023 Defence Strategic Review. At the same time, successive U.S. administrations have refocussed on the Indo-Pacific despite competing strategic priorities in other regions, including the Ukraine war. This has led to Australia and America pursuing a policy of deeper integration of their armed forces at the operational and strategic levels. This is most visible in northern Australia, whose value to Australian and allied defence planning is increasing for geopolitical reasons. Building on the Marine rotational force in Darwin announced in President Obama's pivot to Asia, U.S. force posture initiatives are upgrading northern Australian defence infrastructure and deploying additional forces for exercises and contingency planning at a time when Australia is also investing in its northern bases. While cutting-edge capabilities such as SSN-AUKUS submarines will boost Australia's strategic contribution to the alliance, its strength lies in the solid public support it enjoys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sustainable management of Australia's natural resources has increasingly attracted policy interventions by the Australian government. Drought policy represents one sector where the Australian government is a signatory to sustainable use of natural resources, cognisant of the nexus between agricultural production practices and environmental condition. A strategic sustainability policy evaluation framework is applied to drought policy to analyse policy design and process relationships with a view to informing improvements in these policy facets. The analysis finds that at the national level, the nature of the policy problem is inadequately defined, giving rise to generic objectives and overly narrow policy instrument choices that are inconsistent with the complex nature of drought and resilience objectives. Policy instrument choice is focussed on farm financial viability, with simplistic correlations drawn between farm profitability and improved social and environmental wellbeing. The appetite for broader structural reforms to agricultural and rural community development are lacking politically and by industry, but necessary given emerging social, economic and environmental challenges to agriculture. Structural reforms will be inevitable if the complexities between production and sustainable natural resource management are to be reconciled. More systemic and nuanced understandings of resilience and drought risk are needed to deliver on the policy ambition of drought resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Governments develop policies that set strategic directions on matters of national significance, referred to in this paper as strategic policies. Australia's Commonwealth Government develops and influences national environmental and sustainability policies despite having limited constitutional powers in the management of natural resources. The Commonwealth Government has, over the past three decades, developed strategic policies aimed at sustainably managing forests, water, soils and agricultural lands. The design and implementation arrangements of environmental policies that have endured is not well studied, and this paper addresses this knowledge gap in the context of a federal system. The National Forest Policy Statement, the National Water Initiative and the Natural Heritage Trust have endured centre-left Labor and centre-right Coalition Governments, and serve as case studies. These policies have required structural adjustments to industries to varying degrees to limit impacts on the environment, leading to contestations about policy objectives. The policy cycle serves as the primary heuristic for analysis and the research finds that policy objectives are constrained by the Commonwealth Government's limited constitutional powers on environmental matters. Its participation in strategic policies is driven through notions of resolving a crisis and the policies endure in a phase of indifference to the original policy objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study established a model for developing a strategic policy for unmanned autonomous ships. The decision matrix was used to develop policy programs, and SWOT analysis was employed to summarize the proposed strategy. This study analyzed programs for the reform of the system of maritime education, the technological development of autonomous ships, and legislative amendments regarding autonomous ships and used a decision matrix to select the most prudent and essential program alternatives. However, insufficient information is currently available on the basis of which to develop and implement an optimal program by using the decision matrix method alone. Therefore, SWOT analysis, which can be used to analyze internal and external factors, was conducted to acquire a concrete strategy. This is the first study to discuss the development of a strategy for unmanned autonomous ships by combining the decision matrix and SWOT method. This study also provides examples for future research and policy development. The strategies proposed herein are developing semiconductor and information technology, hosting and participating in technology exchange meetings, acquiring autonomous technology, and developing autonomous monitoring and navigation technology. This study's finding have implications for policies on unmanned autonomous ships, represent a valuable reference for the development of such policies in Taiwan, and provide direction for decision-making on a global scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Quebec, as in most western countries, the past few decades have witnessed multiple and profound transformations in the public sector. In the current context of massive retirements and increasing mental health problems at work, public administrations face many challenges in terms of performance as well as attraction, retention, and mobilization of its human capital. To meet these challenges, several Quebec public organizations are developing a strategic quality of working life (QWL) policy. While research focuses mainly on the QWL of individuals, this study mobilizes a systemic approach to understand it at the organizational level. This exploratory research is based on the qualitative study of three cases of Quebec public organizations. Firstly, we identify and analyze the main axes of the QWL strategic policy of these public organizations according to the stakeholder theory (Freeman 1984; Freeman et al. 2010). Secondly, we contextualize these results with regard to the environment of these public organizations. Finally, we recommend three axes for future research to encourage the generalization of QWL strategic policies