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Australian Journal of International Affairs
@austjia.bsky.social
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Flagship academic journal of the Australian Institute of International Affairs. Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Editors-in-Chief: Profs.Joanne Wallis & Tim Legrand (Uni of Adelaide)
Website: https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/caji20/current
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🚨New online: Adam Vai Delaney discusses Papua New Guinea's multilateral diplomacy. Part of an upcoming special section commemorating the 50th Anniversary of 🇵🇬 Independence. 👀
tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... ⬇️
#AcademicPublishing #InternationalRelations
ABSTRACT This paper examines the progression of Papua New Guinea's (PNG) foreign policy objectives and engagement in multilateral diplomacy to empower its voice in international affairs and define its 'national interest'. PNG's foreign affairs policies and practices evolved, based on the principles reflected in 'friends to all' and 'universalism', adopted by the government at independence in 1975. PNG added 'active and selective engagement' and 'purposeful direction' in its policy and to decolonise its international relations by directing its focus on international equity and a new Pacific order. The policies marked a deliberate change in political direction Multilateral diplomacy provided insights that shaped and defined PNG's foreign policy over the next four decades. PNG's contributions to multilateralism demonstrate that its political leaders had a vision for greater participation, partnerships and obligations at the international level. Based on the author's experience, this article argues that historically, multilateralism provided an indispensable safeguard and a strong building block for supporting global peace and stability. PNG should continue to contribute to protecting an international rules-based order for the peaceful co-existence of all peoples and respect for the sovereignty of all nation-states as enshrined in the United Nations's Charter.
November 20, 2025 at 12:04 AM
austjia.bsky.social
🚨New online: Thibaud Harrois analyses the UK's interest in "region-building" in the European north.
tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... ⬇️
#AcademicPublishing #InternationalRelations
ABSTRACT In the aftermath of the February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the UK reconsidered the priorities set in its strategic documents. The 2023 Integrated Review Refresh aimed to rebalance the country's immediate post-Brexit 'tilt' to the Indo-Pacific and the country's aspiration to reinforce bonds with Anglosphere countries in the region. The country's involvement in the security of the Euro-Atlantic area has since been revived, and the British government has displayed renewed interest for stronger cooperation with European allies, especially in the Nordic-Baltic region. Building on the theoretical definition of regions and security communities as political constructs, this article aims to interpret the UK's involvement in northern European security, that is tentatively called the 'Northernsphere'. The paper investigates both the triggers for tighter cooperation and the various manners in which this cooperation was institutionalised. Russia's assertiveness is presented as the main trigger for the UK's motivation to play a role as a 'region-builder' in the European north. The institutionalisation of cooperation is studied, to show the complementary functions of bilateralism and minilateralism to support the UK's involvement in northern Europe and support its effort to maintain its reputation as a reliable ally.
November 19, 2025 at 11:58 PM
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🚨New online: this discussion piece by Hwang and Lee analyses North Korea's troop deployment to support Russia in Ukraine.
tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... ⬇️
#AcademicPublishing #InternationalRelations
ABSTRACT As of March 2025, approximately 11,000 North Korean soldiers were deployed to support Russia's invasion of Ukraine, with an estimated 5000 casualties, including about 1600 fatalities. While overseas troop deployments typically spark domestic political resistance due to their human costs, analyses of North Korea's involvement have largely overlooked such tensions, focusing instead on state-to-state transactions and international security implications. Pyongyang's decision appears motivated by expected 'gifts' from Russia, ranging from essential supplies to advanced military technology, as well as the opportunity to gain combat experience amid ongoing regional tensions. Domestically, the regime's monolithic ideological system enforces a communication environment where message consistency is crucial to sustaining public support. This makes justifying troop deployment abroad, which conflicts with North Korea's long-standing policy of self-reliance, particularly challenging. This paper examines how the regime navigates these contradictions by managing internal dissent and crafting a persuasive rationale for its populace. In light of North Korea's offfcial acknowledgement of troop deployment only in April 2025 and potential future deployments, the analysis highlights the political risks and strategic calculations underpinning this decision.
