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Asia's middle powers face a trilateral dilemma stemming from their relationships with the U.S. and China. This paper uses the Australian example to examine the dilemma. It shows that Australia has bound itself to the U.S. because of domestic political factors, cost considerations, a belief that it can keep its interests separate, and its perception of regional threats. The paper then argues that others are likely to resolve their trilateral dilemmas in ways that make the regional strategic dynamic more competitive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a critical overview of Australian, Chinese, and American perspectives on trilateralism, with a detailed discussion of Australian debates on the matter. Its aim is to trace the evolution of the changing discourse on the rise of China, examine major debates in Australia, and provide both an intellectual background and an overview for this special issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India and Australia have assumed a greater role in international affairs, emerging as regional powers with great power potential. Changes in the international environment, particularly the rise of China as a common source of concern and growing economic relations between the two countries in an era of increasingly complex interdependence, have provided an impulse for the two countries to enhance their bilateral ties. Part of that includes developing a robust maritime capability that can project force across blue water as well as on land, and which works in concert with allied maritime forces in assuring the defence of common interests. The paper provides an overview of the Indian–Australian relationship, focusing the analysis on India's changing maritime outlook, Australia's strategic priorities and a forecast of the possibilities for their developing a strategic partnership in the Indo-Pacific region. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This collection of papers focuses on the domestic and international politics of Australia's recent engagement with Asia. The theme of Asian engagement appears to be of particular pertinence to the current study of Australian politics given numerous pronouncements that we are entering an 'Asian century' during which key Asian economies will gain greater ascendancy and certain Asian states will come to play a more prominent role in global politics. We employ the idea of 're-engagement' in order to show how engagement with Asia has been turned to again and again by Australian governments, albeit in different political and strategic contexts. This collection aims to consider the politics of re-engagement from a number of different theoretical positions, as well as from a number of different perspectives (be it international relations/foreign policy, domestic politics, identity politics, or from the perspective of bilateral Asian partners). Emphasis is placed not simply on the foreign policy prerogatives behind re-engagement but also on the implications of the 'Asian century' for domestic politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia's relationship with South Africa was founded on their being two groups of colonies, and later dominions, in the British Empire. As remote settler societies there were certain affinities, anxiously promoted by South Africa and usually resisted by Australia. Australian prime ministers played a major role in helping to bring about majority rule, but since 1994 the relationship has stiffened. For South Africa, partly for geopolitical reasons, the Commonwealth remains a functional concept; for Australia, it has lost much of its efficacy. Australia and South Africa have also exchanged two significant migrations: of Australian miners and artisans to the Rand around the turn of last century, and of South African emigrants to Australia in our own time. Trade between the two countries is increasing, and a new range and diversity in contact has occurred, with the resumption of full relations since the apartheid years. Given South Africa's disjunction from its immediate past, it is difficult at present to indicate what forms the relationship might take in future. The paper therefore sketches the whole history of interaction between the two countries, drawing attention to its phases and reconfigurations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that an economic liberal discourse of globalisation has been pivotal to the policy-making process in Australia over the past 15 or so years. Both Labor and Coalition Governments have aimed to restrict the electoral fall-out from the process of restructuring by persuading Australians that the world economy has forced particular policy changes and made alternative economic policy choices unviable. Policy-makers act to influence conceptions of the appropriate role and responsibilities of the state through persuasion — the rhetoric they speak — and coercion — the policies they make. The pervasiveness of globalisation rhetoric in the public sphere has been essential to the governing process as a complement to and buffer for the coercive impact of economic liberal policy changes. As Australia has shifted from a protectionist to an economically liberal policy structure, the effects of globalisation have become clearer. Liberalisation has intensified pressures from the world political economy and coerced changes in all areas of policy and the economy, as well as in public perceptions about the 'limits of government'. GIobalisation and economic liberalism as persuasion and coercion are the component parts of a restructured system of political and economic governance: a paradigmatic shift away from the economic protectionism of the first 80 years of Australian federalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]