within the public sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to offer an empirically grounded conceptualization of the dialogical relationship between spatial planning and place branding in the context of regionalization. The analysis displays the discursive nature of such relationship by highlighting the intertwining of spatial planning with place branding as strategic actions devoted to, and included in, regional development processes. The analysis is based on two cases in Sweden. The first is linked to the emergence of the brand 'Stockholm, the Capital of Scandinavia', and the other is linked to the emergence of the brand 'Swedish Lapland'. By combining data collected longitudinally, these cases represent two contrasting examples of dialogical relationships that materialize through two distinct yet somehow similar strategic processes of regionalization. Based on the two cases, the paper presents and discusses an empirically driven, albeit conceptual, model that highlights the dialogical relationship of regionalization as regional strategic policy and points out its spatial and political evolutionary features. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does Australia have a 'strategic policy'? Australia's debate has seen an inflation of the use of the term 'strategic policy', often used synonymously with 'defence policy' and 'strategic guidance' to indicate a major policy or to simply describe Australia's strategic environment. However, far from pure semantics, the term 'strategic policy' has become dissociated from the specific understanding of the policy objectives attached to the use and the threat of the use of military force. Instead, contemporary usage of 'strategic policy' has come to reflect what Everett Carl Dolman called a 'favourable continuation of events', reducing strategy to a mere functional adjective. Moreover, a focus on 'policy' as meeting the objectives of a state, as opposed to 'politik', which encompasses policy, politics and the polity, has led to the restriction on choices and objectives for Canberra. In an increasingly contested Asia, the Australian debate should avoid the obfuscation that comes with a term such as 'strategic policy' as this can have negative implications for Australian force structure and planning. More broadly, the application of the term 'strategic policy' reflects the challenge of Australia as a medium-sized power developing an independent strategy in the context of its history, geography, politics and society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a cluster-led strategic policy framework to assess the strategic positioning of key global logistics cities in Asia, most of which are affected by the ‘Belt and Road (B&R) Initiative.’ One of the key challenges that the B&R Initiative is facing is underdeveloped logistics infrastructure in Asia, not to mention road congestion, dilapidated infrastructure, incessant supply chain disruptions, and capacity constraint, which imposes significant economic costs. Global logistics cities are evaluated on logistics infrastructure capacity and service responsiveness. This involves selecting the key global logistics cities, identifying key indicators, standardising and indexing, mapping dimensions of global logistics cities, and developing the cluster-led strategic policy framework. The results indicate the prevalence of a multi-tier system wherein Shanghai and Hong Kong have attained the maturity of a global logistics city, whilst Manila, Jakarta, and Bangalore are making slow but steady progress in that direction. In contrast, Dhaka, Phnom Penh, and Ho Chi Minh City are showing potential but require further enhancement through significant investment in infrastructure and service delivery improvement. The cluster-led strategic policy framework formulates actions and strategies through which emergent logistics networks can be strategically aligned and functionally integrated with B&R-oriented global trading hubs and transport corridors.. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the postwar 'golden age' of economic growth, Argentina, Korea and Spain promoted the development of their motor industries by restricting imports, licensing investment, imposing a high level of local sourcing for parts, and supporting their own national champions. These strategic policies took advantage of economies of scale, achieving significant increases in output, and creating dynamic competitive advantage. Sudden liberalisation or the high volatility of the macroeconomic environment could jeopardise the process of structural change. Gradual evolution of policy-making and the cumulative learning of capabilities by the national champions were crucial for long-term success. The present research supports both List's classical defence of protection for infant industries in medium-large economies and more recent claims in favour of strategic policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Higher education is a service that contributes to national development, integration and regional cohesion. Agricultural education in particular has been viewed in many developing countries as a significant contributor to sustainable development and poverty alleviation. In view of its public mandate, higher education in most countries is regulated by competent bodies. However, higher education is also a service recognized under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) of the World Trade Organization (WTO). It is therefore subject to WTO's essential principles of promoting trade liberalization, market access and equitable treatment to all participants. But very little is known about the consequences of free trade in educational services. Also it is difficult to define which educational services are strictly commercial and which are public services. As a result, application of GATS can lead to disputes, unless the definitions are clear and international standards are in place, as in the case of other WTO agreements such as TRIPS, SPS and TBT. The present paper assesses the implications of application of the provisions of GATS to higher education in general and agricultural education in particular, with respect to Indian regulatory mechanisms for agricultural education. International scenarios of application of GATS in higher education and relevant policy issues for India as perceived by the faculty members of agricultural universities are discussed. The purpose is to initiate a fruitful debate at various national forums that can inform national policy and take advantage of the opportunities provided under GATS, while ensuring that national interests are kept in perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]