November 19, 2025 at 11:49 PM
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🚨New online: James Headley discusses the Russian concept of "state-civilisation" and its attitude to the Anglosphere. Part of an upcoming special edition on the Anglosphere. 👀
tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... ⬇️
#AcademicSky #InternationalRelations
ABSTRACT Putinism has now consolidated into an official ideology built around the concept of the 'state-civilisation'. That purported civilisation is the 'Russkii mir—the 'Russian world'-made up of multiple ethnicities/nationalities supposedly united through the Russian language, common values, and a sense of shared past, present, and future. It faces a common external threat-the 'collective West'-within which a special contempt is held for the 'Anglo-Saxon' states, usually denoting the USA and the UK, but potentially including other states of the 'Anglosphere. These ideas are built on a meta-conception of a multipolar world comprising culturally defined civilisations which should cooperate, but may clash, especially if one of them seeks global hegemony. This article shows how the Eurasianist ideology of the 'Russkii mir' concept and the concept of the Anglosphere are examples of civilisationalism. It argues that there is a danger that the two concepts are co-constructing a world of [clashing] civilisations. However, through analysing the concepts' inherent contradictions, their neo-imperialist elements and nationalist resistances to them, and the instrumental uses of the concepts, it argues that they are unlikely to become deep-seated and prevalent world-views.
November 19, 2025 at 11:39 PM
austjia.bsky.social
🚨New online: Brent Steele analyses the development of the Anglosphere during wartime. Part of an upcoming special edition on the Anglosphere. 👀
tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... ⬇️
#AcademicPublishing #InternationalRelations
How did the Anglosphere develop through wartime? This paper investigates the cultural educative practices and interactions between the US military and British society during the US deployments to Britain from 1942 to 1945. Specifically, it examines a 1943 training film for the US Armed forces, How to Behave in Britain (aka Welcome to Britain). The film was part of a broader outreach by US and British officials to socialise American soldiers to British society. Utilising ontological security and vicarious identity, as seen through the referents of race, gender/ sex and political economy, the film and the broader setting of American troops stationed in Britain illustrates the crucial role of everyday routines for enacting the ontological securities of allies that, nevertheless, in a clash of manners and customs, created ontological insecurities at the same time. This paper suggests that the moral valence of routines for agents and groups may be better understood via the concepts of manners and customs. Thus a working through of tensions within the Anglosphere has implications for its development in the twenty-first century as well.
November 19, 2025 at 11:32 PM
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🚨New online: @monikameislova.bsky.social discusses how the EU is represented in foreign policy discourse in the Anglosphere. Part of an upcoming special edition on the Anglosphere. 👀 #OpenAccess ⬇️
tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
#AcademicPublishing #InternationalRelations
ABSTRACT This article analyses and interprets the ways in which the European Union (EU) was discursively represented within the official elite foreign policy discourse of five Anglosphere countries - the United Kingdom, United States, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada - between 2021 and 2024. In order to do so, it draws on critical constructivism, works with the corpus of the countries' official pronouncements on the EU in the 2021-2024 period and adopts the general orientation of the discourse historical approach to critical discourse studies. It pays particular attention to the role of blame in the representation practices, exploring how blame functions to either intensify adversarial portrayals or, conversely, is absent in ways that allow for more neutral or cooperative representations. The findings show that the coexistence of blame-based and non-blame-based articulations of the EU within the Anglosphere policy foreign discourse reflects a complex web of ambivalent and sometimes contradictory national positions that challenges the advancement of Anglosphere's cohesive relations with the EU.
November 19, 2025 at 11:25 PM
austjia.bsky.social
🚨New online! On the occasion of 50 years of PNG independence, Bernard Yegiora reflects on the evolution of 🇵🇬-🇦🇺 relations and its future challenges.
