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Oceania displays more profound forms of interstate asymmetries than nearly any other region. Australia is not only the most important regional power and bigger in size than the Pacific Islands States (PIS), but also dominates with regard to political, economic, and military capacity, in both relative and absolute terms. Having initially acted more as a cooperative and compassionate hegemon, Canberra switched to an interventionist role in view of the War against Terror. Australia has also been gradually transformed into a regional regulatory force. Since the early 1990s Australia has changed the regional architecture both politically and economically. The Australian Pacific policy, introduced after the change of government in 2007, is still characterized by free trade agreements and interventionist policies, although the current Labour government is using a more friendly rhetoric than its conservative predecessors. However, a close-up view of Australia's Pacific policy reveals that the country is acting as a guided leader, unable to influence international structures and obliged to act not only in its own interest but also, as a key ally, on behalf of the United States. Finally, China is emerging as an ambivalent opponent in the Pacific, actively trying to dominate the region both economically and strategically. Its close political relations with the United States and strong economic ties with China mean that Australia is operating in the Pacific in a global-strategic context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Six million migrants from over 170 countries have resettled in Australia since 1945 ensuring religious diversity is now a hallmark of Australia's population. However, not all religious groups are perceived in the same way. In this paper, we explore how representational processes differentially essentialise religious groups, in particular how some groups are ascribed an underlying nature that irrevocably defines who they are and how they will behave, whilst other groups are conveyed merely as coherent entities with similarity in goals and structure. We elucidate this through an analysis of the depiction of religious markers in Australian Editorial political cartoons. We mirror the near-exclusive focus on the Muslim and Christian religions, in the religious cartoons we sampled, to present an analysis of 6 exemplar cartoons. Drawing from visual analysis techniques (van Leeuwen 2001) and social representations theory (Moscovici 1984) we highlight how essentialist perceptions of religious groups are unwittingly fostered in everyday media communications. We discuss the implications of our analysis for the transnationalisation of religion.