Read article here:
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... ⬇️
#AcademicPublishing #InternationalRelations
ABSTRACT This article examines the evolution of China-Papua New Guinea (PNG) relations over the past 50 years, highlighting key drivers such as economic cooperation, geopolitical pragmatism, and education diplomacy. These engagements have expanded across trade, infrastructure, and people-to-people exchanges, reflecting mutual interests in development and resource access. However, the relationship faces significant challenges, including uneven development outcomes, institutional weaknesses, and increasing geopolitical pressures from external actors. Drawing on examples from mining, education, and security sectors, this article argues that the sustainability of China-PNG ties depend on greater alignment with PNG's long-term development priorities and stronger institutional oversight mechanisms. It further emphasises the need to address transparency gaps and policy incoherence that hinder equitable outcomes. This article concludes by outlining strategic options for managing these relations, with a focus on enhancing transparency, governance, and bilateral cooperation in the face of shifting regional dynamics and intensifying great power competition.
November 3, 2025 at 1:23 AM
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🚨 New online: discussion paper: "The new political economy of Australia—Southeast Asia
engagement", by Garry Rodan. What are the constraints of of effective cooperation between Australia and Southeast Asian countries?⬇️
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
#AcademicPublishing
ABSTRACT Amidst intensifying great power rivalry between the US and China, the Australian government has looked to greater cooperation with Southeast Asian countries to navigate a peaceful and prosperous course through the rough seas of this second Cold War. This is an understandable but also problematic direction. Economic and security imperatives have long been intertwined. The challenge now, however, is to understand how so in the new political economy of militarised neoliberalism, and the implications for regional engagement. Otherwise, policy plans have shaky foundations. This argument is prosecuted with an illustrative focus on policies of joint Australia and Southeast Asia cooperation in 'green' industries, most advanced with Indonesia. Political economy research reveals how policies of cooperation meant to avoid taking sides in superpower contestation can have starkly different outcomes. Identifying and analysing dominant coalitions of economic and socio-political interest, mediating how official policy is implemented or obstructed, is pivotal to understanding the constraints and possibilities of effective cooperation.
November 3, 2025 at 1:06 AM
austjia.bsky.social
A great start to the working week! The AJIA goes from strength to strength. We are proud to announce continued strong growth in journal downloads. Here are the data for Q3.
The recent appointment of 6 Assoc. Eds will help with the increased workload, too! 😉
#AcademicSky #AcademicPublishing
A graphic showing download growth in quarter 3 from 2022-2025. In quarter 3 of 2022 downloads were at 38,514; in 2023, they were at 41,574; in 2024, they were at 62,619; and in Q3 of 2025, they reached 87,961.
November 3, 2025 at 12:25 AM
austjia.bsky.social
🚨New online! Kelly and Doidge: "Aotearoa New Zealand, AUKUS, and the Anglosphere: navigating security identity amidst geostrategic change. Part of an upcoming special edn. on the "Anglosphere".
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... ⬇️
#AcademicPublishing #AcademicSky #InternationalRelations #AUKUS
ABSTRACT The concept of the Anglosphere, while exercising some debate within other of its members, is one that has little currency in the Aotearoa New Zealand context. Instead, it is AUKUS - the most recent project of three core Anglosphere states - that has framed discussion on issues to do with the concept. Utilising three historic ideational tenets of Aotearoa New Zealand's foreign policy - independent foreign policy, nuclear free policy, and a Pacific orientation - this article examines public debate around AUKUS as presented in print news media in the period from its launch in September 2021 through to December 2024. It demonstrates that, while a high number of articles was generated over the timeframe, discussion was largely driven by events external to Aotearoa New Zealand rather than by autochthonous interest. Further, while there has been some local discussion on joining Pillar Il of AUKUS, this has, to date, lacked in-depth analysis. Finally, it finds that the core ideational orientations of Aotearoa New Zealand foreign policy have had relatively little play in media considerations of AUKUS.
October 26, 2025 at 11:04 PM
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🚨New online: Sarah Teo reviews "Strategic Minilateralism and the regional security architecture of the Indo-Pacific: the quad, AUKUS, and the trilateral strategic dialogue, by Thomas Wilkins.
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... ⬇️
#AcademicSky #AcademicPublishing #InternationalRelations
Screenshot of the title of the review and the opening paragraph.
October 21, 2025 at 1:43 AM
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🚨 New online: Konwer and Hazarika discuss India's Act East policy and evolving relationship with BIMSTEC. ⬇️
#AcademicSky #AcademicPublishing #InternationalRelations
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
ABSTRACT While India continues to be a key player in BIMSTEC, the Modi administration has realised that extracting benefits and engage meaningfully with the members of the group would be challenging. Notwithstanding the modest advancements to date, the article examines the causes that have compelled New Delhi to establish a long-term diplomatic commitment to BIMSTEC. Given the strategy of multi-alignment and 'hedging' by member states of BIMSTEC and China's consolidation as a 'favoured partner' of these countries, in the long run, India's ability to extract benefits from this forum will be marginal. Considering New Delhi's larger foreign policy goals and the geostrategic concerns, India finds itself with limited alternatives but to commit to this framework, notwithstanding the associated costs. In the coming decades, India's ability to expand its influence and reap benefits through mini-lateral frameworks may be the key in determining its position in the neighbourhood and beyond.
October 21, 2025 at 1:32 AM
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🚨New online: Tournier-Sol and Ben Wellings discuss threat perceptions in right-wing politics in "the Anglosphere". Part of an upcoming themed edition on "The Anglosphere". #OpenAccess #AcademicPublishing #InternationalRelations #AcademicSky ⬇️
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
ABSTRACT This article illustrates and analyses right-wing opinion-formers' threat perceptions concerning national cohesion within and across the Anglosphere in the immediate post-Brexit period among the British 'party in the media'. This influential part of the right-wing milieu in Britain is an integral extension of the Conservative party and, increasingly, radical right politics. By analysing opinion on the Anglosphere in 'the party in the media' with a focus on the announcement of AUKUS, the Ukraine war and Gaza, this article analyses the worldview promoted by the Anglosphere's advocates in the face of both external and internal challenges. First, the analysis reveals a novel ambivalence towards the Anglosphere itself. Although the Anglosphere is presented as a natural security community superior to anything that Europe could create, it is also portrayed as being undermined from within by the rise of 'woke-ism' across its constituent nations. This perceived challenge created a paradoxical attitude towards France amongst opinion formers. France was depicted simultaneously as an unreliable security ally and at the same time as a model of national cohesion worth emulating. Thus French republican nationhood offered a counterpoint to the self-critical, 'woke' tendencies seen as weakening the Anglosphere at a time of impending geostrategic conflict.
October 21, 2025 at 1:22 AM
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🚨New online! India and the BIMSTEC - regionalism, multilateral frameworks and a changing global order. Does India have "no choice but to continue investing in this organisation"?
tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10....
#AcademicPublishing #InternationalRelations #AcademicSky
ABSTRACT While India continues to be a key player in BIMSTEC, the Modi administration has realised that extracting benefits and engage meaningfully with the members of the group would be challenging. Notwithstanding the modest advancements to date, the article examines the causes that have compelled New Delhi to establish a long-term diplomatic commitment to BIMSTEC. Given the strategy of multi-alignment and 'hedging' by member states of BIMSTEC and China's consolidation as a 'favoured partner' of these countries, in the long run, India's ability to extract benefits from this forum will be marginal. Considering New Delhi's larger foreign policy goals and the geostrategic concerns, India finds itself with limited alternatives but to commit to this framework, notwithstanding the associated costs. In the coming decades, India's ability to expand its influence and reap benefits through mini-lateral frameworks may be the key in determining its position in the neighbourhood and beyond.
October 2, 2025 at 2:51 AM
austjia.bsky.social
Song and Kim were commended for a paper that provides valuable empirical data and content analysis that will be of great benefit to scholars seeking to better theorise political communications and geopolitics.
tandfonline.com/doi/full/10..... /6.
ABSTRACT How does China signal foreign policy intentions to domestic and international audiences during territorial conflicts? While China can signal its resolve by provoking nationalism at home, doing sc may risk appearing threatening to neighbouring countries in the region. We argue that China resolves the dilemma by sending different types of messages to domestic and international audiences. Focusing on China's maritime conflicts in the South China Sea and the East China Sea, we examine China's narratives regarding the maritime disputes through the analysis of state-run media. Our findings from text mining and topic analyses of more than 31,000 state media reports from 2002 to 2021 suggest that China signals to the international audience on international cooperation emphasising diplomatic and peaceful resolutions while relatively less so in domestic media. The analyses have implications for how China signals foreign policy intentions amidst rising nationalism.
October 2, 2025 at 2:39 AM
austjia.bsky.social
Jack Butcher was commended for a paper that should stimulate more precision in how to explain and evaluate the proliferation of security partnerships in the Asia-Pacific and beyond.
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ABSTRACT Strategic partnerships (SPs) have grown exponentially over the last decade in the Asia-Pacific. However, little remains known in the international security studies (ISS) literature regarding why they have proliferated now and how to best understand what they mean for regional security. In this article, I argue that SPs are best understood as a new security practice in the Asia-Pacific that allows states and multilateral actors to flexibly manage threats, strategic challenges, and interests through cooperation and common norm building. To evidence this argument, I adopt a functional approach to SPs that draws upon the mainstream ISS theories of realism, liberalism and constructivism and synthesises them where possible to draw attention to a wide range of causal factors responsible for them. Analyses guided by eclecticism can provide an all-encompassing tool for explanatory and comparative studies on Asia-Pacific security to draw a broader range of conclusions than any one approach allows for.
October 2, 2025 at 2:38 AM
austjia.bsky.social
Heiduk and Wilkins were commended for their persuasive and important argument about the need to distinguish between scale and function when analysing the significance of multilateralism. /4
tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
ABSTRACT Even as essential definitional and conceptual issues related to 'minilateralism' remain unresolved, conjecture has arisen as to the future trajectories of established institutions, such as the Trilateral Strategic Dialogue (TSD), AUKUS, and the Quad. - Could they evolve into formal military alliances over time, or serve as the foundation of a new organisation aimed at providing regional security governance? To systematically evaluate such contingencies this article traverses set of interrelated conceptual issues relating to minilateral institutionalisation. It seeks to differentiate minilaterals in terms of their 'hybridity' both in structural composition and functionality, and ascertain what this implies for their institutional progression. This process assists us in identifying on what grounds minilaterals might potentially evolve into a more formalised institutional paradigm - either (i) a military alliance or ii) a cooperative security governance organisation. This foregoing conceptual apparatus is then brought to bear of on the case studies above to draw out clues as to their prospective institutional development pathways. The article concludes that, while such putative institutional transformations remain conceivable, in none of the cases is a particular pathway preordained. Instead, minilaterals may simply continue to adapt within the parameters of their present institutional boundaries.
October 2, 2025 at 2:38 AM
austjia.bsky.social
Harijanto was commended for the conceptualisation of middle-powers enabling the incorporation of non-democratic and democratic countries, in a way that transcended cultural relativism. /3
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Abstract: This article maps the behaviours of two middle powers, Australia and Indonesia, as a response to the emergence and evolution of the Indo-Pacific concept. The background for this analysis is the emergence and development of the 'Indo-Pacific' concept as a response to crises of legitimacy enveloping the region and how countries in the region, including middle powers, respond to it. Using a minimalist definition which I have developed of a middle power as a country with a middle level of power capabilities and a penchant for cooperation, this article develops a framework based on two dimensions of outcome (ranging from status-quoist to reformist outlooks) and process (ranging from Lockean to Kantian strategies) to facilitate a more open-ended approach towards looking at middle-power behaviours beyond the common categorisation of traditional/emerging, and Western/non-Western. Using Australia's 2017 Foreign Policy White Paper and 2023 National Defence: Defence Strategic Review, and Indonesia's 2015 Defence White Paper and 2019 ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific, this article concludes that while Australia is exhibiting a status-quoist/Lockean approach, Indonesia is demonstrating a reformist/Kantian approach towards the Indo-Pacific. The outcome-process dimension framework developed in this article is useful as a tool to map other middle power behaviours in various contexts. • KEYWORDS: Middle power Indo-Pacific
October 2, 2025 at 2:36 AM
austjia.bsky.social
Edney & Turcsányi were commended for the immensely valuable fine-grained data that highlight divergences within & between Anglosphere countries, stimulating wider scholarly debate about the "Anglosphere".
tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... /2.
ABSTRACT China is an important security concern for the United States and its allies, including the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing group that is sometimes described as the core of the 'Anglosphere' security community. While we would expect securitising discourses at the elite level to reproduce some common perceptions of China, to what extent are attitudes to China shared across the publics in these countries? In this article, we unpack public attitudes towards China in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Drawing on the results of public opinion surveys we conducted in 2022, we note areas of similarity and divergence then drill down into the drivers of public attitudes. We show that even though aggregate attitudes towards China in the five countries appear to align with official security discourses, this hides significant variation in how different groups within these societies view China. In particular, ethnic minorities and recent immigrants, along with members of higher socio-economic classes, urban residents, and young people, tend to be more positive towards China. Our findings bring new insights into the potency of government-driven securitisation, particularly in terms of identifying groups within societies that are less inclined to follow their government's view of China.
October 2, 2025 at 2:36 AM
austjia.bsky.social
🚨Delighted to announce the winner of the Boyer Prize for best article published in the AJIA in 2024. Warm congrats to @liammoore.bsky.social for this paper analysing the complexity of 🇦🇺relations with Pacific states. #OpenAccess
www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10....
#AcademicPublishing
ABSTRACT I argue the instrumental, paternalistic strategic culture often adopted in Australian foreign policy circles is counter-productive, preventing Australia from having productive and sustainable relationships with Pacific states. If Australian officials want to follow through on rhetorical commitments to enhance Australia's relationships in the Pacific, Australia must actively recognise the agency Pacific states have and place itself within this community of actors. Australia often positions itself as part of the 'Pacific family, but to be a collaborative member of this family it must go beyond headline commitments and fundamentally reconsider the evolving agency of small Pacific states and how this shapes Australia's interactions with them. We can understand this through the lens of normative communities. Revisiting constructivist International Relations theory, I reexamine who is included and excluded in the communities of actors that norms apply to. This has particularly significant implications around norms of climate change action and mitigation. Australia has historically tried to water down agreements and slow-role actions in this space. The ongoing bid to host COP31 perhaps offers an opportunity to both show leadership on climate-related issues and to reconfigure assumptions around Pacific agency and address the effects this has on Australia's relationships in the Pacific.
October 2, 2025 at 2:06 AM
austjia.bsky.social
🚨New online! Kurnyshova and Makarychev discuss how 🇷🇺invasion of 🇺🇦 changed the platforms dealing with regional security at the EU's and NATO's eastern flank:
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... #AcademicPublishing #InternationalRelations #Politics ⬇️
ABSTRACT As a reaction to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, countries located at the EU's and NATO's eastern flank started developing new models of regional networked connectivity based not only on the compatibility of values, but also on a common understanding of security and insecurity. In addition to their membership in major Western institutions, these countries engage with regional platforms that might be dubbed minilateralist in the sense that they don't have strict rules of membership, and the level of their institutionalisation and bureaucratisation is quite low. These regional platforms, initiatives and projects became important components of multi-level governance in insecure times. This general background sets the scene for our research questions: how did the Russian military intervention in Ukraine change the logic and the rationale of regional platforms coping with the issues of security and governance at EU's and NATO's eastern flank? How do these platforms shape new forms of security-driven regionalism emerging in the eastern part of Europe and opening new pathways for trans-Atlantic relations? We build my theoretical frame on interrelated concepts of governance and security, and project them onto the regional level of analysis where three other concepts —exclusive regionalism. interregionalism and networked regionalism—appear to be useful.
September 17, 2025 at 2:52 AM
austjia.bsky.social
🚨New online! Srdjan Vucetic analyses how various European far right groups view "the Anglosphere". ⬇️ #AcademicPublishing #InternationalRelations #Politics
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
ABSTRACT Contemporary Europe is witnessing a surge in radical-right leaders, parties, movements and knowledge producers who seek and proclaim a new world order. Consulting texts collected from different media and forms of communication, this paper asks how these actors view 'the Anglosphere, a distinct geopolitical space that challenges seemingly stable 'Western' and 'Euro-Atlantic' identities. 'The' European radical being a kind of empty signifier, the analysis identifies discourses that simultaneously inform and challenge each other. 'National conservatism' treats the Anglosphere as part of a singular Western world - albeit one overwhelmed by the worst excesses of liberalism. 'Anglo-skepticism' constructs the Anglosphere as Other, a blend of America's uninvited imperialism and an Anglo-Saxon civilisation-state. 'Neo-Eurasianism' agrees with 'Anglo-skepticism' on the Anglosphere's fundamental otherness but casts it as an enemy rather than a mere rival. The three discourses suggest contrasting and complementary understanding of international order. National conservatives aim to morally and politically recast the West. In contrast, Anglo-skeptics and neo-Eurasianists abandon this aspiration, instead emphasising greater 'sovereignty' and 'strategic independence' for Europe. As these previously fringe visions seep into the European political mainstream, they gain significance for the current international reordering.
September 17, 2025 at 2:25 AM
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🚨New online! Jack Holland discusses the "silent whiteness" and "racialised warfare" that underpins AUKUS and calls for "open debate on the problematic underpinnings of AUKUS". #OpenAccess #AcademicPublishing #InternationalRelations
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... ⬇️
ABSTRACT Existing studies of AUKUS have explored the security partnership's geopolitics, diplomatic fallout, and technological potentials. However, they have not considered the foundational importance of historical, racialised warfare. Indeed, mainstream International Relations theories tend to exclude race as a formative influence on world order building and AUKUS' political elites display 'silent whiteness'. For both, the ties that bind remain unspoken. To remedy this, the article theorises the affective politics of racialised military superiority, and the productive role played by Anglosphere aphasia, as both combine to make possible AUKUS' contemporary security possibilities. The article draws on a large comparative computer-aided content analysis, coupled to thirty-five elite interviews, which together enable a narratological analysis of racialised violence and constructivist analysis of contemporary security silences. It concludes by calling for a new, critical research agenda, and urgent, open debate on the problematic underpinnings of AUKUS—an unspoken formative ontology of recurrent, imbalanced, and racialised conflict.
September 17, 2025 at 2:15 AM
austjia.bsky.social
🚨New online: Ulatowksi posits that in the age of multipolarity, the age of geoeconomics is over. #AcademicPublishing #InternationalRelations #Geopolitics #GeoEconomics
⬇️
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
ABSTRACT Is the world heading towards a new 'age of geoeconomics' or is it facing a 'return of geopolitics'? To answer this question, I provide a structural theory of geoeconomic power, one that focuses on the relationship between the distribution of power in the international system and a state's preference for using economic or military power under multipolarity, bipolarity or unipolarity. I identify causal pathways between the number of great powers in the system and the relationship between geopolitics and geoeconomics. I argue that under unipolarity, geoeconomics trumps geopolitics, but under multipolarity or bipolarity, geopolitics trumps geoeconomics. Further, I argue that the 'age of geoeconomics' was possible only thanks to unipolarity. With the shift from unipolarity to multipolarity, the role of geoeconomics is declining, the role of geopolitics is rising, and the 'age of geoeconomics' is over.
September 17, 2025 at 2:01 AM
austjia.bsky.social
🚨In "latest articles" tab: see Hundt's analysis of 🇦🇺corporate elites and their divergent perspectives on the 🇦🇺government's securitisation of trade with 🇨🇳:
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
#OpenAccess #AcademicPublishing #InternationalRelations #PoliticalEconomy ⬇️
Abstract: This article offers a new interpretation of the securitisation of trade in Australian foreign economic policy in the early 2020s by analysing the perspectives of Australian corporate elites, the main putative beneficiaries of economic relations with China. Informed by interviews with business leaders, the article reveals that these elites were to some degree aligned with their policymaking and political counterparts in what they saw as the optimal response to Australia's 'China question', but that they diverged in three respects. Namely, they arrived at quite different judgments about the desirability of 'firmness' in handling Australia's relations with China; they had different views on how and why 'patience' matters in managing this relationship; and they were much more willing than policymakers and political leaders to embrace 'pragmatism' as a short-term coping strategy. These divergent perspectives, the article concludes, illustrate how corporate elites have attempted to 'check' the shift towards the securitisation of trade and to re-establish a balance between trade and security in Australian foreign policy towards China.
September 17, 2025 at 1:48 AM